Thank you.
Welcome to My IELTS Classroom, the podcast where two English experts talk all things IELTS.
I'm Shelley Cornick.
And I'm Nick Long.
And today we are talking about the IELTS Life Skills Test.
What is the IELTS Life Skills Test?
What exactly will you have to do if you need to sit it?
And what advice would we give for somebody who is preparing for the test?
Good evening, Nick.
How are you?
Good evening.
Oh, someone sounds rested after their weekend off.
Yeah.
Is that what's happening?
That's how I feel.
19 days on, two days off.
Wow.
What advice would you give to someone who works a lot of days and then finally gets a couple of days off?
How should they best be spent?
They shouldn't.
You shouldn't work that much.
It's just silly.
Very good.
It is very silly.
Yeah, well, I'm glad you finally got a couple of days rest.
I'll tell you.
What happened to me this weekend Nick, is that I ran a Black Friday promotion this weekend.
You did, I remember.
Yeah, now anybody out there might be thinking that's a little bit strange because Nick, when is Black Friday?
Black Friday is this Friday.
It's this week, not last week.
So not only Nick did I run our Black Friday promotion on the wrong weekend, but also I got a message from a student who said Shelley, I'm using your code BLACK15, but the computer says it doesn't recognize the code.
I hadn't made the code, Nick.
So students were trying to use our Black 15 code on the wrong weekend and it didn't work.
That's not good, is it?
This is why I need help with marketing.
But the good news is because I thought Black Friday was last weekend and it wasn't we're going to extend our Black Friday discount code.
So if you are a student who is thinking about joining us, good news, you can still use the code.
Black 15, that's black one five, the numbers, which is now up and running.
And you can get a 15 discount on our bronze writing package, our silver writing package, our gold writing package and even Nick, I decided to do it the platinum everything package.
And a 15% discount on that is a very large saving.
It's about a £75 saving.
We've never offered that on the platinum package before.
So my stupidity is your gain.
So I'm just letting everybody know, you just use that code when you check out.
There's not a special page.
But yes, if you were confused why I was emailing you last weekend about Black Friday...
That's because I just didn't realise it wasn't this week.
Are you planning on buying anything, Nick, this year in the Black Friday sales?
Well, we already had Black Friday here, kind of, this week.
Because on Friday we had Independence Day.
And then a lot of the shops did sales on Saturday and Sunday.
And we didn't go because I was too tired.
You were just resting, weren't you?
Yeah, I was just resting.
So maybe if they do some more this weekend, I might go and have a look.
There's nothing I really need to buy, but it's always nice to just look and think, oh, that's cheap.
I might get it.
And then...
Yeah.
I'm thinking about buying some kitchenware, maybe.
Kitchenware's always good.
But at the end of the day, I mean, Black Friday was nothing when I was a kid.
This is an American invention, isn't it?
Yeah, it's a new thing.
Like when I was a kid, it was never popular either.
Christmas sales, Boxing Day sales, that's what we had.
Exactly.
So we can be forgiven for getting it wrong.
Mm-hmm.
Because it's an American thing and we are a British podcast.
All right.
So today we're not talking about advertising or marketing because we are obviously not experts.
But what we are experts in is IELTS.
But what we're going to do today is we're not going to be talking about the usual IELTS test, which is what we spend most of our time talking about.
I thought Nick, what we would do is we'd have a little episode for something which is called the ielts life skills test, and i'm saying that to you.
But actually the reason we're doing this is because you know somebody who is currently going.
Have they taken the test yet?
They're about to attempt, already taken it.
They've already taken the information.
So Nick is our inside man.
And I have to be honest, I get an email about this test not massively often, maybe once every month or once every six or seven weeks.
And it's usually a student whose partner, so a wife or a husband or somebody who needs to take the test because they're accompanying them.
And I always have to write an email that says something like you know.
Thanks for getting in contact.
I'm really sorry.
I know nothing about the life skills test.
So today's going to be great because I am finally going to understand what this test is.
So maybe if you're listening and you don't have a partner, if you're not migrating, you don't have a partner who's going to be taking this test.
Please continue to listen.
It might be interesting for you.
You might be able to help a friend in the future.
If not, as i always say, we've got about a hundred well, well over 100 episodes now.
Haven't we previous episodes?
Almost next year it'll be more than 150.
We're coming up to three years.
Yes,
So go back through our archive.
You can find that at blog.myioxclassroom.com or podcast.myioxclassroom.com.
Choose a topic, go and learn something new.
But for everybody who's staying, Nick, I guess my first question would be...
Your friend or anybody, why would somebody need to sit the IELTS life skills test?
What's it for?
Well, it's for migration.
Right.
Typically to the UK.
So how does it...
Oh, to the UK?
Yes.
So how does it differ, for example, from the general training exam which students would take if they wanted to migrate to Canada?
Well, as you've already said, it's typically, it's for partners.
Husbands, wives, partners.
So one person, if it's a non-native, for example, will do the IELTS test and they'll get there.
Like if it's Canada, it'll be 8777, whatever.
And then their partner will need to do the IELTS life skills test.
If they are marrying a Canadian or an Australian or a British citizen, then they will need to take the IELTS live skills test to move to that country.
Okay.
So that's quite interesting.
So you're basically saying that somebody who moves to the UK, even if it's through marriage, will still need to prove their level of language before they come?
Yes yes, that's an interesting question which we can go into a bit more detail about shortly.
Okay, all right, you can.
You can arrive in the uk with basically a1 level.
So that would be my question.
I guess that was the next question then.
So what, you know, for IELTS, we know that band nine would be C2, which is proficient.
Zero would be my level of every language I've ever tried to learn.
So it would be like absolute beginner would be zero.
I mean...
From my experience I would say you know, when I was testing, I guess the lowest score I ever got would be sort of like a four, which would be, I guess A1, elementary.
What type of scores or what level is the IELTS life skills test?
Well, there's two tests.
Oh, there are two tests?
There's two tests.
There's an A1 test and a B1 test.
Okay, so A1 is elementary.
Yep.
And B1 is intermediate.
Is intermediate, that's right, yeah.
And why are there two tests?
Well, I'm not sure, but this is what I understand.
Yeah.
Is that when you arrive in the UK...
Or before you get your visa, you need to do the A1 test.
And then after three, six I can't remember exactly three or six months you take the B1 test and it's like you get the full right to work et cetera and stuff like that.
Or you can just take the B1 test immediately and you've got all that stuff from the goal.
Okay.
So if you had a high level of English, you just go straight for the B1 and you're done.
Yeah, that's it.
Mm-hmm.
Okay, now what you said is quite interesting.
And just to be clear, Nick, it's kind of obvious, but Nick and I are not lawyers.
But it sounds to me.
Then what?
So you could take the A1 test, so that you can physically get to the UK?
And then you need to take the B1 after a certain period of time.
And then that would open the door for you to be able to work.
Maybe you'll have extra rights in the UK.
Yeah.
It's about work and it's about rights.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
And so I'm guessing for example, if you're going to Canada or a country which has got a points migration system, because we don't have a points migration system in the UK, do we?
We either have it like you've got you qualify and you can enter, or you don't qualify and you can't enter.
Mm-hmm.
But I'm guessing.
Then, for Canada, on the point system, is this going to just give the main applicant, I don't know, five extra points, 10 extra points.
I'm not sure, to be honest.
I do remember we had a student, maybe about a year and a half ago, called Julia, whose husband was an IT specialist.
And he was moving to Australia and she was taking the general exam and she needed a five.
To get a spouse visa.
So she was doing the full test.
I think that in this sort of situation, she would be able to just do the life skills instead.
So I'm not sure whether it comes to Australia and Canada, if it's possible to do this test instead.
But for the UK, you definitely can.
Maybe actually because of the points-based system. yeah maybe they don't offer this test and maybe you do have to do a full general test and score a five uh-huh but yes it's it's basically like a five at the full ielts test the b1 is the b1 the b1 yeah the b1 is equivalent to a 5.0 in ielts interesting okay but but what we're saying is or what from what we know it's more likely that this is the test you're going to take if you move to the uk yes that's what i understand anyway i'm not sure if you can do it to other countries but for the uk you definitely can Okay.
All right, cool.
So you know obviously, if you're sitting the full IELTS test you're going to do.
You know there are separate reading writing, speaking and listening exams.
It's going to take you what, a total of about four, a four hour ordeal to get through.
What is this life skills test?
I mean, I like the name of it.
Let me, let me guess what I think it might be.
Go on, go for it.
I think it might be because it says life skills.
I think it might be a little bit like the general training paper.
So there might be sort of maybe the listening will be like a little bit like part one of the real IELTS listening, which is people in real everyday situations.
Maybe the speaking might be like part one of the speaking in the real IELTS, which is sort of...
Questions about yourself.
Maybe the reading might be like part one of the general training paper, which is like reading notices.
I don't know.
I mean, I don't even know if there is a writing test.
Maybe a writing test would be...
I don't know, like a note or something.
All right, well, here's the interesting thing.
Yeah.
There is a reading.
You do need to read and you do need to write, but those parts are not marked.
What?
What they're not marked, it's only speaking and listening and the test is about 25 minutes long.
The whole thing.
The whole thing is 25 minutes long.
Okay, my brain has just exploded.
Okay, why would they make you read and write if they're not going to mark it?
Well, you have to read some sort of basic instructions as far as I understand.
Right.
And you have to write notes and you have to write questions for your partner, because you don't do it alone.
You do it with a partner.
Okay.
Okay, this is getting even more intriguing.
All right, so what I'm thinking now is so this sounds a little bit like TOEFL, the alternative IELTS exam for students, the American one.
Where you've got this sort of like integrated writing.
We did a podcast about it once, didn't we?
So for the writing, for example, you'd have to listen to a lecture and make notes.
So there's some listening, there's some writing, and then you would use those notes to write.
So what exactly are they doing then?
Why don't you take us through what this 25 minute exam, if you know, sort of step by step, what's going to happen in that exam?
Based on what my friend told me is, at the beginning the examiner doesn't really do much, is more of a facilitator of the test rather than an examiner.
Um, so a lot of it, like in b1 at least, because that's the one that she did.
B1 it's it's interaction with your partner.
Yeah and, like you said, listening part one.
That's exactly what it is.
It's listening for really sort of basic information.
You're not filling in any gaps.
The questions are spoken by the examiner.
So the examiner says, for example I want you to listen and tell me what time the restaurant opens, for example.
Oh, so they'll give you the question before you listen, orally.
And then what, a tape plays, does it?
And then a tape plays and then you make notes.
So there's your writing component.
And then the examiner will ask you at the end, like student A, can you tell me what time the restaurant opens?
They answer thank you, student B.
Can you tell me how many people have booked a table, so they get different questions?
They don't get the same questions, but are they given those questions before they listen or after in a spoken manner?
Yes, Before.
As far as I remember, it's before.
I can't remember exactly what she said, but I think she said before they tell them the questions.
Yeah, I wonder why you need to make notes then.
It's two speaking components.
Yeah.
Like bookending the listening bit.
Right.
Oh, so the listening is like a sandwich.
So at the beginning, it's kind of like questions about you, who you are.
As far as I understand, the examiner sort of starts the discussion and then he's like or she's like you have a few minutes to talk about this topic together.
And it's like IELTS part one topics.
Sort of really basic stuff.
So the students given the topics, are they?
Talk about, for example, work.
Yeah.
And they'll ask each other, oh, so where do you work?
Well, I work here.
Have you been working there for a long time?
Stuff like that.
And then, yeah.
Wait, wait, sorry, Nick.
I'm interrupting, but wait.
So, because it's just on my mind.
Okay.
I'm trying to get my head around this.
The examiner gives the two students a topic and then they have a free discussion about that topic.
But what would happen if?
Okay, let's imagine I for some reason needed to take IELTS life skills and I'm with a person who is, you know, maybe not quite B1, for example?
Yeah.
So I'm asking the student, so tell me about your job.
Like, so Nick, tell me, what do you do for a living?
And that person isn't able to understand my question or isn't able to ask me a question, to give me a chance to speak.
That's where the examiner comes and helps you, I guess.
Okay.
Because I'm sure there are, like my friend said, that the woman that she was with because she has a high level,
Yeah.
She just didn't want to take IELTS.
She just wanted to do the sort of easier one.
And she said her partner also had a very high level.
So it was really easy.
Just a really nice chat, basically, for 20 or 25 minutes with this other woman.
But yeah, I guess, if one student is clearly weaker, that's where the examiner kind of steps in and helps.
And maybe ask some questions.
Right.
So at the beginning, and do you know how many topics the students are given to discuss?
Or is there a fixed range of topics?
Well, basically, as I understand at the beginning, there's like two or three topics.
And the first part is around five to 10 minutes.
I can't remember exactly.
Yeah.
And then they have the listening section.
And just to go back to this.
So is it just one short listening, one question each, one short listening, one question each?
They do the listening twice.
And there's two listenings.
So what, you hear each tape script twice.
Yep.
And there are then two separate listings that you will have to answer just one question for each listing.
Two, I think there's two.
Two questions each for each listing.
So it's a total of four questions.
God, I wish that the real Alex exam was like this.
Yeah.
And then in part three, there's like... I want to say...
Ah, yeah.
There's this really weird hypothetical section that she was telling me about, where the examiner's like you're going to organize a party for a friend or something like that.
And then they give them like... three different things to talk about.
Yeah.
The location, the guests to invite and something else.
And then they have to kind of pretend that they're going to organize a party together.
And then what they have to decide how they will organize it, who they're going to invite.
Stuff like that.
And yeah.
Yeah.
So basically it's simulating real life language use at sort of this sort of basic, fundamental level, like interacting with friends, interacting with people in a sort of more like business situation or like consumer, like customer server situation, stuff like that.
Nothing super complicated, definitely nothing academic.
It's just a kind of sort of everyday.
It's like part one of reading and part one of speaking and part one of listening, sort of mangled together into a 25 minute test.
And the most interesting thing is there is no score.
As in, you don't get what, like, there's no shades of score.
You pass or you fail.
Yeah, that's it.
You pass or you fail.
And I don't know what constitutes a pass and what constitutes a fail, but... What score?
Yeah, what score.
Because I assume the examiners probably, like, they are scoring like you would in IELTS, yeah?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And what would they be scoring you on?
Like, what would they be looking at in the speaking?
Language for sure.
Like with IELTS.
I think it's going to be things like complexity of grammar mistakes, vocabulary fluency, like with IELTS.
And the pronunciation.
So probably all of it.
Yeah.
And it's just sort of, there's maybe a threshold.
If it's above that, you've passed.
If it's below that, you've failed.
Yeah.
And so those conversations, just to go back to...
It sounds to me then it's like a role play, right?
You're role playing friends who are organizing a party.
You mentioned some examples though that were more business-like, right?
So like customer-like.
That's the listening.
Is there a range of social?
Oh, that's the listening.
That's the listening.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But in the speaking, they're always equal.
Yeah, they're always equal.
There's no sort of one person's buying, one person's selling or anything like that.
That's very much actually like.
So what I'm thinking is you've been describing this particularly about the speaking is it sounds much more like the Cambridge exams, like first certificate?
And pet and cat than it does IELTS, because in those exams again, you're not the only student in the exam room, like the speaking is done between two people or even three people, and part of what you're tested on is your ability to sort of.
Ask, you know, elicit opinions from other people, ask questions, as you're saying.
So it is a kind of different skill set than what's tested in the real aisles, isn't it?
Yeah, I think it's a very good test for friendly, open people.
Right, so if you were introverted, you might struggle a little bit.
Yeah, I think it would be more difficult because I think probably it's marked on the like if you're the one that's just getting the questions and just giving answers, I think you need to be a bit more proactive.
So you need to be able to interrupt and say, what about you?
What do you think?
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Right.
Okay.
So then, all right.
So if somebody needs to sit the art skills test, I mean I don't know what your friend did, but are there preparation sites out there?
This is the thing.
I really don't think there is any way to prepare for this test.
I think you've either got it or you haven't got it, and i think it's the case.
I don't think there's really any topics that you can learn to pass this test like you can with ielts.
Like we always say, if you want to get better academic reading, then read some academics or read some articles online about these different topics.
Learn some new vocabulary.
You know, you can practice listening.
You can practice reading to prepare.
But with this, because it's kind of a bit random how everything sort of you know, they just give you here's three things that you need to talk about.
I don't really think there's any way that you can prepare for it.
I think probably the best way that you can prepare is just having a normal everyday conversation with people in English and maybe sort of forcing yourself to ask them questions, to interact, to elicit like you said, elicit information from them.
Yeah.
Like if you're talking about a film or what did you think of that guy?
What did you think of this actor?
What did you think of that bit?
Like that's the sort of thing probably that they're looking for in the life skills and then commenting on.
Like after someone's commented on it, you can comment again and say what you thought.
I think that's interesting.
I mean, my teacher brain is thinking okay, if I had a student doing the life skills, it sounds definitely number one.
The first thing I would make sure they can do is form questions.
The second thing I would get them to do is maybe like to be able to agree or disagree politely.
Maybe even interrupt if you've got a person who's like really talking a lot and you feel like you need to say something like politely interrupt.
Yeah.
But again, it's difficult, isn't it?
Because I mean the topics at the same time, the topics that I guess you know.
If it's a life skills thing, the topics are probably going to reflect what, what is taught in any elementary pre-intermediate, intermediate book.
If you think about what we're learning about in those books, it's about talking about home clothing hobbies sports, travel films.
That's where we really start, isn't it?
As English teachers.
So probably, I mean, as you said, If you've got that vocabulary, if you've studied, you know from an Oxford or a Cambridge textbook, and you've got that lexis, you probably don't need any specific course because you really can just talk about yourself.
That's it.
And everyday topics really.
Yeah.
Okay, so I guess my next question for you, I mean, we've probably already answered it then.
But if you were somebody like your friend, if you were somebody who had very strong English, you know, one of the strange thing about IELTS and the reason some students not go wrong but they struggle with IELTS is that they've got a really high level of English but they don't really understand that the usual IELTS test is testing your academic skills as much as your English.
So they sit the test and they don't actually have enough understanding of the test itself and what's needed to get a high score.
I don't think that's the same for the life skills.
It sounds like if you're strong, you could just sit the test and it would be okay.
Yeah, I think if you're like a 6, 6.57 at IELTS, I reckon you could do this with zero preparation.
Really?
You could just go in and do it.
Yeah, because I think, because it's a pass or fail, I think the threshold to be a fail is going to be like really simple grammar mistakes and yeah, it's going to be stuff like um, being too shy, for example, and not offering anything, and you know, for 20 minutes, 25 minutes, just sit and talk to someone you've never met, you never will meet again.
I don't think it's scary or difficult, to be honest, compared to ielts, at least.
Anyway Well, definitely sounds yes, much.
But I think what you said earlier about introverts might be true.
Maybe for some students who don't, who maybe have got a more passive understanding of English and don't get the chance to practice, maybe what would be good before the test, as you said, would just be.
You know, go and have some coffee with some friends and just talk about topics and practice asking questions.
Go to an English speaking club in your local city or town.
Do people still have them?
I don't know.
I bet you can find them online nowadays in english speaking club.
Surely they still were going in st piersburg when i was there.
They were still surviving.
There was like public ones.
There was ones.
There was ones in our school as well which i used to run occasionally.
So they're good.
They're definitely good places to meet people and chat about everyday things Yeah.
So one of my questions was, you know, where can we find the band descriptors?
But there won't be any band descriptors, I guess.
No, I don't think so.
For the life skills test.
Because they're not bands, really.
It's just pass or fail, isn't it?
Yeah.
So, you know, is the student able, I guess, basic communication.
I guess what you could probably look at the band five descriptors from IELTS and sort of.
Yeah.
Sort of use that, interpret that speaking, the speaking band descriptors.
Yeah.
So able to use it would be.
You know, for grammar it would be a mix of simple and complex sentences.
Makes some errors, but they don't stop with impede communication.
So yeah, there's a lot of flexibility there for students.
Okay, i mean, my question would be then you know if your friend needed to take this i just wonder, you know, is this a necessary test, do you think it?
Well yeah, i guess it is, and i think the reason why we've not really heard about it before and why we've not discussed it is because it's never really been needed by anybody in europe before, And I think that's why it's become more popular in Europe over the last year or two because of how the rules have changed after Brexit.
Right, so maybe Nick, just explain that then for students because some might not understand that.
I think I know what you're saying, but...
Well before, when the UK was in the European Union, it was possible to just come to England and get a job.
And if you got a job in three months and you could prove it, then you could stay.
That was it.
Right.
And now... Yes.
European citizens don't have that right anymore.
So they can come to the UK for three months with no visa.
They can't work.
Right. uh-huh legally um and then they have to go home or come back after another six months i think i think you're allowed three months on three months off so if you have if you have a spouse who's from a european country um for example spain denmark italy doesn't matter they do not have a right to live and work in the uk unless you get married and they get a spouse visa Uh-huh.
In which case they will need to do life skills to receive that visa, as far as I understand.
Right.
So it's just, it's basically part of the process now of getting a sort of permanent UK visa.
More like as a spouse, not as a place of work.
Yes.
Yeah.
Okay.
That makes total sense.
I just feel sad as you're speaking, because unfortunately we also now, as holders of British passports, can't go to Europe either and work, which is deep sadness.
Okay, well, I mean, I found that fascinating.
Now, at least I understand what the skills test is.
And I guess, you know, when people come to me and say, in the future, can you help me prepare?
I guess my answer is going to be, well, no, not really.
Apart from make sure you can ask questions.
Give simple opinions, agree or disagree with people.
But yeah, it just sounds like.
As long as you have got a B1 level of English, you know, take the test, because you're probably going to find it a quite pleasant 25 minutes.
Yeah.
And the good thing as well is it's cheaper than IELTS and it's a lot faster than IELTS.
I was going to ask that.
How much is it?
Do you know?
I don't know, but I know it's cheaper than IELTS.
Okay.
The only problem is it's not available in anywhere near as many places as IELTS.
Oh, so actually finding a test center might be more difficult.
Yeah, so that might be more difficult.
But I know they are popping up in Europe now.
Which makes sense from what you've said, right?
This is something which is going to be needed more and more, I guess.
Yeah.
Right.
So I will put a link on our website for the official, you know, IELTS life skills test page.
I think once I saw, I went there once and there was like a little guide that you can download.
So if you have got a partner who's sitting the test, you know that will show you exactly what's involved.
If you're sitting the test and reach this part of the podcast and understand everything, just put the test tomorrow.
I would say they'll be fine, won't they nick?
Yeah yeah, absolutely fine, no problem okay brilliant well, thanks for telling us all of that and thank your friend for being the uh, The canary in the coal mine.
The canary in the coal mine, exactly.
And yeah, fantastic.
All right.
So I think that's probably it for this week.
So just remember, if you want to take part in our Black Friday promotion, actually on Black Friday, the code is BLACK15.
And if not, we'll be back next week.
What are we going to talk about next week, Nick?
I don't know, we'll have to think of something.
We'll have to come up with something faster, won't we?
Yeah, I'm kind of obsessed with referencing at the minute.
Oh, I would like to do referencing.
Let's do referencing here.
An advanced referencing lesson, if I can use enough of my brain.
I've got my dad visiting for two days this week, so...
He might take a lot of my energy, but we'll see if I've got enough energy.
We'll do advanced referencing next week.
So yeah, take care until then.
Bye.
My IELTS Classroom Podcast is a production of My IELTS Classroom Limited.
Nick and I do not represent IELTS, and everything you heard in this episode is our own personal opinion.
Speaking Lessons and Marking Service you can find that at www.myiotsclassroom.com.
If you have a question or query or just want to chat, you can email Nick and I at hello at myiotsclassroomcom.
Our theme music is by Heartbeat and our artwork is produced by David Brown.
Have a great week.
Study hard.
And remember, this is my IELTS classroom.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next week.
