The Temple of IELTS

I’ve been teaching IELTS training classes as part of my job as an English teacher for the last few years. Recently, however, I’ve become a lot more interested in the deeper aspects and subtleties of the IELTS test and the worldwide community discussing these nuances. As I've been studying, observing and deepening my understanding of the test, an analogy came to me which I want to share.

IELTS is like an organized religion.

Before you dismiss me as blasphemous or un-academic, or think I’m trying to start the Church of IELTS, hear out these aspects of the analogy. I'm just being tongue-in-cheek here. 

Two major world religions think of God as a unity made from a holy trinity.  Both Christianity and Hinduism see God as three aspects. The “godhead” of IELTS is composed of a trinity as well: The British Council, Cambridge University and IDP Australia.

Like a religion, IELTS has its holy scriptures. These are the tests themselves. Handed down regularly from on high in the form of Cambridge Practice Tests, now existing in books 1 through 12, these are the canon from which we hear the word of IELTS.

Most religions also include numerous commentaries on their scriptures. IELTS is no different. You’ll find these commentaries online and on bookstore shelves around the world, coming from various experts, and they don’t always agree with one another. Indeed, the writings of the “prophets” regarding how to approach IELTS are often very divergent.

The deity doesn’t make it any easier either. IELTS has it “public descriptors”, but is also secretive. Its “angels”, the examiners themselves, appear among us, but do not reveal all of what the deity requires or despises.  In fact, the angels are not permitted to speak of the secrets of IELTS.

IELTS even has commandments on which pretty much all of the bickering holy men would agree.  They vary by the skill being tested, and will be a topic of a future blog. 

Then there are the clergy, the IELTS instructors. They try to tend to the day-to-day needs of their flock, the IELTS candidates. They deliver their sermons in classrooms, and while some listen, others go on to continue to sin. On the whole, they're hopeful their parishioners will achieve salvation in a 7.0+ score.

IELTS even has it’s blasphemers – the non-official study material!