Is IELTS costly exam?

Is it good to re-appear for the IELTS exam to score band 7 in each module?

• Is it good to reappear in IELTS exam to get 7 band in each? I  get many candidates on daily basis who as have appeared many times to  get their desired band which is 7 for most and 8 for least but they do  not get it. They ask me if they should appear again and if it would help  them get desired score. I always recommend to improve weak areas before  they book any exam which could be done in certain ways.   You  could search for website which offers free essay marking. It will help  you identify weak areas in your writing .Carry plenty practice and  improve them, if website gives comments , mark them and work on them. Second  approach is to hire a tutor who is experienced in IELTS marking scheme  specially writing. As i discussed earlier in my posts that getting 7  band requires good "TR and CC" skills which candidates normally don't  understand. Let me give you good example of a candidate who got 7.5 band  recently in Australia. He gave IELTS test more than 4 times and got 6.0  or 6.5 maximum and he got worried. He approached me online and took  classes  in which i worked on his "Task Response " and "Cohesion and  Coherence". I made him write essay on first day in which  i identified  his weak areas and helped him improve them. I asked him to write second  essay without previous mistakes, he then produced essay with less  mistakes which were not related to previous. Anyways further 3 classes  improved his all weak areas.That doesn't mean he didn't  make mistakes.  He had some grammatical and other problems.I simply worked on areas  which could improve his band score. Third approach will be doing  self preparation which is effective if your English is very good and you  are aware of marking scheme of writing module. As it is a bit technical  and time consuming to understand what exactly examiner checks to give  certain band score for each criteria. If you think you have understood  it by going through examiner comments or other sources by internet then  go for it yourself. But keep in mind that majority of people are not  able to help themselves. So be wise and see which of above  suggestions suit you. Go for it and improve you band than just thinking  and taking wrong directions which will waste your time and money. By Mohammad Alam IELTSExpert

• Answer:

  Too many people see the IELTS examination as a lottery whereas it is actually a fairly reliable and consistent measure of a person's language ability.   If your overall result is a 5.5 one day it should be a 5.5 on any other day too unless you go away and improve your language comprehension and production skills. It's like weighing yourself every day to lose weight - nothing will happen unless you do something to improve the result.