IELTS exam - the Speaking test

Well that didn't turn out as well as I thought it would.

As I mentioned here, I already took the IELTS exam in 2004, so I already knew what to expect in the exams. However, this speaking exam felt very much different from the one I had before.

But first, let me share some info. The exam takes place at the British Council building at Grange Rd. It's diagonally across the Tanglin Mall. Just go through the gate, tell the security officer that you're there for the exam and he'll let you in. By the way, there's a small coffee shop that you will pass by which serves very decilious spaghetti and roasted chicken for only $4. Must try!

When I got there, there was one candidate waiting for her turn. When I had the exam back in 2004 in Manila, there were about 1000 of us waiting. I walked up to the registration desk and was asked to wait. I came about 40 minutes early for my schedule. After about 20 mins, I was asked to walk into one of the rooms.

The exam process

My interviewer was a guy. He first confirmed if I was indeed that person in his list. I said yes, and he said he will then start the exam. He set his recorder, pointed it to my direction, then read a script. Something like "IELTS speaking exam version..., Candidate name is Jonathan.... with passport number ...., examiner's name is ...." Then he proceeded to interview.

He started of by instructing me to say a few things about myself, where I came from, where I work, and what I did. No biggie there, I did a plain old self-intro. I signed for me to keep going, so I said a few more words.

Second part was about Reading skills. I asked me if I enjoyed reading, what kind of books I read, and if I think reading was important. Of course, people close to me know that I don't particularly enjoy reading, especially books. So I talked about the new age.. and that is wikipedia! Again, he asked me to say more. Ahh.. what else can I say, "i hate reading?" But since I have to, I tried to blabber some more.

Third part is where he gave me a certain topic and I had to spend 2-3 mins taking about it. It was about 'a particular skill that I had learned, what skill it was, how i learned it, and if it was useful to me. First thing that came to my mind was my love to 'tinker' with electronics. I don't know if 'tinker' is an acceptable word, but I used it way. So, I taked about my passion in building guitars, building toys, and generally building or repairing things. That I had picked this up from my father. And that I have already build and repaired more than 10 guitars because of this hobby. I managed to say a handful but he he still wanted me to say more, pointing to his watch implying that I haven't used up the 2-3 minutes I am given. So, I tried to speak up some more.

By this time I have already realized that I was answering too briefly. And for the life of me, I cannot help but answer his question straight to the point, hence all my answers are concise. He would always ask me to keep going, and when this happens, I would simply just blabber. Pretty much rephrasing what I had already said.

Now the last part is that I think will bring me down. Really! It was a series of questions about being skilled. He asked if I thought being skilled is important, duh!, and if reading will help you improve it, again duh!. And if skills is important in the workforce. hmm.. maybe? Duh!!! Then, after I said of course, he asked me again to keep say more. What else is there to say?

All in all, it was not terrible. I managed to answer his questions, but I seems my answers are always too short for him. It didn't help that it felt so much like a question-and-answer session. I didn't feel like a conversation, not at all. I thought I would have said more if I was conversing, ie telling stories, instead of just answering questions.

Anyway, I guess what you say doesn't really matter at all. They just want to know if you can speak good english - your grammar, sentence construction, tenses, vocabular, and the likes. So even if I said I hate reading, I think they wouldn't mind.