Welcome to My IELTS Classroom, the podcast where two English experts talk all things IELTS.
I'm Shelley Connick.
And I'm Nick Long.
And today we are discussing the new IELTS OneSkill Retake.
What is the OneSkill Retake?
Does it really exist?
And when will you be able to take advantage of this new IELTS feature?
Good afternoon, Nick.
How are you?
Good afternoon.
Good.
Thank you very much.
How are you?
I am very well, actually.
I took delivery on Friday Nick of the final piece of furniture in my flat, which was a six to eight person table.
Excellent.
Not seven, but six to eight.
And in celebration, I invited some friends over last night and we played a rummy cup tournament, which was very enjoyable.
Who was the victor?
Well, frustratingly, it was a draw between me and a nice Chinese friend I've got called Jill.
We both won two games each.
That said, Jill had never played before last night.
So I think she probably deserves the medal.
Well, maybe the real winner was Friendship, friendship or my teaching skills, because I taught her to play so well.
She was then able to immediately beat me um.
So yeah, that was good.
How was your weekend?
Um, Not that exciting, to be honest.
No.
I did make a homemade pizza yesterday, though, which was good.
Your pizzas are famous.
What was the topping?
I did one for me, which was pepperoni, chili, and goat's cheese.
Absolutely phenomenal.
Oh, nice.
And one for my girlfriend, which was a bit strange.
Yeah.
Bechamel base.
Right.
So white base.
Olives, broccoli and cauliflower with also also with a bit of goat's cheese as well.
It's almost like a roast dinner on a pizza with no meat.
I wanted to put pesto on it, but we didn't have any and I forgot to buy some.
It's actually really good, these white base pizzas with pesto and vegetables.
They're pretty tasty, actually.
Are they?
I've never had one.
Yeah.
Okay, I'm thinking about getting a pizza oven for my outdoor space.
I also did this weekend was I'm going to have a Christmas party at the beginning of December.
And I saw an advert.
So it was doing a special offer on renting hot tubs.
So I rented a hot tub for my back garden.
You can only do it for a week in December for my Christmas party.
Excellent.
And the minute I put that on the WhatsApp invitation group, suddenly a lot more people were interested in coming.
How big is it?
That's the other thing.
I think it fits six people.
Excellent.
Yeah, but there's some problems.
They've got to carry it through the house.
I had to get one of the smaller ones.
But anyway, it's only a bit of fun.
So that's definitely something to look forward to as the weather draws in.
The clocks changed, didn't they?
So it's a bit darker.
Yep, it was fantastic.
I got eight hours sleep on Saturday night.
Oh, well done, Nick.
Well done.
Excellent.
Okay, so today's episode.
To be honest, I've surprised Nick because we had planned to do a lesson about the new topics in Speaking Part 2.
Mm-hmm.
We will be doing that for sure next week.
But something happened this week which well, I don't think we could possibly ignore the news that came out of aisles this week.
So, before we start talking about the OneSkill retake, I thought Nick, we'd have a little chat about things which historically have annoyed IELTS test takers.
Okay.
So if you've been an IELTS teacher for a long time, you will know that there are certain things about the IELTS exam that have always made test takers not sure what to use.
Annoyed, aggravated, maybe even angry.
Perturbed.
Perturbed, nice word.
So I mean, if we're looking back five years, for example, I know at one stage a lot of test takers were really mad that they were forced in the IELTS exam to write, you know, with a paper and pen.
Particularly in the writing test, because not many of us actually ever sit down, do we anymore?
No, not really.
300 words.
Unfortunately, you know, maybe a shopping list is the most we do.
And to be fair to IELTS, they responded to that, didn't they?
And they introduced the computer-based test.
They did, yeah.
And for a while, that seemed kind of a novelty and not that many people were taking it.
But I would say now, if we look at our students... It's pretty much the standard, isn't it now?
It really is.
I would say 75, 80% of students are now sitting the computer-based test, which is understandable.
You get your results quicker.
And just for most people, you know, maybe not people my age, but the majority of IELTS test takers, I guess, are in their 20s and 30s.
People just don't write with a pen and paper anymore, do they?
Or read paper-based books.
It's mostly reading on screen.
So I guess the computer-based test suits everyone.
So that's kind of a good example of the way that IELTS have listen to test takers and reacted.
Um, i mean, what's the main complaint that students often have?
I think the main one that's plagued us for the last five to ten years is always the lack of transparency with writing and speaking.
So you get your 65, you need a seven.
You don't know why you got a 65.
You don't know what to work on, what to improve.
Yeah,
And I think that lack of transparency is what led to many of the conspiracy theories, right?
That, you know, exam centres were doing everything they could to keep students at 6.5, which...
If you go back to our fifth episode, that's like three years ago when Nick and I discussed, you know that just is definitely not the case.
But it's understandable when test takers can't see what's happening.
Now, IELTS don't officially.
They still don't officially publish people's individual scores for each of the bands.
However, long term, listeners will know that we've managed to find a kind of loophole for this, which is based on privacy laws which have been introduced in Europe.
So any company who holds information about you has to give you that information if requested.
So if you have got a 65 or whatever your score is, and you don't think that score is high enough um, You can apply for a breakdown of results.
It's completely free.
Go to our website.
Look on the blog, blog.myioxclassroom.com.
Click on writing.
I think it's in writing and general information, actually.
And, if you find we've got the blog post, there's a podcast where Nick and I explain in a lot more detail about this breakdown, but there's also just a copy and paste email that you can send to your test centre and if you do that, they have to, by law, send you the breakdown.
Quite interesting, Nick.
Actually One of our students got a six for writing recently, which was a real shock because this was a student who I was expecting to get a minimum of a seven.
She emailed me this morning with her breakdown and she got all sevens for task one.
She was an academic student.
And for the essay, she got a four for task response.
Wow.
Now, this is an intelligent lady, right?
So I immediately emailed her and said can you please remember as accurately as possible what your essay question was and what your ideas were?
She came back.
Her essay question was about antisocial behavior.
And she had interpreted antisocial behavior to mean people don't like to spend time with their friends.
Oh, dear.
Right.
What does antisocial behavior actually mean?
It's like criminal behavior kind of, isn't it?
It's criminal behavior.
It's like graffiti, vandalism, I don't know, talking loudly and disturbing your neighbors.
Yeah.
So I guess four is because she was off topic completely.
Completely off topic.
Now I would say that you know, that's a great example of where a student may think my goodness, my writing is really not very good.
I only got six.
Whereas actually that student knows exactly what they're doing.
They just had to be honest.
I'm surprised they didn't give an example of what antisocial behavior was in the question.
Yes.
Because I think that would be quite an easy mistake to make.
It's a very British expression, isn't it?
Antisocial behavior.
Right, exactly.
So in that situation, I mean I hate to say it, but I would say basically that's terrible terrible, terrible luck.
You've done nothing wrong as such, apart from just misunderstand the meaning of antisocial, and there's probably no need to spend.
Normally we say to improve a full band, you're going to need 200 hours of study.
There's no need for her to do 200 hours.
She just needs to go back and take a test that has a much clearer question and make sure she addresses it.
But that just goes to show how useful the breakdown of results can be.
So as I said, unfortunately...
You can't just ask IELTS for that or they don't willingly give you that, but we can now get that using this GDPR loophole.
Which leaves, I think Nick, the one thing.
I would say the final thing, and I do think that the lack of transparency is probably the main complaint students have.
But I would say closely on its heels, hot behind as.
Number two is when students take the test and they get the scores they need in three of the sections.
And there's just one where they miss out, usually by 0.5.
And then there's the frustration that students have to take the whole test again, all four modules, rather than being able to just retake the one skill where they were missing.
So guess what, Nick?
Yeah.
What?
Last Thursday I woke up in the morning to an email from one of our students in China who are obviously living in the future, seven hours ahead of us to say have you seen this announcement by IDP Australia today?
And when I clicked on the link that they'd given me, there was a whole new page on the IDP website introducing, it said, a new test called the IELTS One Skill Retake.
Now, when I got there, There was just a single sentence on that page.
All right, so I'll read this sentence.
It said, IELTS are launching one skill retake with availability initially in eligible Australian test centres only.
More information will be available soon, so keep an eye on our website for more.
That's all it said.
But based on that, Nick, what do you think one skill retake would be?
Well, it sounds to me like you're allowed to retake a part of the exam.
Listening, speaking, reading, writing, whatever you didn't quite get the score you need.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So that was all that was there.
So I taught and I was teaching a lesson later in the day and we've got a student in Australia.
So I said to him, oh, Luanne, you might be able to...
And he said, yeah, it's really strange.
When I went to that page earlier today, there was a lot of information on there.
But now there's only a single sentence.
However, because IELTS test takers are the most resourceful people on the planet.
He had been able to find the original message because some students had taken a screenshot.
So we actually have that original message here.
So do you want to read this for us, Nick?
So it says IELTS to introduce one skill retake, giving test takers a second opportunity to demonstrate their full potential.
Test takers of the world's most popular high stakes language test IELTS, will soon have access to a new feature to help them boost the score they need to achieve their global learning and career goals.
Expected to be available in November at limited IDP IELTS centres in Australian capital cities.
One skill retake will allow test takers to retake one section of the four skills listening reading, writing and speaking in the English test if they did not achieve the score they aimed for the first time around.
Warwick Freeland, Managing Director at IELTS IDP Education, said one skill retake had been introduced after listening to test take of feedback.
Mr Freeland said that with the right preparation and support, we know our test takers achieve the best score the first time round.
However, we listened to our test takers and they told us they wanted the opportunity to retake one section of the test if they didn't get the score they were aspiring for on test day.
With one skill retake, test takers can get their study, migration or work applications back on track.
In its first launch phase.
The test takers who choose a one skill retake will receive a second form that can be used for migrations and study purposes by the Australian Department of Home Affairs.
Mr Freeland said that OneSkill Retake demonstrates IELTS' commitment to customers achieving their best scores and supporting organizations to attract the right candidate.
When it is launched, organizations will be able to offer their candidates the flexibility to achieve entry requirements without compromising on applicant quality.
One skill retake will be initially introduced in Australia in November.
More information will be available in early November.
Okay, so there's a lot of information there.
Well, there's a lot of words.
I'm not sure there's a lot of information.
But Nick, what's your first initial thoughts on this new IELTS venture?
Not sure, to be honest, if I'm a big fan of it.
Okay, interesting.
Why?
Because... I'm not...
If it's, I mean, the test is the test, isn't it?
It's the full test.
And I would say that if someone did get I mean, I genuinely believe that whatever somebody gets in IELTS is what they deserve.
And we had a great example at the beginning. of somebody who didn't fully understand the question.
Unfortunately, that means that their level of English is not the level that maybe it needs to be.
And I think...
It's maybe a little bit.
I don't know if it's right that somebody has really great skills in reading and listening, for example, and their speaking is fine, but their writing is not great.
That they can just take the writing section again and again until they get the score that they need.
Where they get a question, maybe that they are more familiar with, rather than it being completely and utterly random.
Yes.
And they're just, I mean, because it's the luck of the draw on every part.
And the only way that you're going to be successful is if you have the highest possible level of English.
Right.
So I think what you've just said there raises a number of questions.
And I don't have the answer to these questions, actually.
But I think that the idea is kind of.
I kind of like the idea, but I think it depends on how the idea is going to be applied.
Implemented, yeah.
Yeah, because I guess one thing we don't know you know it's, I think in the letter you read out.
It says quite a few times it gives test takers a second chance.
Yes.
So if it's one time, then it's kind of different, I think.
Well, exactly.
So I would say, if you took one full test and then for each full test you were able to take one test, single retake, one single retake, that would maybe feel okay to me.
What I'm worried about yeah, what I'm worried about is that You're going to get students who are just going to like, as you said, just book, you know, if you've got a test center offering computer-based tests, just literally a writing test a day.
Until they get the score they need.
Yeah, until they may be.
Oh, there's a great English word jag, which is when you're very lucky in a situation.
But when they finally jag a question, I don't know, that may coincide with their study topic or a hobby or something where they just happen to have a great set of topic-specific vocabulary or something like that.
And I also think it could play into the very worst aspects of IELTS, where students, I think, are already taking tests too often.
Yep.
We've got students who have taken the test 10 times, 11 times before they come to us.
And then, once they start training, they realize they were taking the test and they didn't know what they were doing.
I worry that this could just encourage that more if they're able to take the test again and again and again.
Tricky situation.
But i think that's right.
I think yeah.
If it is the case that um, they can do it once, one section once, then it's not i mean you.
There are times that you just can have a complete disaster, Like the student at the beginning.
I would suggest right.
Who had never made that mistake in addressing the question before.
Maybe in that situation, it would work out quite well.
I also quite like the idea that...
Because what can sometimes happen is a student will sit the test and they'll miss out on writing.
And then they'll sit the test again and they'll hit their writing score, but this time in another one.
And that's where sometimes the test starts to feel unfair.
And this would avoid that, I guess.
Yes.
I was going to say that there is a kind of a bit of precedent for this, I guess, isn't there?
Because we've had the situation in the UK with the nurses where they can combine two tests.
Right.
Now, that's interesting you brought that up, because that was something I was thinking about.
Rather than having this one skill retake, why wouldn't organisations, you know, instead of accepting the retake, why wouldn't organisations start accepting two combined certificates?
Rather than inventing this whole new...
I mean, that to me would be a neater solution, I think.
I agree.
Yeah.
I think that would be better.
I don't know what it's going to cost as well.
Maybe it's a cheaper option, for example.
Well, that is another good thing.
So, you know, you will assume it will not cost a quarter of... It won't cost a quarter.
No way.
No.
I reckon it's probably going to cost half.
Yeah.
So if you're paying $200 for a full test, I reckon they'll probably charge you, for example, $100.
To do the retake.
But again, for many students, that could be a godsend, right?
To be able to do that for half the cost.
But yeah, I mean, the other thing is that which just came to mind when you were talking a moment ago is that the main thing for any language test is that it remains valid.
Essentially,
That the test is not compromised in any way, that there's no way around it.
The only thing I'm thinking is that part of being able to get your IELTS scores is having the stamina to be able to take all of those tests on one day.
That's true.
A lot of students talk about how tired they are when they get to the writing.
And again, another IELTS initiative very, very recently has been to move the writing test to the beginning.
Now, I don't know if that's actually happening anywhere outside of India.
And if anyone out there has taken the test in a different country and has started with writing.
I'd really appreciate it if you could write and tell us.
Because I've lost track of that one a little bit.
But that was another way where they were sort of trying to change things based on feedback.
But it would seem much easier just to go in and sit one of the tests, wouldn't it?
Than having to do that as part of three tests over the whole morning.
Which may affect...
Do you know what I mean?
It may give people a higher score than they would have usually got.
It's true.
Writing at the end is really tough, I think.
So I think that's sensible to move it to the beginning, just get it out of the way.
Yeah, I do.
So, right.
So, I mean, I think there were just lots of questions.
So as Nixon, I think the first one is how many times can you take this one skill retake?
Is it just unlimited?
Is it going to be one for one test?
That is definitely not there.
How much it's going to cost?
That's the next thing.
Obviously, they've reiterated in this email two or three times that this initiative is going to start only in Australia and only in Australian capital cities.
So I'm guessing what, that must be the capitals of the different states, I'm guessing.
So it'd be like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, not at rural test centers.
So it's only going to be at the major test centers.
Now the interesting thing is is it says there, the test takers who choose a one-school retake will receive a second form that can be used for migration and study purposes by the Australian Department of Home Affairs.
Mm-hmm.
But what it doesn't say though, is who else is going to accept this second certificate if you're migrating to Canada?
Is Canada going to accept?
Mm-hmm.
A one skill retake.
If you are applying for PLAB as a doctor, will you know medical organizations or the NHS foundation?
Are they going to accept?
This one skill retake, maybe some institutions will, some institutions won't.
You know, as you said Nick, I think your example of the nurses is a really good example where the nursing organization realized we're not getting enough nurses.
Let's allow people to combine.
Mm-hmm.
They did that.
I'm guessing they're part of the GMC, like the General Medical Council in England, but the doctors have not allowed that.
So again, I think it's going to depend.
It might be targeted basically to certain areas that need certain things possibly then.
Yeah.
And some may choose to accept, some may choose not to accept.
That's something that is just definitely not clear from here.
And also...
You know, it's starting in November in these Australian capital cities.
I mean, Nick, you and I did an episode.
Where are we now?
November 22, is it?
We did an episode back in I don't know when it was September October, somewhere in 2021 about the launch of the new IELTS online test.
We did, which was when IELTS announced.
You know there's going to be this new version of IELTS, which will be taken by test takers in their homes on their home computers.
Um, That was apparently coming in early 2022 and I haven't heard anything about that since.
Well, it seems like some things are happening from what I've heard in some countries.
Really?
Definitely not everywhere.
Yeah.
And is that people just taking the whole test on a computer?
Yeah, I don't know if that means it's online or if it's in a center as well.
Yeah.
Actually, I'd forgot about the home element, but...
Right, because there was that indicator test they introduced during lockdown which, from what I heard, was a bit of a disaster because, although they said it was uncheatable, it sounded like it was very cheatable.
So I don't know.
I mean, once you read...
I mean, this looks like it could be something that rolls out more quickly because it is based in test centers.
And I guess it requires no extra technology.
You've just got some students coming in for just one of the exams, not all of the exams.
So this does seem to me something which if it.
If it works, I don't know what the criteria would be for working.
But if it works and everybody's happy that the results are fair, I do think this is something which could get rolled out relatively quickly compared to IELTS online.
Definitely.
Do you think?
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
So I guess the only other thing to think about is you know, every time IELTS makes a change, I often think okay, why are they making that change?
Why do you think IELTS might be doing this now, Nick?
It's impossible to say, isn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's really, I really don't know.
I would say maybe this is from the way that that message is written.
I'm not sure if this is an IELTS initiative and maybe it's more of an Australian government initiative.
Interesting.
That's what it seems like to me, just based on the wording of that message.
Yes.
And that it's not going to come potentially to any other countries anytime soon.
Mm-hmm.
I wonder if there are issues with migration to Australia that maybe they're not getting enough people applying that they want or need?
And they're just trying to find a way of sort of speeding up the process rather than getting people to pay again.
And you know try and do the test again later that they're giving them this kind of second chance opportunity.
God Nick, I tell you what you should be a detective, because I think what you've just hit on something again there, because it's interesting, isn't it?
As you know most people.
Maybe you don't know, but well, you know Nick, I'm talking to the listeners.
But maybe you don't know that IELTS is sort of like a cooperation between three bodies.
So you've got Cambridge who write the actual tests and then you've got IDP.
This is who announced this who are like, administer or run half the test centers from Australia, and then you've also got the British Council, who run the other half of the test centers from the UK.
Now it's interesting that this was only announced on the IDP website right, Which would lead or lend to what you've just said sort of lend evidence to the fact maybe, that this is coming from the Australian government.
However, the fact that the message appeared and then disappeared maybe Mr Freeland just pressed publish too early and everybody in the British Council was like what's his name?
Martin.
Martin, what are you doing?
Mean, Martin Warwick Warwick, that's it.
Martin Freeland, I think, is the actor who plays the Hobbit, but anyway, Warwick Warwick's gone home that day and his wife's been like oh, was it a good day at work.
No.
Maybe Warwick's just gone too quickly with this information.
But I do think it's kind of interesting that it's only coming from IDP.
So, you know, I felt like it was our duty to inform our listeners that this is something which is potentially happening.
But I would say for most people listening to this podcast I know we do have a lot of teachers who listen but for most students this is probably unless you're actually in Australia at the moment And you're applying for residency in Australia.
This is not something which will probably be up and running in time for people listening and their tests to take advantage of.
Yeah.
But if it's done well and I think Nick, you've raised a great point there as long as students can't just take it again, take it again week upon week if it's done well, this could be a step forward and could help, I think, students avoid having to pay a lot of money to take all the parts of the test again.
So I think it is a move in the right direction, but like everything...
I guess the proof is in the pudding, isn't it?
We're going to have to wait and see what comes next.
So, yeah.
So I don't know if anybody out there listening has heard about the OneSkill retake.
If you've got more information than we could find online, what do you think?
Is this something you would consider taking if you missed out in one area?
Yeah.
Yeah, just send us an email at shelley at myiotsclassroom.com.
We always like to listen to what people think.
You got anything else to say on this, Nick?
No, I don't think so.
I think we discussed it fairly thoroughly, didn't we?
Yeah.
I think hopefully everybody knows what this is.
Yeah.
I mean...
It's always kind of exciting when something new appears, but I'm always very nervous at the same time.
So only time will tell.
So yes, I'm sorry if you tuned in this week because you wanted to find out what the new Listening Part 2 speaking topics are.
But the good news is you can find out next week.
Until then, have a lovely week.
Take care.
Bye-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.
You can find the show notes and transcript for this episode on our blog.
That's blog.myiosclassroom.com.
And if you're looking for our video courses, speaking lessons and marking service, You can find that at wwwmyiotsclassroomcom.
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