Many people are very curious about the TOEFL/IELTS score requirements for admission to international medical schools. Some schools (in Middle East) for example, want students to take their own entrance exam to assess English proficiency. Other schools require the TOEFL score. In Poland, students have to have above a 6-6.5 TOEFL score to apply for medical school. I haven't come across very low TOEFL scores for entrance to an international school that requires it, but I am wondering if anyone has?
Luckily I never had to take the TOEFL or IELTS but what I hear from people is that they can be very difficult if english is not your mother tongue. I have seen that many of the Polish medical schools require a minimum of 6.5 IELTS scores but I know friends who have applied and gained admission without achieving a 6.5 IELTS score.
I had to take IELTS when I took the IMAT last year. It wasn't that hard. All six (public) Italian Medical Universities required a minimum IELTS score 0f 5.5 or a TOEFL score of of 87-109 (B2) or 110-120 (C1)*. I'm not sure if that's a high TOEFL score or not. * B2 and C1 are equivalent to communicator and expert levels of international ESOL certificates.
Have you taken only IELTS? I wonder which one is easier? I heard from friends that IELTS was easier than TOEFL but not sure. 5.5 for IELTS seems reasonable...
Yes, I have. I got an overall band 8 out of 9 . I heard the opposite actually, but I found IELTS to be easy. Yeah, it does.
This is something that you can retake unlimited number of times? Is there a time span you need to wait before retaking it? How did you prepare for your exam (your scores seem good)
There's no limit on sitting the IELTS, but it's best to get a high score on the first attempt. And as there are two versions of the IELTS test: Academic (for students) and General Training (for immigration purposes), it's best to not take another attempt for the general training module. No, there is no waiting period anymore, although there used to be one of three months. I practiced the Cambridge IELTS books 6-9 (each book has four actual IELTS tests) and followed the advice shared by an ex-IELTS examiner Mr. Simon Corcoran on his website IELTS Simon. I also practiced the Road to IELTS free practice material the British Council gives all candidates when they register for the exam online.
So it is very likely that people just take it over and over again until they receive a desired score. This is great information and very useful. Maybe we can make a thread for study material like the one provided by Simon?
Yes, they do, but some people get frustrated when they can't get a 7 because that's usually a minimum requirement and you have to get a 7 in all four skills. Yes, absolutely. I've started to work on it and will post one soon.
I recently had a few friends take it and let me tell you they thought it was extremely difficult (they are of Arab decent).
I believe they had mentioned that the writing section was extremely difficult for them. Writing in English can be very hard if its not your first language. It just takes lots of practice I believe.
Did they mention what question type they got for both tasks? Because there are 11 question types for task 1 and five question types for task 2. I can give specific tips that way.
