My IELTS Trip

On 16th of June I had my IELTS exam, there were 171 candidates, 61 of whom were General Training IELTS and the balance were Academic. The test was meant to start at 8:00 am, that's why I reached the test center at 7:23 am, but some had arrived before me!

What you have to do:
1- You have to pick your No. from the lists of the IELTS candidates' names which they put near the hall's door.
2- If you are an engineer you can also gate your raw and seat No. from the second schedule sketch.
3- You don’t need to bring to test center anything except your original Passport and your stationery, papers are not allowed.
4- Leave your mobile phone outside the exam hall. The British Council employ qualified staff to help you, and you will access the hall smoothly, do not worry.
5- The test actually started at 9:00 instead of 8:00 am.

The tests went as follows:

Listening Test:

The listening test started very clear; the test supervisor checked the speakers and arranged the volume to the candidates' satisfaction. The test was tricky, on many times the conversation was directed to the wrong choice, but you have to hunt your prey once it appears. You have to keep your total attention to the last of the of the sentences or the paragraph.
The last task was a monologue about a doctor working in a marine animal laboratory. It was very quick and had strange animals' names. Also the advantages of her researches were not clear to me. However I did my best, but I lost some precious marks.

Reading Test:

It was the second test, it started simply but not so at the end - the last twelve questions were about improving the fabric manufacturing. It included many different clothes, inventors and model designers, each has his own method and unusual style of design, these several names from different origins producing up normal styles using wide variety of textile, made the topic rather difficult specially it was the last section in the test when most of the time had been consumed, That’s why I advise you to: please move fast through the simple questions to save the time for the more difficult ones.

Writing test:

Task No 1 was a letter to the manager of the restaurant where you had a nice dinner with your friends. Write what was the occasion? What was the good food offered to you?
Two nights before the test I red a sample of a thank you letter to the manager of a computer maintenance company which I belive helped me to build the structure of the letter. (You have to use the benefits of your continuous reading or research and try to link the subjects together).
Task No.2 was titled: "Some apeople believe that young employees are more useful to the company than old employees. Discuss the above giving examples to support your opinions."

Speaking Test:

After the writing test, the test supervisors will give you a notice letter for your speaking test appointment. Please note that you have to be in the exam center one hour before your appointment. My appointment was 3:30 pm but I left my home at 2:50pm! Ten minutes later I got a call through on mobile with an Indian lady kindly reminding me about my speaking test. I confirmed to her that I was on my way and I would reach the test center in the next five minutes. (Arrive at your test center early).

Speaking task:

After the starting of the warm-up questions, it was just general personal information. In part two the examiner gave me one minute to be ready for speaking not less than two minutes about (Story I remember from my childhood) I should answer as follows:
What is the name of the story?
Did I read it or did someone read it to me?
When was it?
Were there colored photos?
I was shocked for a few seconds. How can I spend two minutes talking about a children's story if the children's story itself was not longer than two minutes? Suddenly I remembered Tony when he was advising us in the class (you have to tell something attractive, you have to pull the examiner slightly to your hermetical and magical imagination). At the same time I remembered my advice to Khawla (you have to be a professional liar to tell a good story, you do not need to tell the truth).
Most of the stories I read in my childhood were from a well-known Arabic series called the Prosperous - including autobiographiis of leaders and scientists that I don’t remember the dates of born and the detail of the events exactly. But according to Tony's advice. I started writing some notes about Sindbad the Sailor all of you know how much you can talk about this long story and its adventures.
Sorry Mr. Tony I do not know how much you can accept from the above?
We can improve our experience from the successful trials and failures as well. I will inform you of my result at the weekend.

Best regards