hi all! my husband and i would just like to express our heartfelt appreciation to those who unabashedly shared their experiences; generously contributed links, reviewers, tips what not. we would like to give back somehow by giving an account of our own challenges and our victory.
my husband's first brush with the IELTS was in 2014, in Singapore which was for the Uni application. he scored 8.5 - 7 -7 - 8.5 in the academic module.
since he did not do so bad the first time, we thought getting a band 8 in all four components in the general training module will not be so difficult. my husband sat the exam last july 16 and was dismayed/frustrated that he got the same exact marks 8.5 - 7 - 7- 8.5 despite his efforts to improve on his writing and comprehension skills. we could not point a finger to how else he can better his scores. it is like an itch that we cannot scratch. we knew the only course of action was to take the exam again but we thought, there might be a test more suitable for the likes of him (whatever that means).
PTE academic.
i read this thread, from page 1 (!) and was convinced it was worth the shot. we booked it,
we bought the GOLD KIT.
we watched this https://youtu.be/dLk_AXaowC4
we printed the academic collocations list http://pearsonpte.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/AcademicCollocationList.pdf
we downloaded these files
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/0B-SWiaKXacYAUzBwdWgzd1A2UHc
since the husband's weakest components were reading and writing, we focused on those.
his practice marks as follows:
12 August TEST A L76 - R72 - S79 - W67 this was raw with little preparation. We wanted to find out how he would fair. The session took 3 hours and the marks were available after as little as 2 hours.
17 August TEST B L90 - R78 - S90 - W82 this was the night before his actual PTE. It took him 3 hours. This was after he has studied the collocations, he has watched the YouTube video and answered all four sets (reading and writing ONLY) of the MacMillan reviewer. The results took FOREVER (20 hours) to upload! By the time it was updated, the husband was already done with his ACTUAL PTE!
when my husband sat the test, he was under the weather. he had a fever the day before, he was having the sniffles and his voice sounded different. i gave him sambucol capsules but he restrained himself from taking panadol for fear that it will make him sleepy/less alert. we were prepared to book another session but last night we received one amazing news, my husband's marks were beyond what we dared hope for L87 - R90 - S85 - W90 TO JESUS BE ALL THE GLORY AND PRAISE!!! GOD INTERVENED, my husband could not have possibly made it on his own devices!!!
be stubborn with your goal but be flexible with your ways - YOU CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO GIVES YOU STRENGTH