Yesterday I simulated my IELTS exam (Cambridge IELTS 5.2) at home, and took sequentially Listening, Reading and Writing test.
I transferred all my results to answer sheets, just like it should be at exam.
My current result is:
Listening: 6.0 (23 out of 40) (failed, the weakest side of my English, I suppose)
Reading: 7.5 (36 out of 40) (failed - I could really answer 2+ questions correctly, but I didn't)
Writing: to be evaluated (from Cambridge IELTS 9.2)
Here are my Writings (I spent 1 hour strictly, no dictionaries)
On a recent holiday you lost a valuable item. Fortunately you have travel insurance to cover the cost of anything lost. Write a letter to the manager of your insurance company. In your letter
- describe the item you lost
- explain how you lost it
- tell the insurance company what you would like them to do?
Dear Sir or Madam, I was on holiday in Greece last week, and when I arrived back home I found I had lost my precious camera. As long as I’m a professional cameraman, my camera is an expensive item that I had taken out insurance on with your company. It seems I lost it while I was on excursion to one of the local parks in Thessaloniki. I remember to have taken a lot of lovely photos, but when I arrived to the hotel there was only two hours left before my flight back to my country. I was in quite a hurry and didn’t check If I took my camera with me. I would like you make a refund equal to the price of my lost camera, which is $2000. I have kept all the insurance papers, so it is not going to be a problem. I hope you will do your best to compensate my loss. Thank you in advance!
Task 2
Some people think that the teenage years are the happiest times of most people’s lives. Others think that adult life brings more happiness, in spite of greater responsibilities. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
There are different viewpoints on what age is the happiest time in human lives. Some people believe that teenagers are the happiest people while others insists that adult life implicates most happiness. In this paper, I am going to weigh all the pros and cons of both views.
Undoubtedly, teenagers and adults see the world differently. From the teenagers perspective, there are less responsibilities as their parents provide them with all the necessary things to grow, study and develop and prepare for future adult life. At the same time young people have less freedom and sometimes can not do what they would want, and depend heavily on their parent’s permission or preferences. Who can suffer even more are teenagers from unsuccessful families, in which one or both parents are extraordinary strict or cruel. In such the families teenager’s life can be unbearable, which can result in constant misunderstandings and depression and can lead to suicide.
In comparison, adult life opens more possibilities, people become more financially independent. On top of that, adults can learn the happiness of being parents that nevertheless brings more responsibilities and even problems. For example my brother-in-law, who has got two baby-daughters, spends all his free time to support his family. There is no time for hobbies and sport left. Such constant oppression can reflect negatively on your health, and sometimes can lead to stress. However, this can be compensated by ‘family escapism’, when you are concentrated on your children’s upbringing and enjoy staying with your family.
I believe that people can feel happy regardless their age. There are many activities that you can enjoy in teenage years as well as in adult age. Turmoils, misunderstandings and unpleasant things like that will still be with us all the lifetime, but if we don’t know what is to be unhappy, we will hardly learn the true happiness and will appreciate it as we should have.
Personally, I believe I would score 6.5 from these writings, but not sure. Anyway this is where I am now.
Later I'm going to share an improved version of this. Hope it will be much persuasive for an IELTS examiner to be assessed 7.0+.
