IELTS - Hard?

Is it hard to get a Band 8 in IELTS? (English is not my first language)

And also, generally, which is harder? IELTS or TOEFL?

Which one do universities normally prefer?

Reply 1

hobnob

Syafiquaaa

Is it hard to get a Band 8 in IELTS? (English is not my first language)

Sorry, can't answer that one.

And also, generally, which is harder? IELTS or TOEFL?

As far as I can tell, both seem to test pretty much the same things in pretty much the same ways (as they should, really), so the main difference between them is probably how they're marked.

Which one do universities normally prefer?

Have a look around the websites of universities you're interested in and see what they have to say about language requirements. Very few of them specifically require you to take one or the other, but your prospective university might happen to be one of them. I have yet to see a university that asks for an IELTS score of 8, by the way. The highest requirement I've seen was 7.5 (and that was for English courses).

Reply 2

kiika

no it's not very hard to get band 8. I managed to get 8 without any preparation - the test is quite straightforward. The key is to obtain high grade in reading and listening which are much easier than writing and speaking.
I don't know which one is harder though as I didn't do TOEFL
And the preference depends on the university. Almost all universities in UK prefer IELTS but most of them accept also TOEFL.

Reply 3

obsession

Syafiquaaa

Is it hard to get a Band 8 in IELTS? (English is not my first language)

Depends. Google some samples, have a look at http://www.ielts-exam.net/ , it has loads of specimen tasks, will give you an idea.

Syafiquaaa

And also, generally, which is harder? IELTS or TOEFL?

They're pretty much the same, only, to my knowledge, IELTS is 'British' whereas TOEFL is American variant of it. At the end of the day, they test the same things.

Syafiquaaa

Which one do universities normally prefer?

British universities normally (as i've read in numerous uni websites) accept both, so whichever you take you shouldn't have problems with it.

Reply 4

Luxun3

When taking the IELTS test I only found writing to be somehow difficult, as I had not done similar exercise in school before. However after learning some vocabulary to describe graphs etc. I managed to get Band 8 with 8 in writing. Hence I would say that for some people the writing part might be the most difficult, as they might not be too familiar with describing graphs and tables.

Reply 5

raredrum

not exactly...i got 8.5 with a day of preparing....if you can listen with intent and write decent coherent English, you shld be able to manage it pretty well

Reply 6

hippobluecampe

raredrum

not exactly...i got 8.5 with a day of preparing....if you can listen with intent and write decent coherent English, you shld be able to manage it pretty well

8.5? Isn't full marks band 8.0?

no...its 9....

you can achieve half band scores in every sub division of the ielts exam....then all your individual band scores are taken and you are provided with a total average score...tht can either be in full band ie8 or half bands 8.5, 7.5 etc

Reply 9

adglse

IELTS is an easy exam.If one is fluent in English,one can easily score upto 8 or 8.5.The key to scoring well lies in the sub-band scores.To enhance ur scores,one should try n get a full 9 in Listening n reading sections as they r comparatively easier.Ppl tend to score poorly in the writing sections.To compensate fr that,try n do well in the listening n reading sections.Speaking is also easy.