Is the IELTS Test the same in Australia and overseas?

How does the IELTS examine in Australia and Overseas compare?

Officially, the IELTS test is exactly the same in every office and in every city and every country in the world. Unofficially, as a former IDP employee I can tell they are different.

My two countries of reference are Australia and India where I have worked as a speaking and writing examiner. This will focus mainly on speaking but also cover some similar writing marking elements. Here are some of the differences and how to prepare differently in each country.

Differently qualified examiners:

In India most of the examiners are Indians who were previously primary or high school teachers, and they have never lived or worked in an English-speaking country. In Australia examiners must have a Teaching English as a Second Language to Adults qualification along with another degree and about 10 years’ experience teaching English to migrants in Australia in a registered adult learning centre.

So, they have very different perspective on the English language and mannerism in handling adult candidates.

Different cultural perspectives:

In India giving opinions and engaging in discussion with the examiner is seen as disrespectful. Hence, the IELTS speaking examine in India is a stop and start, question and answer exercise.

In Australia, the ability to understand and use the language spontaneously and authentically is regarded as important and there is not a hierarchy between the teacher/examiner and the candidate/student since the examiners are all trained in adult education in the progressive communicative style that encourages students to speak and ask questions. (As opposed to India where they are children’s teachers and in any case, teachers are not to be questioned).

In fact in Australia, to go into the speaking examine with the attitude that you must be obedient and mustn’t give opinions (or even crack a joke) is probably going to harm the flow of your conversation, and this will affect your fluency score. In contrast, in India to break too far from the prepared script could lead to low score becuase the examiner listens for errors (to negative mark) and specific academic elements (to positive mark) not for ease of communication and scaling compared to a native speaker.

Different interpretation on the marking guidelines:

In the India education system memorisation is highly valued along with the idea of absolute ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ so the marking of the speaking and writing exams for IELTS is done by counting elements such as cohesive devices to join sentences, big academic words, and grammar mistakes. It is not really important if the candidates answer the question or even if they make sense. The best way to reach a 6 or 7 in India is to memorise something generic.

In Australia it is scaling a conversation and its usability in the workplace and society when compared to a native speaker. Because native speakers are not always perfect when they are speaking, the candidates are not judged too harshly on grammar if they are tackling a difficult topic and they are able to express complex ideas (or even just crack a joke). A band down for grammar can be evened up by the other skills such as fluency and a native-like lexical resource.

So, in Australia, the best way to prepare is to speak in your everyday life, listen to podcast on typical IELTS topics to pick up some native-like expressions and be yourself. The examiner is not looking for one answer or for perfection, they are look for someone who can speak naturally and get by in a variety of situations.