This is the 2nd part of my short story about me passing IELTS exam. I'm sorry for the delay between the 2 parts but it's not so interesting to write about this experience as I thought initially :). I believe everyone has experienced an energy surge when they finally did something right, but after a while it faded away. So, with the help of this post I'm wrapping up the promised article about my IELTS experience.

Let's not postpone it any longer and check the numbers. My goal was to get the following scores - Listening 8.0, Reading 7.0, Writing 7.0, Speaking 7.0 because in this case I'd have not only a good representation of my language skills, but an excellent chance to use them in immigration process as well. In total, I had 4 tries, each after about 6 months. Here are the scores:

1. Listening 8.0, Reading 8.5, Writing 6.5, Speaking 5.5 (Overall 7.0)
2. Listening 8.5, Reading 9.0, Writing 7.0, Speaking 6.5 (Overall 8.0) ↑
3. Listening 8.5, Reading 7.0, Writing 6.5, Speaking 6.5 (Overall 7.0) ↓
4. Listening 8.5, Reading 9.0, Writing 7.5, Speaking 7.0 (Overall 8.0) ↑

As one can see, they aren't so bad at all, especially if we take into account the fact that I didn't have any specific language classes prior that time. However, the 1st try has opened my eyes and let me understand my weak points. In my view, that was a necessary step to improve myself and to get to the final point. That's easy to conclude which skills you must train but it was rather helpful for me to get a push in the right direction by taking such a low score in Speaking 8).

The majority of the time during months between my attempts I spent practicing the writing and speaking skills. From my point of view, that's not the best way to achieve the necessary result in a case of emergency, but it was a comfortable timing for me. I had enough time to work, to get together with my friends, family and to improve the weakest spots in English.

After the 2nd attempt I was almost there, but failed the speaking test again. On the other hand, I slightly improved all scores and, what was the most soothing thing for me, I got a whole additional point in Speaking. I was upset but, nevertheless, ready to battle becase the scores raised and it let me think of near success.

The 3rd try was a harsh punch to me. Being ready to finally pass the test, I got a little depressed after receiving such a non-promising score. Speaking stuck on the same level, Writing floated under the line while for the reading test, my worshiped passion, I got 2 points less then previously. It was unmitigated disaster. The only thing which comforted me at that time was understanding that the current score wasn't worse than my initial numbers.

The last shot was lucky to me. Finally, I was able not only to preserve the improvements in Listening and Reading, but at the same time to get even more points in Writing and necessary score in Speaking. Besides, the last test I tried to pass in a computer form. I believe this has helped me a little, because as a developer I'm used to work with computer interfaces. This might be a good choice for anyone who fells themselves more comfortable with keyboard than with pen and paper.

To conclude, by this short sequence of 2 posts I want to inspire all people who are trying to get their scores in IETLS. Unfortunately, improvements cost a lot of resources, especially if you target high enough. In some cases the results might be even worse then the previous ones. Be consistent and follow your goals.