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Assessing a Beginner IELTS Student

by Blurrybob
(Uzbekistan)

Hello IELTS buddies!

I'm an amateur IELTS instructor. I'm new here and I've got a question but not I'm not sure if it's the right place. Anyways my question is:

If I have a beginner student who must start from the very beginning (the alphabet, mother, father, sister, brother etc.) how many months should s/he study in order to get 5.5 overall?

Assuming s/he will study 25 hours a week. I need opinions from as many people as possible so feel free to throw your two cents even if you see an adequate answer.

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Apr 29, 2022
 Assessing a Beginner IELTS Student
by: IELTS buddy

It's really difficult to answer that question as everybody's situation varies so much.

Some students are faster learners than others, how good is the IELTS/English tutor, how much time do they have (though I know you said 25 hours per week).

If they are so new to English though that they don't even know the alphabet or basic words like 'mother' that suggests they may be down as low as a band 1 or 2 currently, which is knowing very little English or practically nothing.

If that is the case you'd likely be talking about few years to get up to a band 5.5 unless they were brilliant at picking up new languages. Learning a language takes many years as you'll know.

In order to assess a beginner IELTS students, you may be best to try and get a rough idea of what their band score is now. Get them to take a full reading and listening test under timed conditions (there is a band score calculator on this site to covert the raw scores to band scores).

There are places online to get writing assessed if you are not able to judge it yet. Speaking is a bit more tricky though there are places to do an online test.

If it turns out they are perhaps a band 4 or 4.5 and are a quick leaner with lots of time then it's more realistic to think they could maybe get to a 5.5 in 6 months.

If they are in the 1-3 range though it's going to be much longer and it's probably not even worth leaning IELTS. They may as well do general English training.
Apr 29, 2022
 Time is no problem
by: Blurrybob

Why I want to know about it is that our government is asking candidates to national universities the IELTS band score 5.5+ so that they'll get the maximum score from the local English exam and get free from taking it. Is it realistic to promise a very beginner student 5.5+ in two years? Provided, of course, they'll work hard during these two years.
May 02, 2022
 Assessing a Beginner IELTS Student
by: IELTS buddy

I don't understand what you're asking. This part is confusing:

"Why I want to know about it is that our government is asking candidates to national universities the IELTS band score 5.5+ so that they'll get the maximum score from the local English exam and get free from taking it."

A complete beginner probably can't be promised 5.5+ in two years.

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