Max too the IELTS test yesterday

[Guest Ellie]

Hi Everyone,

 

Well yesterday was the day Max took the IELTS test. He's not sure how hes done but said it wasn't bad but it depends what they are looking for. Just to give an idea Part 1 was a questions and answers. He had to read papragraphs and choose answers that related to the paragraph and there were paragraphs he had to read then give true or false answers to statements. Part 2 was an essay no less than 150 words on daytime TV. He had to write what he didn't like about daytime TV and what he thought should be on in place of it. Then a 250 word or more essay on Politeness or lack of it in todays society. Brilliant subject for max and he was going to ask for more paper . Part 3 was the talking interview. He had to discuss fashion and also about a special ocaisson wearing attire. What he wore where it was from and how people reacted. Lucky we got married July, it came in handy, especially the fact he was in medieval attire. Part 1 & 2 was 10am til 1pm no break. Part 3 started at 1.45pm and was 20 mins. (He said it seemed like an hr!) You have your name on a board stating your allocated time between 1.45pm and 6pm. Luckily Max went in at 1.45pm and was home and on the scotch by 3.15pm!!

He hasn't taken anything for granted but fingers crossed being English will be a bonus! The que to sign in was really long. He was there for just after 9am and it took till 9.50 to sign in. However there were on 5 in his catagory to emigrate all the others were taking the academic test to live here. Very few English there.

As Denise has said make sure you take a drink and something to eat!! If you get first slot it's a real rush but also if you are not you may have a long wait!

[Guest pommy1]

Hi

 

Can i ask a question, why do you have to do this IELTS test? when we came over in 1992 my husband who is an Electrician had to send off and have he's skills assesed, if he had to do that test he would have failed!! We thought it was hard then ,reading these posts i think new migrants have it harder now to get out here.

[Guest Ellie]

Hi

 

Can i ask a question, why do you have to do this IELTS test? when we came over in 1992 my husband who is an Electrician had to send off and have he's skills assesed, if he had to do that test he would have failed!! We thought it was hard then ,reading these posts i think new migrants have it harder now to get out here.

 

It isn't compulsory. It's just another way of getting extra points and is probably the main option before going down another route. As Australia will only accept English speaking migrants it proves that you can actually communicate. This is greatly lacking in England just lately and getting worse so I don't suppose it's a bad thing from Australia's point of view. I think it depends on what visa you have applied for too as some you don't need as many points. We have applied for a permanent visa. If Max hadn't taken this they would start taking my qualifications into account, my age etc to increase the points. If that wasn't good enough we would have to reconsider and apply for a sponsorship or temporary visa. So fingers crossed he passes. To be honest if I had to take it we certainly wouldn't have passed. I'm hopeless in an exam situation and I have a very broad black country accent & I talk too fast which wasn't what they would be looking for

[Guest Tiddlypush]

Hi Im planning to take tests in jan 09, bit worried as well as bit miffed about doing it in first place! where abouts in staffs are you? I grew up in south staffs around the Lichfied area.

 

Karen

[Guest Ellie]

Hi Im planning to take tests in jan 09, bit worried as well as bit miffed about doing it in first place! where abouts in staffs are you? I grew up in south staffs around the Lichfied area.

 

Karen

 

Hi Karen, we are in Burton on Trent. I grew up in jolly Browhills LOL. Well someone had to!! Been in Burton 9 years now.Max took the test and was also miffed but even more so when he was 1 of about 8 English the other 90 were foreign. He failed on his spelling. Passed every other catergory but you need all of them. He said he wouldn't pay to take it again as he would get the same again as he has never been much good at spelling so it won't improve overnight he's 44! Bit late now to worry. So we have changed visa's not the best move as they 475 taking ages it appears.

[Guest Tiddlypush]

Hi Ellie, know Brownhills very well, worked on the market for few months. I used to know Burton well also as did my nurse and midwifery training at hospital there. I was living in the nursing home when the general existed. (thats how old I am). Im worried about the spelling test also as although have a few brain cells spelling is low down on list! We have looked at state sponsered and just seems more hoops to jump through. me an your OH are the same age perhaps they missed us out when it came to the spelling brain cells lol

 

karen

[Guest Ellie]

Hi Ellie, know Brownhills very well, worked on the market for few months. I used to know Burton well also as did my nurse and midwifery training at hospital there. I was living in the nursing home when the general existed. (thats how old I am). Im worried about the spelling test also as although have a few brain cells spelling is low down on list! We have looked at state sponsered and just seems more hoops to jump through. me an your OH are the same age perhaps they missed us out when it came to the spelling brain cells lol

 

karen

 

Don't worry too much Karen you will have to go some to beat Max! We are gutted but it's not the end of the world we will still get out there. We still have the house to sell and if it sells before we have visa's we will rent here and save at least half of what we are paying on the mortgage. Ideally we would like to go July but I think thats a bit optomistic now so it would be nice to go on xmas day next year if we can't go sooner. The paperwork a bit odd. I'm miffed that we did all the certified stuff for the 175 and now we don't need to. The questions seem a bit bizzare and contradictory. My brain cells are frazzled!!!! Glad I didn't take the test.

[Guest davet19650]

HI there

good luck to max on his IELTS results,

got mine back the other day , got a certificate thought ye ive passed till i looked closely,scored 6.5 on the reading 8 on the others ,have now been informed i have failed by half a point GUTTED need min 7 in all, so now not sure what to do , try again or do state sponsorship, anyway good luck

cheers

Dave

[Guest Ellie]

HI there

good luck to max on his IELTS results,

got mine back the other day , got a certificate thought ye ive passed till i looked closely,scored 6.5 on the reading 8 on the others ,have now been informed i have failed by half a point GUTTED need min 7 in all, so now not sure what to do , try again or do state sponsorship, anyway good luck

cheers

Dave

 

Hi Dave, Max failed too! We are going for state sponsorship. Max don't want to pay to take it again. He was angry, gutted, lost for words etc. Not sure if it's the right decision but we just want to get out there. It was spelling that let him down and it's not going to improve overnight so we are just moving on to another option. It's a personal thing so good luck in which ever you decide to do.

[kizzy]

Hi Dave, Max failed too! We are going for state sponsorship. Max don't want to pay to take it again. He was angry, gutted, lost for words etc. Not sure if it's the right decision but we just want to get out there. It was spelling that let him down and it's not going to improve overnight so we are just moving on to another option. It's a personal thing so good luck in which ever you decide to do.

Hi Ellie

 

You may you have already seen the updated list for state sponsorship but in case you haven't it is good news for brickies as they are now also included on the permanent sponsored list for SA.

 

At least there is not as much pressure on Pete passing his IELTS now.

 

Happy New Year to everyone.

 

Tracey

[Guest Ellie]

Hi Ellie

 

You may you have already seen the updated list for state sponsorship but in case you haven't it is good news for brickies as they are now also included on the permanent sponsored list for SA.

 

At least there is not as much pressure on Pete passing his IELTS now.

 

Happy New Year to everyone.

 

Tracey

 

Hi Tracey, No I hadn't seen the list. All I was told beginning december was we would have to go for the 475. So is the permanent state sponsership the 176? God I get confused. I think I will email our agent I'd rather go on a perm visa. I don't want to fill in all the paperwork and change again! Thanks for the info I really appreciate it.

[kizzy]

Hi Tracey, No I hadn't seen the list. All I was told beginning december was we would have to go for the 475. So is the permanent state sponsership the 176? God I get confused. I think I will email our agent I'd rather go on a perm visa. I don't want to fill in all the paperwork and change again! Thanks for the info I really appreciate it.

Hi Ellie

 

The permanent sponsored list only changed on 1 January so previously bricklayers were only on the temporary sponsored list. It would be the 176 for permanent rather than the 475 visa. I got an email from my agent today and they suggested we still go ahead with the IELTS and hopefully go for the 175. Even if Pete doesn't pass things are still in our favour cause we can still go for permanent sponsorship. I think we would have to stay in Adelaide for 2 years but we don't intend to move anyway once we are there.

 

This is the link to SA Govt information.

 

http://migration.sa.gov.au/centric/migrate_from_overseas/visa_options/gen_skill3.jsp

Tracey

[Guest Ellie]

Hi Ellie

 

The permanent sponsored list only changed on 1 January so previously bricklayers were only on the temporary sponsored list. It would be the 176 for permanent rather than the 475 visa. I got an email from my agent today and they suggested we still go ahead with the IELTS and hopefully go for the 175. Even if Pete doesn't pass things are still in our favour cause we can still go for permanent sponsorship. I think we would have to stay in Adelaide for 2 years but we don't intend to move anyway once we are there.

 

This is the link to SA Govt information.

 

http://migration.sa.gov.au/centric/migrate_from_overseas/visa_options/gen_skill3.jsp

Tracey

 

Hi Tracey,

Max called our agent today and she is contacting our other agent working on our behalf in Oz and she thinks it will be all systems go for the 176 for us. Max still not retaking the IELTS so it will be better for us. We have no intention of moving from Adelaide either. My Godmother out there and my parents are hoping to join us once we are settled and they are not spring chickens! I hadn't finished the 475 paperwork so she sending out the 176 application but she wants it back asap. Need to sell a kidney now to pay quick . I don't know how things are for you but life really hard with Max's work. His employer pays when he feels like it and has a wife from hell!! Beggars can't be choosers as there's very little work. Just hoping his work can tick over a few more months. He was sent home today as it's too cold and laid off tomorrow too as the forcast is saying it will be really cold tomorrow and the temperature won't reach the requirements. Same old story in this country though eh? or it's too wet!!! Has Pete booked his IELTS yet? If he has give him our best I'm sure he will be fine but at least the 176 is excellent news as a backup plan.

[kizzy]

Hi Ellie

 

Same story here, Pete was out of work for about 10 weeks and only went back the week before Christmas and then he has only had a couple of days in due to the holidays. He wasn't in work yesterday as he couldn't lay brick but has luckily worked today and is working tomorrow as he is indoors. He has only ever been out of work for a couple of weeks at a time whilst inbetween jobs but it is absolutely dire out there now and the pay rates have dropped. He refused to sign for benefits in case it went against us for Oz but luckily we had savings, as you can imagine they have dwindled rapidly (that's the dog Sebastian's airfare gone - will have to breed him to make money lol - could possibly breed Pete but probably wouldn't make anything).

 

He is due to take the IELTS on 17 January, he has the book but hasn't looked at it as much as I would have liked him to. Not getting stressed about it anymore cause we can apply for permanent state sponsorship and looking at the latest email from my agent it looks like sponsorship is being processed slightly quicker.

 

I think as soon as we get the IELTS results we can submit our visa application so we shouldn't be too far behind you - fingers crossed.

 

Tracey