I’m tagging this
post with IELTS preparation course, IALF IELTS Prep Semi-Intensive Course
etc, so I guess if at some point you manage to get here it means that you (YES,
YOU!) are personally looking for that particular information. Plus, I expect
that you are at the least already familiar with IELTS so I wouldn’t spend too
much effort here to explain what is IELTS, why do you need it and so on, and so
on. Let’s continue!
Long story
short, I need to obtain the IELTS score for academic purposes. I’m not that confident with my English skill,
plus the test itself is a bit pricy (that would be the same amount of my
monthly salary—sniff!) and I have this thought if I took the test without proper
preparation which resulted on my failure to attain the desired score, it would
be such a waste of money. I have to achieve at least 7.0, which is pretty high,
so my logic tells me that it’s okay to spend 1.5 month of my wage for the sake
of IELTS preparation course to accomplish the designated IELTS band. This leads
me to the IELTS preparation course placement test on IALF Surabaya.
Why choosing
IALF Surabaya? Simply because I live in the City of Heroes—lame translation is lame, sorry. IALF is also a certified IELTS
test centre and I’m quite familiar with the place because I’d done some English
competition there when I was in senior high school (which is around 9 years ago—gawd, I’m old…). Some bloggers too noted
that IALF is the best place for IELTS preparation course. To me personally, I
don’t even have any second option on where should I take the preparation course
other than IALF.
I was too busy
with my work to get any information on how to join the course. Luckily I have
this cool friend who also needs IELTS score and have this same plan to join the
course, who willingly help me gather all the info regarding the prep course application.
I already browse the IALF’s page on IELTS preparation course and already had
this 5 weeks intensive course to join in my mind. As stated on the web, those
who want to join the class need to meet the criteria which are… at least scored
5.0 on writing & speaking skill. This, brethrens and sisters, got me
nervous, because I write scrappily and speak even messier. Nonetheless, we—my cool
friend and me—decided to keep on going with the process and she signed me up
for the placement test on Wednesday (11/02/15) at 4pm and Thursday (12/02/15)
at 3.30 pm.
Now, about the
placement test; it’s like a mock IELTS test. So if you are planning to take the
same class that I’d be joining (the IELTS Prep Semi-Intensive course, IPSI for
short), you’d be taking this placement test. I read at some blog posts that
they only did, like, 50 basic grammar questions for 45 minutes and they were
done. No, you’re not going to have that kind of test. I already told you that
the course needs you to get 5.0 minimum on speaking and writing, right? That’s
why you need to perform the IELTS like test to know your score.
I could’ve done the placement test in a day
had I’m free in the morning. But since I’m busy working, they offered the two
day schedule because apparently the assessors were also busy. Ha. I actually
had about 5 days to prepare myself for the placement test, but maybe nargles
were behind my hazy mind that I didn’t do anything at all before the test day.
On Wednesday, I
came at around 3.30, fill in the personal information form in the front office—the
staff was really nice and helpful, paid Rp 200.000 for the placement fee at the
cashier, then waited till it’s time to do the test. Apparently beside my cool
friend and me, there was another young man taking the test. Then the officer
told us to get ready for the listening test. We were told not to bring anything
but the stationeries, and were asked to leave our luggage in the front office
for him to keep. I only took my mechanical pencil and one eraser inside the
test room at that time.
I must admit
that I’m kind of anxious because it has been a long time since I had any kind
of classroom setting test. The medium sized classroom—although seriously cozy
with posters on its walls, seemed empty and intimidating with only the three of
us, facing question booklet & answer sheets. The officer then told us about
the test time, did volume check and left us be to do the listening section.
When we’re done
with the listening section, he transported us to another empty classroom for
reading & writing section. It seemed like they needed the previous classroom
for a lesson that evening. I proceeded with reading section that left my head
burned, while my cool friend did the writing section first. It started raining really
heavily in the middle of my writing section. I was tired with the reading the
texts, freezing and a bit hungry too. My concentration kind of dropped during
that moment. When my turn to do the writing section came, I hardly have any
idea to write the essay at all. I had to stop and think for a while, fishing
for ideas. Luckily I manage to finish the task by the time I had to submit it. Some
useful tips: make sure your tummy is full before taking the test.
The next day—the
speaking test day, during my working hour, I barely function normally. I kept
on thinking on my lame essay and my tendency to lisp during English
conversation. I was afraid of failing because if I score lower than 5, I had to
take the Study Preparation course before I could take the IELTS prep course.
This means more money to spend and longer preparation time before I could take the IELTS.
I arrived at around
3.15pm on Thursday. This time I didn’t need to fill anything, I only had to
wait for my turn to do the speaking section. My cool friend, because she came
earlier, got the first turn to do the speaking test. I tried to calm my nerve
by reading some magazines in the comfy waiting room. When my cool friend came
20 minutes later with undistinguishable facial expression, I could only inhaling
as much air into my lungs and face the assessor—he was a British man—with a
stiff smile.
During the
speaking section, we sat face to face in the medium size class. He asked my
name, noted that I had an unusually long name, asked me to spell my name so he
could wrote it in a small card, then asked me several personal basic information
(such as address, birthday, workplace info) as he filled some kind of bio data
form. He also asked me why I need to take IELTS, why I chose IALF, whether I
was familiar with it or not and my future plan. He asked me about my hobby too and
I manage to bring Harry Potter into the conversation. Before he concluded the
test, he asked permission to read my essay that I wrote the previous day and he
corrected my essay directly, even gave me some inputs.
Fortunately the
speaking section went smoothly. It was just like some regular chit-chat between
me and my expatriate colleague, maybe even better. By the time he finished giving
me suggestion about the essay, he told me that he’d be telling me the result
for the placement test. And I couldn’t be more relieved when he said that I,
kind of, passed the placement test. The small card where he wrote my name earlier,
turns out was the result card. There were columns in there where he put ticks
that showed my English level. I was amazed that I got a pretty high level—remember
I was so nervous about failing the placement test because of my writing &
speaking? I guess I’m not that bad,
eh?
But I have my
reason as why I was afraid to fail the placement test. Actually I had taken
another IELTS placement test in SUN Education office around 2 years ago. It was
pretty much the same mock test but with more advanced speaking & writing section.
I say more advanced because SUN really asked me to write opinions and made
reports based on tables and graphs just like the real IELTS test. They even had
3 sections of speaking where I had to introduce myself, state some opinions
about some trivial themes and discussing my opinions with the assessor.
Comparing to SUN’s mock IELTS, IALF’s short essay and relaxing talk seemed a
bit tamer. Plus, based on SUN’s placement test, I only got 5.0 as the grand
total, with 4.0 in speaking and writing. That would put me in intermediate
level on IALF’s scale; one level lower than my up-to-date placement result. I’m
not sure whether I’m really improving a lot during 2 years time or whether
SUN’s mock test predicts my future IELTS score better. Hopefully I really do improve and that my future IELTS
score would be as good as my placement result.
Back to
business. So, I got my result, my assessor sent me to the front office, the
officer re-informed me about my score and telling me that I could take the
intended IPSI course. The placement test result can be used up to 3 months from the test date, should you want to postpone joining the prep class. I finished up the payment for the course that day, got my
picture taken for student ID, and was informed that the ID could be taken the
next day, plus now I’m allowed to use the library and study center.
I’d be joining
my course (well not so) soon! Hopefully I provide helpful enough information
for you who want to take the course. Good luck!
