Hi there! It's Asiya. Which IELTS test is easier, computer-based or paper-based?
A couple of days ago I took my first computer-based IELTS exam in London.
If you can't see my results on the screen, it means I'm still waiting for them. And
in this video I want to compare each section of this computer-based exam with
the paper-based exam I took last year. Hopefully, I will help you decide which
test format is right for you. Ready? Let's get started!
let's start with the listening section first and a huge advantage for
computer-based exam was to have earphones because I put them on I could
hear everything clearly I didn't have to think about it at all that was great
because when I took a paper-based exam last year we were in a huge room with
probably a hundred people and there was echo people were coughing and moving and
I had to concentrate so much just to hear the recording it was really
unpleasant but in a computer-based exam it was great
and even though earphones were not proper noise cancelling headphones
I didn't hear other people as clearly as a would otherwise and I wore my
earphones in the reading and writing sections too so that was great
I've heard that some centers offer earphones for paper based exams too so
if you have several centers in your city it may be worth checking because I think
it's really really helpful another thing I liked is that computer-based exam is
based in a small room with probably 25 people and in a paper-based exam we had
a hundred people and just even a smaller room is quieter it's more pleasant the
exam itself was absolutely the same over had a few seconds to read questions then
you listen to the recording answering questions then you have a few seconds to
revise them a few seconds draw read coming questions
and so on a tip is don't spend time on revising questions always read questions
which are coming it's really really helpful especially when you start
getting those multiple-choice questions when you need to read a lot of
information they won't give you enough time to do that but if you use time for
revising on reading you'll be able to answer more questions anyway it's the
same the difference is that in a paper-based
you have ten minutes at the end to transfer your answers to the answer
sheet but in a computer-based exam you answer
directly on the screen so you don't need to transfer your answers anywhere
they're already there you have two minutes to check them basically it was
enough for me because if you miss an answer it's unlikely that you're going
to get it later anyway but you can check spelling of the
words you write or you can check that when you feel the gap and you're right
you were there but sentence becomes grammatically correct because sometimes
that tip helps you to understand whether you need to write a lot of two words for
example one or three words let's say museum or the museum because once you
write it the sentence should be correct or sometimes it helps you understand if
the knowledge should be singular or plural depending on how the sentence is
written so two minutes is enough to do that oh yes I didn't have a practice
question at the beginning the test just started straight away I find that from a
technical point of view it's easier to answer questions in a computer-based
exam because quite often you simply click on the correct answer and that's
it all you instead of writing words or
looking for a letter you simply take a box with the correct answer and you drag
it to the correct place so I think that a probability of making a stupid mistake
is lower in a computer-based IELTS exam but you should be able to listen to the
recording and type at the same time and also you need to get used to different
question types and how you answer because sometimes you click on the
awesome sometimes you type an ulcer or sometimes you take a box and you drag it
and you should know what for example if you take a wrong box and you drag it to
the wrong place how do you cancel that during the exam quickly.i defeats
website at essentials has a video on how to use a platform
they have free practice tasks for the listening reading and writing sections
and it looks exactly like during the exam so you can learn how to use a
platform before you take the test I think that's important
I'm gonna leave you a link in the description box below I would say it was
easier to navigate between different questions and answers on the computer
because you have a number of each question at the bottom of the screen and
if you leave any question unanswered you can see that if you want to come
back to any questions at the end for example to think about the spelling of a
word you click you click revise and then you'll be able to see which questions
you wanted to revise about convenient what's less convenient is that in
multiple-choice questions or in questions where you're given let's say
six options and you need to choose the correct to you you're not able to cross
out incorrect options as you go so I didn't like that and another thing is
don't forget to scroll the page down to the very bottom I almost missed one
question like that I simply didn't scroll it down but all-in-all
I still prefer taking the listening section on the computer what about the
IELTS reading section well I really liked that the timer was right on the screen and I
knew exactly how many minutes I still have when you're taking a paper-based
exam a clock is on the wall and you have to memorize what time your session
starts and then you need to calculate how much time is left but here it's
right on the screen both in the reading and writing sections it's super
convenient in a paper-based exam examiner's tell you when you have ten
minutes left and five minutes left here is the time of flashes in red but to be
honest I didn't always see that but it's fine as long as you just keep an eye on
the time the only thing you should know about is when it's one minute left you
don't see seconds so it's one minute and then the screen suddenly locks you never
know when exactly that is gonna happen to be honest I expected that I wouldn't
like taking the reading section on a computer screen
I thought on the paper I could see everything better or the passage and
questions but I was wrong the monitor was large and I could see almost all the
passage without scrolling it and then questions were just there I didn't have
to turn pages so it was actually more convenient in a paper-based IELTS exam you
answer questions on question sheets first and then as you go you transfer
your answers to the answer sheet it takes a bit of time but you're not given
extra time as an IELTS listening you still have to finish everything in 16
minutes in a computer-based exam you answer questions directly on the screen
and you type less because for true false not given you don't need to type not
given you simply click on the correct option so it sends a bit of time in
terms of highlighting you need to highlight key words names phrases and so
on it's helpful in a paper-based IELTS exam you use a pencil in a computer-based
example you have a function to highlight words or phrases in yellow you simply
select your word or phrase in the text or in questions it doesn't matter you
press the right button on your mouse and you select highlight and that's it it's
easy to do oh yes what I've discovered and what they don't tell you in the
official guidance is copy paste function works you know questions where you need
to find two or three correct words in the text and fill the gap you find words
you select them you press copies ctrl C to copy ctrl V to paste and that's it so
you're not likely to make a stupid spelling mistake when simply copying
words oh yes and don't explain that they're gonna
show you how to use software the for the exam you have to learn how to do
it at home on your own so do the practice questions first but to
summarize I prefer computer-based IELTS reading definitely let's talk about
IELTS writing computer-based or paper based writing oh here everything depends
on how fast you type I personally type faster than I write
with a pen and particularly with the pencil because you know some centers
allow you to bring your own pen for it's writing but some don't and you have to
use a pencil and it's just so slow when I took the paper-based exam I used a pen
and then I could finish probably five minutes before and proofread some things
and my essays were not that long probably just about the required 170 and 270 words
this time i typed and finished about 15 minutes before
and my essays were longer about 200 and 300 words
then i could proofread everything well not everthing some things
to proofread your essays if you type them and then even when we
proofread them it's unlikely you're gonna have plenty of time to do that so
you're still gonna miss some typos and ideally you need to type correctly
straightaway so it's a bit of a challenge on the plus side it's easy to
make corrections when you type and I corrected a few words and I even changed
some sentence structures and you're unlikely to do anything like that if you
take a paper-based IELTS exam some people say well oh it's a pencil you can erase they
turn right again but honestly how much time it's gonna take you you're unlikely
to do anything but during your exam oh yes by the way
if you take a computer-based exam you're still gonna get a pen and paper to make
notes or whatever I didn't use them at all and someone asked me the other day
if it's just typing like at home are all the words or the mistakes going to be
highlighted like in Microsoft Word like no don't hope for that and despite this
disappointment I still by far prefer computer write computer-based writing
but you have to type quite fast in order to get this benefit the speaking exam is
absolutely the same whatever test you take it's a face-to-face interview with
in examiner but there is another advantage of a computer-based test the
results are published in 5-7 days not in 13 days like in a paper-based exam well
even though if you take IELTS for UKVI IELTS for UK visas and immigration you
have to wait for 13 days whatever test you take anyway in the coming weeks I'm
going to film videos about each section of the exam giving you specific tips on
how to get a higher score and tell you more about how I approach different
tasks and what strategies I use thank you for watching me today good luck with
your preparation and your exam bye