5. IELTS Experience

My spouse and I gave the IELTS exam and would like to share few words about our experience of the process.

Booking

Available slots and locations may be accessed through IELTS US site.  As part of the online registration process, applicants must upload a copy of their government issued ID (a passport) before they may be allowed to book a slot.  After you've registered, IELTS may take a few days to verify copy of your ID before they approve your registration.  With approval notice, you receive links to one practice test on their official site.  You may pay extra for additional practice tests.   

To be accurate, you book a slot for the writing piece of the test (Listening, Writing, Reading Sections), based on which you're assigned a slot for Speaking test by the agency.  It is natural the agency attempts to avoid having the applicant make two trips to test location - but they leave open the possibility of you being given a slot for Speaking section a day before the rest of the test.   You will get to know your Speaking section appointment a few days before the slot you booked for rest of the test.

Day of Test

You are asked to check-in all valuables / belongings other than a water bottle if there is no label on it (staff actually took off the label for one of the applicants who came with a water bottle).   Your passport is checked and a sticker with your candidate number is pasted to its back.  

IELTS in USA is paper-based, with no exception at the time of drafting of this post.  Written piece - Writing, Listening, and Reading sections - is taken in one shot, consecutively without any official break.   You are assigned a particular classroom (with ~10 other applicants) and a desk as well with your name and candidate number on it.   

The room is not hermetically sealed from outside.   So, additional attention needs to be paid to a class CD player (no personal headphones) during listening section.  "No-disruption during test" policy is strictly enforced. 

Speaking test is a 10-15 minute conversation with an IELTS instructor.   Individual slots are allotted to each tester and test is conducted behind closed doors.   We had a good 2-3 hours of break between our written piece and the speaking one.   You are allowed to be free and do as you wish during that time - a good time to grab food.

All in all, the experience was uneventful - which is what we hoped for.   I will indulge into complexities of the exam once I get my score.