Attn:Native Speakers of English!

More and more often, one can see native speakers of English at the local English testing centre. While this may be surprising, they too are caught up in the same paperwork as other newcomers, immigrants, and working professionals. This week's blog is aimed at native speakers who may take the English test for granted. Be forewarned here. While being a native speaker may grant you the superpowers of flawless grammar and an extended vocabulary, do not shrug off this as a simple English language test that you need not prepare for. If you are unfamiliar with the test format you may be caught out by losing time, making rookie mistakes, and generally underperforming. Let's look at a few tips that will ensure a comfortable high score with minimal effort.

Preparation

Familiarize yourself with the test format of the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Know how long each part is, what to expect, and what examiners are looking for in order to score high. If you don't know what level 8 or 9 means, keep reading!

Listening Test

Some problems you may encounter on the listening test are unfamiliar English accents, tricky questions, and concentration issues. Let's look at each of these in turn. First of all, expect to hear a variety of English accents on the listening test. While the recordings will feature speakers from various English-speaking countries, such as the UK, the USA, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, you may also hear speakers with different regional accents or dialects.

Remember Brad Pitt as pikey "One Punch" Mickey O'Neil ? (Snatch, 2000)

Listening samples include recordings of both native and non-native English speakers to mimic real-life situations where one might encounter different accents and speaking styles in real-world situations.

Writing Test

If you are doing a general test for basic immigration purposes, the tasks are quite straightforward and you will have little to worry about. If however you are doing a more academic test (usually for university admissions), you had better spend some time reviewing how to write short essays.

Don't find yourself running out of time due to overconfidence

Spend some time online checking out the numerous websites offering tips and advice well before test day. Learn how to manage your time and organize your writing style to fit into the allotted word count effectively. Take full advantage of your fluency and finish early, allowing time to review and brush up by upgrading some vocabulary. Remember, writing is the hardest of the four skills, and a little practice will go a long way.

Reading Test

As above, if you are doing a general English test, you will experience no difficulties. If you are doing an academic test, some practice speed reading, scanning, and searching for the answers will come in handy.

Be careful as some of the questions can be quite tricky. Hesitate before you answer carelessly and ensure you have the right answer (and not an easy answer). The time limit may present you with challenges if you are not a fast reader. Best to spend some time and do a practice tests before test day. Do one or two practice tests under testing conditions (i.e. use a timer and find a quiet place you can work for an hour uninterrupted. Then check your score and see just how smart you are.

Speaking Test

Here I can speak from experience as an examiner. I have had native speaker candidates who approached the speaking exam like a casual chat with a buddy in the pub. While you might score well for fluency, being too informal will hurt your score for vocabulary and cohesion (logical flow of ideas). Remember this is a formal speaking exam and as a native speaker it would be a shame for you to blow it. Drop all your "y'knows" and "what I mean is" and demonstrate the upper levels of your language skills as an educated native speaker of the language.

Be confident but do prepare.

Conclusion

It's easy to be mislead and think that a language test in your mother tongue will be a cake walk. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the test and definitely do a couple of practice tests to ensure you will score as high as you think you can.