2007-05-30 IELTS Test Results

Listening: 8.5
Reading: 7.5
Writing: 7.0
Speaking: 7.0
Overall Band Score: 7.5

1 is worst ("doesn't speak English"), 9 is best ("native speaker"). Here are the official definitions for 7 and 8:
7 ("Very Good User"): Has operational command of the language, though with occasional inaccuracies, inappropriacies and misunderstandings in some situations. Generally handles complex language well and understands detailed reasoning.
8 ("Good User"): Has full operational command of the language with only occasional unsystematic inaccuracies and inappropriacies. Misunderstandings may occur in unfamiliar situations. Handles complex detailed argumentation well.

For New Zealand I needed a score of at least 6.5. So far, so good.

Anybody wanna buy a training book?

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iTunes sucks! I tried to actually buy some episodes of Battlestar Galactica, but it's not available in Germany. I have no bloody idea why, and I don't know how that damn program knows that I'm in Germany. I got out of my way to convince it otherwise, but we're talking about Apple software, which I find rather stubborn, so I finally gave up. That's so frustrating, no wonder people use illegal software...

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Blogger Dashboard offers spell checking. As always, I used it for the above text and you know what? The most spelling mistakes (four out of six) were in the description of the IELTS band scores -- which I copied off the web. Pretty good, huh?