One of my favourite children’s stories is The Little Engine that Could. He had a load that seemed impossible to pull, but he succeeded with sheer determination. Achieving the skills you need or want to achieve in English can seem like an impossible mountain to climb, but a positive “can-do” attitude and people to cheer you along the way is the way to success.
It’s not unusual to get a lower score than you need on a proficiency test like IELTS the first time you take it. However, if you see it as a learning experience, note what you need to improve and take steps to do some things differently the next time you take the IELTS (or any test) you can succeed.
I like to over-prepare my clients for proficiency tests so they know they are good before they ever take a test. I never counsel people to throw caution and money to the wind and take a test just to find out what it is like. That makes a later test higher stakes and some people panic and do more poorly on later tests.
I like to save my clients from pain as much as possible. So, I use the building block approach to teaching English which is a bit like the gym where you gradually add heavier weights as your muscles get stronger.
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Barb De Wit
