British Council English online courses
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Disappointed and Frustrated with the Entire IELTS Experience
Disappointed and Frustrated with the Entire IELTS Experience It’s incredibly frustrating that such an expensive exam provides only the bare minimum in terms of practice materials clearly pushing people to pay extra for "advanced" resources in order to succeed. Instead of supporting test takers to do their best, it feels like the system is designed to squeeze more money from those who are already under pressure. The exam itself is unnecessarily long, with very limited time per section. Rather than being a true evaluation of language ability, it ends up being more of a stress test. To make matters worse, coming from a country where IELTS isn't offered, I had to travel to Italy and stay for two days because my speaking test was scheduled a day before the rest of the exam. Then, with no explanation, the speaking test time was changed just one day before. This kind of last minute change is incredibly disruptive, especially when you're dealing with travel and accommodation logistics. On exam day, the process was chaotic. The photo ID verification alone took half an hour because I had to retake my photo five times before they were satisfied. It was exhausting before the exam even began. While I did get the score I needed, I can’t say the experience was worth it. The fact that this exam expires after a couple of years is also ridiculous. Frankly, I don’t believe this kind of test should cost so much, especially for non-native English speakers who already face enough barriers