My journey to studying in Canada - Part 9
What a thrill! I got my IELTS English test results today, and I got an 8 out of 9. I am really happy because I prepared a lot for several months studying on my own and with the help of Canaway.
As I am an international student (and from a country whose official language is not English), universities in Canada asked me to provide proof of my English proficiency. Two universities to which I applied asked for a minimum grade of 6.5 and the other university to which I applied asked for a 7.5. Truth is, I was scared that I wouldn’t get at least a 7.5 since that’s a pretty high grade. However, despite being a bit scared, I decided to try twice as hard to not only hit that mark but to get an even better one.
I started my preparation by taking an IELTS course with Canaway. My teacher taught me about the fundamentals of the IELTS exam and strategies to successfully complete each part of the exam. He explained to me that this test has 4 parts, which are Listening, Speaking, Writing and Reading. In addition, he taught me various techniques to be able to distribute my time appropriately so I could answer all the questions.
In each class, we solved Reading, Writing and Reading exercises in groups. We practiced with exercises from past IELTS exams, which allowed me to familiarize myself with the type of questions that would come on the exam. He also asked us questions similar to those on the official exam in a personal way to practice Speaking and gave us recommendations to improve our way of answering. Through this course I improved my Speaking skills and gained a lot of confidence to express my ideas in English.
Canaway’s IELTS Preparation Course was an important part of my preparation, but so was my personal preparation. I decided to do more research on my own about the exam and practice with exercises online. I organized myself to practice different exercises for at least an hour a day and kept track of how I improved over time. This record was vital in showing what I was improving on and keeping me motivated to keep pushing harder.
Every effort has its reward and mine arrived today. This mark is really important to me as it reflects all the effort and dedication that I put into this exam. I am very excited to have met my goal and I am motivated to continue to be persistent in reaching all of my goals. My next goal is to enter universities in Canada and this achievement brings me closer to reaching that greater goal.
Disclaimer:
This blog post was actually written in April 2021, but I put the date of the day it happened to be more realistic.
