для общения на английском

[Стрелок из лука]

[OFFTOP] ...New episodes of Hope\fuzcen confrontation! Available in English now! [/OFFTOP]

And back to my situation. I sent her my photos, and she thinks that I have a babyface. Yes, I'm 23, and I look quite young. (To tell the truth - she's a couple of years older – but still cute and even impressive). After that I told her "So, are you going to stop talking with me now?" She called me "silly boy", and answered "It's funny to chat with you".

So you never know...

[fuzcen]

[Hope]

Shut up You have done one more foolish act.

Do you think it's possible to answer a girl in a such rude manner?
Do you think you look very clever? It's just a piece of your delusions of grandeur!
Make some efforts to REPLY a bit politely next time!

[Lt_Flash]

Shut up You have done one more foolish act.

Do you think it's possible to answer a girl in a such rude manner?
Do you think you look very clever? It's just a piece of your delusions of grandeur!
Make some efforts to REPLY a bit politely next time!

How about to answer to my post?

[hukilai]

Shut up You have done one more foolish act.

Please restrain yourself from using "shut up" just for fun. It is pretty strong, and unless you are talking to a very close friend, almost always will be perceived as an insult, no matter how many smiles you put after it.

[hukilai]

LT_Flash, if you mean your question about when to start to prepare for the IELTS exam, here are my two cents:

Well, first of all, it is kind of difficult to evaluate how well you are prepared for IELTS, because you have not provided any tests results. You said you failed test exams a few times, but to what degree? On IELTS scale is it 1 or 3 or 5 or what?

If you get 100/100 in Reading and Listening for English First, but fail in IELTS, then this course covers only a very basic English and in no way can be compared to IELTS.

From your preivous post I can see that your written English is pretty good, so it is a little bit odd that you do not mark well on Reading. Try some listening tests as well and let us know your results (if you want, of course).

Regarding the timing, although you can send your IELTS results with your 475sk form, it is not mandatory, and you can do it later - when an officer is assigned for your case and asks you for those.

If you are currently at the stage of getting of ACS assessment, you still have plenty of time ahead, just start preparing right now. If I were you, I would do the following:

1. Try a 2-3 Reading and Listening test exams and find your average mark there. If consistently gets at least one point more than you need (say, you need 6, but get 7+ in most cases), just apply for the closest exam sitting - you have pretty good chances to pass it. Do not forget it is harder to evaluate your skill for Writing and Speaking, but a few weeks of practice you have before the exam should be sufficient given you get good marks in L/R.

2. If your test results are too low or barely on the level you need to pass, give yourself a couple of months of English training with focus on IELTS, and see if your results improve. After that, If yes, go to step 1, if not go to step 2.


P.S. Just in case you are curious, my IELTS results were 8 - Reading, 9 - Listening, 6 - Writing, 7 - Speaking. It took me 5 years of work in English- speaking company, plus two months of relaxed and one week of very intense preparation for the exam to get those results.

[Lt_Flash]

Thanks for your reply!
First of all I would like to explain why do I fail in IELTS test exam. I mean, not in a real IELTS exam, but in Internet IELTS example of exam. I believe that I fail because I don't know how to spread my attention on what to mark, what things to sort out and thus I begin to waste my time. But I easily understand everything in that example reading test, but it's constructed to confuse such people as I, and it works just fine That's why I decided to enter IELTS course in British Council - to train myself understand philosophy of IELTS exams - how do they constructed and how to find key moments in every part of IELTS course. So, I think I should enter IELTS trainig course just after sending my documents for ACS approval. What do you think, am I right or not?

[hukilai]

LT_Flash,

I am still confused about what kind of problem you have with IELTS (with Reading in particular). Have you tried the tests from the sandbox? How many correct answers have you got within the exam timeframe? And do not tell me you could not do any of 40 questions there - unless you have a serious menthal disorder.

I think that the structure of the Reading section is very straightforward. You read the text and then do what you asked - fill in gaps in sentences, evaluate statements (yes/no/not given), etc. If you just do a couple of those tests without time limit and having correct answer before your eyes, you will catch an idea.

If you have no problem with comprehension of the content of the Reading exam, you should be able to prepare on your own. But if you feel more confident taking those course, by all means, go there.

[Lt_Flash]

I haven't tried any examples from sandbox just because it's on the move right now and doesn't have FTP server on-line.
You know, maybe I've been trying some strange test, but the text was about left and right-handed people, and about research made by different people. That text tells us about different scientists and different methods they used to find an answer for the question, why about 70% percent (or something about that) people are right-handed. There were about six paragraphs each describing one scientist and what did he or she do. And then goes the questions for that text, like "To whom does this sentence apply"? And because all that scientists used different methods and made different inventions I just became confused which one did that thing, and which one did this thing. I believe that I just should use some kind of notes during reading of text, to make remarks and to use them in answering, because it's difficult to remember everything they did in correct relation to their names. And I would like to visit IELTS training courses to study how to parse such text correctly, what to mark and what to expect. For example, when I was examined in English First there also were T/F/NG variants and I had absolutely no problem in choosing correct one. But the text was like a cut from newspaper - about ongoing Olimpiade 2012 and how different countries trying to held it and so on. Maybe because it wasn't so scientific I had no problem with it, maybe something else. But as I scored at 100 of 100 on English First and failed to pass IELTS example I felt uncomfortable and now think about IELTS courses. But of course, as soon as sandgate is back again - I will try to pass IELTS tests once again Thank you for your help, it's nice to talk to you!

By the way, how do you score my writing? I write it "on the fly", no corrections and after-edit...

[Hope]

To Стрелок из лука

Back to your situation. I'm absolutelly sure that the Internet is a very important part of our life! For instance, we have every opportunity to read interesting books, listen to radio programms or meet new friends. If you like each other, it doesn't matter how old are you! Don't worry, please! Good luck to you!

[Hope]

Please restrain yourself from using "shut up" just for fun. It is pretty strong, and unless you are talking to a very close friend, almost always will be perceived as an insult, no matter how many smiles you put after it.

Thank you very much for your countenance!

[Hope]

To Lt_Flash

I didn't try to pass English First courses. That is why I can't compare your results in this exam with possible results in IELTS.
I would like to tell you about my problems in prepairing for passing IELTS. Last year I was graduated from the Lingustic centre. By the way, I had to go to the tutor before passing the test. On the one hand, the most difficult aspect in IELTS was Listening. It was very difficult for me to follow speakers, because they were speaking very quickly and used many English idioms. But I try to listen radio programms every day. For example, VOA: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/index.cfm
But on the other hand, I liked Writing very much. It completely carried ma away! Nothing was more pleasant than to sit in a comfortable armchair and to write an essay about different things and problems... Sorry, if my English is not so good... I'm not much of speaker yet, but I'm working on it constantly.

[Lt_Flash]

To Lt_Flash

I didn't try to pass English First courses. That is why I can't compare your results in this exam with possible results in IELTS.
I would like to tell you about my problems in prepairing for passing IELTS. Last year I was graduated from the Lingustic centre. By the way, I had to go to the tutor before passing the test. On the one hand, the most difficult aspect in IELTS was Listening. It was very difficult for me to follow speakers, because they were speaking very quickly and used many English idioms. But I try to listen radio programms every day. For example, VOA: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/index.cfm
But on the other hand, I liked Writing very much. It completely carried ma away! Nothing was more pleasant than to sit in a comfortable armchair and to write an essay about different things and problems... Sorry, if my English is not so good... I'm not much of speaker yet, but I'm working on it constantly.

Yeah, I know that it's difficult to talk even when you read, write and listen very well and understand everything
I've decided to take another IELTS training exam on weekdays, and then I'll post my results here.

By the way, to be good in writing you should be good in Russian writing I mean all that dictants and other things we did in school. I must say I wasn't too good in it, actually, I scored 5 or 4 in grammatic, but on the meaning part I scored from 3 to 2, eventually to 4

[hukilai]

LT_Flash,

Well, as we still have no results, there is not much we can help you with your progress. By the way, there are two versions of IELTS - Academic and General. The former has much more scientific-oriented content and will likely cause you more troubles in understanding. So, first of all, you will need to know which test you are going to sit. If you will be trying to pass General, then yes, you will be given a few excerpts from paper ads and other stuff like that.

To deal with your confusion when answering questions, you need to figure out what causes that? Do you clearly understand what is said, or you skip unknown words and "making up" their meaning? Or does it take too much time for you to read the text and you do not have enough time left for questions?

In the first case you need to expand your vocabulary (and it does take time), in the second, you will need to use some techniques for a efficient question answering. The approach I used is very quick "scanning" of the text the very first time I read it - to spend minimum time on it. Right after that you, start answering questions and now come back to the text and try to read relevant parts more carefully.

That is all for now. Please do not hesitate to ask for more if you need.

[Lt_Flash]

Yes, I haven't got enough time to pass that exams once again, so no results yet, sorry. Problems of work kill free time

About that text - I believe maybe I just get confused because of the big amount of names I just can't clearly remeber, who did what, but I have no problem in understanding. I begin to waste my time going up and down the text looking for particular name to find what did he archived. I have absolutely no problem with vocabulary, it's rather difficult to meet some unknown word for me, and even in that case in 90% of such situations I can understand what that word mean from the whole sentence...

If I am going to pass IELTS exams in Moscow - how do I know, would it be General or Academic exam?