CAEL, TOEFL, and IELTS: A Game of Knowing Yourself and Your Test.
CAEL, TOEFL, and IELTS: A game of knowing your self and your test.
To many of us, chosing which English test -like CAEL, IESLTS, and TOEFL- to do is a game of a hard choice. We hear a lot from many of our friends and classmates about which is the best or easiest of them all. But we don't know know for sure ourselves.
From the time I spent practicing and taking prepartion courses for all them, I believe I can give few points of advice that might help you chose the suitable test.
First you have to understand that doing any of these test is all about your PERSONAL ABILITIES and the test AVAILABLE OPTIONS.
Your personal abilities are things like; you prefare reading from a paper or from a PC screen, you are comfortable with typing on a keyboard or writing using a pen on papaer, and you are faimiliar with northern American accents or British ones. Another thing that you can also think of is, you like to talk to people directly or using microphones r talking to a machine.
The options the tests provide can be very different or very smiliar. For example, CAEL and TOEFL offer computer-based speaking tests. CAEL and IELTS provide paper-based writing, listning, and reading tests. Both CAEL and TOEFL listening is in a north American accent, while IELTS is in a British one.
The trick to chose which test is as follows.
If you are person who is comfortable with using a computer to type with a high speed and few mistakes, then taking TOEFL would be wise choice. If you aren't, and you are more comfortable with writing using a pen on paper then thinking about taking CAEL or IELTS may be the best choice you can make.
If you enjoy watching movies from Hollywood and TV shows from north America, then, taking a CAEL or TOEFL will be better for you because both use a north American accent. Unless you enjoy watching shows from the BBC channel then IELTS will not be a challenge for you.
Do you find it easy to do more than 2 things at the same time? like listning, reading and writing answers to questions on a paper. Both CAEL and IELTS provide listening tests that focuses on listening and answering short answer questions as you hear to a talk or a lecture. If not, and you think taking notes first and then listening to questions and selecting answers from them, then you might want to give TOEFL a try.
MCQs or multiple choice questions can be tricky and misleading and if you are having difficulties with them then you should avoid doing an iBT TOEFL and do a CAEL or IELTS for they rely more on short answer questions, fill in blanks, and with very few multiple choice questions.
Some people feel very relaxed when they talk to other people face to face, if you are one of them then doing an IELTS will be very smooth for you because you will be talking to an examiner. If you are used to voice chatting over the internet with friends or family, then doing a speaking test in CAEL or TOEFL will be normal and won't be a challenge.
I understand that we are not perfect and we might like to do things using computers and other ones on paper. However,Your choice can be made easy if you only can sit with your self and undrestand your abilities and then match them with the options given by the tests to decide which test to do.
By IQ
To many of us, chosing which English test -like CAEL, IESLTS, and TOEFL- to do is a game of a hard choice. We hear a lot from many of our friends and classmates about which is the best or easiest of them all. But we don't know know for sure ourselves.
From the time I spent practicing and taking prepartion courses for all them, I believe I can give few points of advice that might help you chose the suitable test.
First you have to understand that doing any of these test is all about your PERSONAL ABILITIES and the test AVAILABLE OPTIONS.
Your personal abilities are things like; you prefare reading from a paper or from a PC screen, you are comfortable with typing on a keyboard or writing using a pen on papaer, and you are faimiliar with northern American accents or British ones. Another thing that you can also think of is, you like to talk to people directly or using microphones r talking to a machine.
The options the tests provide can be very different or very smiliar. For example, CAEL and TOEFL offer computer-based speaking tests. CAEL and IELTS provide paper-based writing, listning, and reading tests. Both CAEL and TOEFL listening is in a north American accent, while IELTS is in a British one.
The trick to chose which test is as follows.
If you are person who is comfortable with using a computer to type with a high speed and few mistakes, then taking TOEFL would be wise choice. If you aren't, and you are more comfortable with writing using a pen on paper then thinking about taking CAEL or IELTS may be the best choice you can make.
If you enjoy watching movies from Hollywood and TV shows from north America, then, taking a CAEL or TOEFL will be better for you because both use a north American accent. Unless you enjoy watching shows from the BBC channel then IELTS will not be a challenge for you.
Do you find it easy to do more than 2 things at the same time? like listning, reading and writing answers to questions on a paper. Both CAEL and IELTS provide listening tests that focuses on listening and answering short answer questions as you hear to a talk or a lecture. If not, and you think taking notes first and then listening to questions and selecting answers from them, then you might want to give TOEFL a try.
MCQs or multiple choice questions can be tricky and misleading and if you are having difficulties with them then you should avoid doing an iBT TOEFL and do a CAEL or IELTS for they rely more on short answer questions, fill in blanks, and with very few multiple choice questions.
Some people feel very relaxed when they talk to other people face to face, if you are one of them then doing an IELTS will be very smooth for you because you will be talking to an examiner. If you are used to voice chatting over the internet with friends or family, then doing a speaking test in CAEL or TOEFL will be normal and won't be a challenge.
I understand that we are not perfect and we might like to do things using computers and other ones on paper. However,Your choice can be made easy if you only can sit with your self and undrestand your abilities and then match them with the options given by the tests to decide which test to do.
By IQ