The English Program of Assumption College conducted a Mock IELTS exam for all of our EP-M6 students to help get them ready for the real IELTS exam. As a verb, to “mock” something means to make fun of it in a derogatory way. However, when used as an adjective in this case, it means the same as “practice test”. Taking a practice test for any subject tends to help tremendously, as you might expect, and we are hoping for the same benefit this time. After our students took the exam, our resident IELTS expert, Mr. Steven Raine, was able to predict the scores that students would get on the real exam. For 8 years now, the English Program of Assumption College has been using the IELTS examination for all of our M6 students as a measurement of their English abilities before graduation, and having this goal in mind has helped our students to for the highest goals possible in their English acquisition.

     The IELTS examination was organized by the British Council Language Institute. The purpose of this examination is for determining the overall level of students’ English abilities based on the 4 skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The exam is divided into two phases:  the Morning Phase is a written exam which takes about 2 hours and 30 minutes (Listening - 30 minutes, Reading - 60 minutes, and Writing - 60 minutes) and the Afternoon Phase is a face to face Speaking interview with a foreign teacher, which takes about 10-15 minutes. Our students are trained in advanced skills by teachers who have excellent resources, including top quality texts, and a special IELTS preparation room with computer programs to support the students' training in all 4 skills.