IELTS BUDDY JOURNEY

My journey of finding supportive IELTS fighters has come to an end (for now).  It all started with my own inquiry, desire, and curiosity. I shared online to document how I use my research skills to the most applicable life lesson: the gut to always learn. 

Here are some reasons why I am motivated to learn more about IELTS;

Since I got informed that my future master's study needs a 7.0 band IELTS minimum in 2018, I dedicated myself to finding a good environment to learn it. Furthermore, a glimpse of IELTS listening and reading courses at my campus shaped my mind that IELTS is a way harder and more uncommon questions style than TOEFL. I thought that I should practice it more seriously.

and here is a long enough journey until I finally decided to be part of Lister's IELTS MasterClass in February 2020 in Surakarta and followed by taking an intensive mock-up class in Kampung Inggris, Pare by July 2022. 

My campus 

After my study on campus, I became more curious about IELTS. Thanks to Ma'am El, Miss Ati, and Mr Sean Stellfox who have taught us about academic listening and reading. I started to find information where I can get cheap intensive courses online.

Online Course

On Instagram, I followed @bljar.id because one of the founders was a guest speaker at an online scholarship forum. Why not follow? (I am following many English material or English-teacher background accounts, basically). It offers online IELTS speaking and writing classes with a lot of credible teachers who had been studied overseas mainly in the UK. Actually, it also offers offline intensive courses in some big cities like Jakarta, Tangerang, and Balikpapan. Well, it needs many efforts if I should go to those big cities just for IELTS. I did hope that there would be a similar class in Solo at that time. Thus, I decided to register for the online writing class for 160K IDR/month last semester. I followed the online speaking class for the same price and duration.

An online class is a bit satisfying for me. The fun part is the flexibility and how I can regulate my discipline to be on-task. However, the screen is never able to replace eyes-on-eyes meetings. I prefer an offline community with a teacher and some friends to share laughs and difficulties.

A Scholarship Coaching Clinic Program

I registered for an online scholarship coaching clinic program from Coach Potato (coachpotato.id). I passed the selection and I was mentored by an Australian Awards Scholarship awardee at The University of Melbourne at that time. The program offered IELTS learning, preparing for essays, managing the program timeline, and preparing for scholarship interviews. From this program, I knew cool IELTS resources and tips to study IELTS by myself. 

Considering Pare during Semester Break

I started to ask some scholarship mentors who mostly were scholarship awardees where they learned IELTS from. Many of them said that they followed a four-month intensive program at Kampung Inggris Pare. To join that, I saved money up and waited for the semester break to come. My friend and I almost registered at one of the institutions there. I was so interested in the class because it was also equipped with a scholarship mentorship session. In addition, the idea of spending a semester break in out of my hometown was quite an awesome point. But then, I got many works and responsibilities to do in the town. So, I canceled the plan.

Local Courses

Moving on, I researched two English proficiency course institutions in Solo. From my favorite radio station, I knew @directenglishsolo. THEY WERE AWESOME. I had to take a placement test for free. There was a woman who explained a lot about my current English level based on CEFR (Common European Framework) nicely and patiently for free. She said that I am on the level ready to have an IELTS preparation class. Additionally, she explained a lot about IELTS and TOEFL iBt tests. Basically, she answered everything that I asked. They were very helpful but then I was quite shocked by the price I should spend on the course. It's 4 times more expensive than in Pare. Well okay.....

I tried to compare it with Interactive English Language Campus (IELC), my current working station. I came to that industrial-based building known for its IELTS course in the town. My first impression was, "OMG! This must be a big money." Then, I asked questions to a scurvy woman who was busy checking on computers. Now, I casually call her, 'The Scheduling Lady' hehe. I asked for a price list. She gave me a flyer. As predicted! So, I crossed out IELC from the list as it did not match with my budget. Fast forward to 2023, I have been working at IELC for a year. Perhaps I'm destined to be a teacher than a student at IELC. 

Next, I tried to survey ELTI  Gramedia too. I still wanted to have a credible offline class in Solo. In short, they have a pretty responsible price but their known specialty is TOEFL. So, I did not give it a go. To conclude, I did not sign up for any local courses. 

Start-up Bootcamp

By the end of 2019, I was active in following webinars on Zoom about scholarship inspiration stories. I was in my dream at that moment. I had known online conferencing apps like Zoom already even before the pandemic hit. My online algorithm began to meet me with some educational start-ups like Lister and Studev. Fortunately, Lister which is based in Jogja opened an IELTS Master bootcamp in Solo. It also gave a good bargain 'Buy 1 Get 2'. It also matched with my saving. I directly signed up and invited Ms. Aristi to join. I started the class in February 2020 during my semester break. I really learned the reading and listening strategy, writing questions and how to answer them, and speaking questions and how to answer from here. The positive sides overweight the drawbacks. I like the community, the approachable mentor who was also a scholarship awardee, the clear timeline plus learning goals, and the structured module. The minus is that it was less practice as it is more into an IELTS prep class than a mock-up class. 

Online Prediction and Self-Study (May 2020 - May 2022) 

Then, the pandemic hit. I was in semester 6 at that moment. The situation did not get better until I was in semester 8. In this span, I began to interact with many opportunities to test my IELTS skills. I wanted to have a prediction test as I may take the IELTS test as soon as I graduated and I will apply for scholarships. Then, I tried SUN Education service for IELTS prediction. It is the best service prediction I had in my life. It did not feel promotional to me, but they really navigate where my ability was at that moment. I realized that I am lacking writing skills, and I was a bit average in my reading and listening skills. Moreover, I did self-study with inspo and resources I acquired from online courses. I might post this somewhere else sometimes. 

Intensive Mock-up in Kampung Inggris, Pare (July 2022)

With that consideration in mind, as soon as I defended my thesis and secured a job at IELC, I registered firmly for IELTS Mock-up Bootcamp for 2 weeks in Titik Nol English. I did one day one package of IELTS tests for two weeks here. I started the class as early as 7 AM and I finished at 5 PM. The recess was from 12 until 2 PM. I chose Pare as I wanted to be focused and I wanted to put aside my community engagement in Solo for a while. Second of all, I wanted to revisit my younger version biology clock. Lastly, LPDP 2022 batch 2 deadline was around the corner. Obviously, I visited some cool places while here to detach stress. I got a warm community that supported each other and reminded me about the scholarship deadline and official test sites. There were around 20 people in a big class and split half into a minor class. I bounded strongly with quarter members of the class. At that moment, I dared myself to make an LPDP account. I haven't registered for the scholarship yet, I just learned the mechanism first. However, I registered for an official test.

Official Test in August 2022

I would say that Pare was really a mind-changing experience. I saw some scholarship awardees. I shadowed their progress. Many of them take the real test right after the mock-up. Actually, I was not confident with my reading and listening band from the mock-up still. I gave it a try, however. In a 2x2 m bedroom, I applied for my official IELTS test at British Council Foundation. I chose Jogja to be the city as Solo, IELC English Campus, does not provide a computer-delivered program. The computer-delivered test result came in two weeks after taking the test while the paper-based test may take longer time. I wish I could use the result for LPDP batch 2 in 2022 at that time.

Recommendation (Learning Leap)

So, if you ask, what's the best way to learn IELTS? It depends on you. Several factors that you can consider during your decision-making are;

1. Do you enjoy studying alone or with someone? 

2. Are you into the community or the resources?

3. How much budget do you prepare for the course or resources?

4. What kind of environment is best to support your goal? Is it the slow pace or hustling culture?

5. What kind of tutor qualifications do you want? Experienced, scholarship awardee, internationally certified, or peer tutoring?

6. What are your learning goals? Here are some scenarios

• If you are observing, it is better to learn from the internet first. 
• If you are preparing for a scholarship in advance, it is better to take a systematic course in my view. 
• Last, if you are about to take the official test in nearest future, you can take a study session, buy official resources or dive into the internet and digital pack, or join a mock-up club like me. 

Regards, 

Fatiha

Your Learning Buddy