——Patrick Chen

    自從11月考完雅思，就一直想寫點東西的，但是一直被繁忙的教學工作占著我的時間。我是山東大學學術交流中心的雅思老師。在事先沒有任何準備的情況下，我很榮幸在今年11月23日的濟南雅思考試中考了8.5分，聽力，閱讀，寫作，和口語分別是9，8.5，7，9，不過我覺得雅思考官故意不讓我得滿分，因為我的作文竟然只得了7分，但是絕對最少應該8分的啊，真是郁悶，可惜啊，本來以為能拿9分的，但是后來聽考官朋友說，這已經是中國雅思考區的最高分了，^_^。不過聽說，鬼子是故意不讓人得9分的，不知道是否是真的。我寫這篇文章的目的有兩個。首先，我想消除一些大家關于雅思考試的誤解。其次，作為一個教授雅思的老師，幫助學生得到一個反映他們真實水平的成績也是我的愿望。

   我將重點放在口語部分，因為他們最大的困惑似乎是在于這里。好多人認為這是一種讓你show英語口才的考試。這是不正確的。如果在考試中，你說“Hello",就已經足夠憑此給你一個分數了。當然，這種考試是測試考生的英語應用能力的。這也意味著如果你想獲得高分，交流是關鍵。僅僅記住一堆長句子是沒用的。同樣的，用一些深奧無比的術語，以此希望讓考官敬畏你也是沒有什么用處的。我經常用下面這個例子來向我的學生闡明我的觀點。想象你身在英國，你正在沿街走進一幢建筑物，想著自己的事情，突然有人大喊：“別進去，那里有炸彈”。如果你不明白，你有兩個選擇，第一，你可以說“What do you mean？”或者你可以繼續走，向那個家伙揮揮手，滑稽的笑著說“Good morning and have a nice day”

誠實的說，雅思考試真的不難。考試的目的是測試你是否擁有在英語國家生存的基本語言能力。但實際中，學生們好像不得不隱藏他們的英語語言上的不足。所以，我想說，考官知道你不是native speaker,但是他們不會介意。他們想知道你是否有足夠的英語能力應付你在現實中可能遇到的情況。并且同樣重要的是，在這種情況下，你知道該怎樣做。這對于獲得一個好的分數是非常必要的。

最后，我祝愿所有要參加雅思考試的考生好運！！

My purpose in writing this article is twofold. Firstly, I want to dispel certain misconceptions with regard to the IELTS examination.  Secondly, as both a
native speaker of English and an IELTS lecturer, it is my hope to be able to aid students in attaining good scores that truly reflect their English abilities.

I will focus on the Speaking section because the greatest amount of bewilderment seems to lie here.  It is commonly thought that the test is one of English speaking.  This is not true.  If you say "Hello" in the exam, it will be sufficient to give you a band score.  Rather, you are being tested for English usage.  What this means is that in order to obtain a high score, communication is the key.  It is not helpful to memorize and regurgitate lengthy speeches.  Nor is it any good to make use of esoteric nomenclature in the hopes of putting the examiner in awe.

A simple anecdote that I always tell my students to illustrate my point is as follows.  Imagine yourself in England.  You are walking down the street into a building, minding your own business, when out of nowhere, someone screams, "Don't go in there, there's a bomb!"; Well, if you do not understand, you have two options open to you.  First, you could reply, "What do you mean?" Or you could continue walking, raise a hand to wave at the person while wearing a comical smile and saying, "Good morning and have a nice day."

Honestly speaking, the IELTS is really that simple.  The purpose of the exam is to see if you have the basic language skills needed to survive in an English speaking country.  Students seem to think that they have to disguise their deficiencies in English.  So let me make this pronouncement.  We know that you are not native speakers.  We know that you don't always understand every word in the English lexicon.  But we don't care.  We want to know if you speak enough English to cope with the situations you will face.  And equally important, that you demonstrate you know what to do in situations where you do not.  This first realization is necessary towards attaining a good score. 

With that, I wish all students who wish to take the IELTS exam the very best of luck.