Blog

One of the IELTS examiners that works here answers this one.

Yes, but only when it comes to the speaking exam.

It’s important to say that IELTS is administered in exactly the same way all round the world. The reason I say it is more difficult outside your home country is that the examiners live in the country where they examine. So, if you come from Japan and you do the exam in Japan, the examiner lives there too.

How does this benefit the candidate?

So, at an IELTS speaking session in the UK, the examiner is likely to have candidates from all over Europe and the world. Imagine the number of different accents the examiner will have to listen to.  However, if you are an IELTS examiner in Japan, 99% of the students will be Japanese and you will live there too. When you live abroad, your ear becomes more tuned to that particular accent. It’s just a natural part of how we learn languages. So, if a Japanese student does IELTS in Japan, the examiner will be able to understand what the candidate says without any problem because they live in Japan. This is the benefit of doing IELTS in your own country.

If the Japanese student does the speaking exam in Spain, they will probably get a lower mark for pronunciation because it will be more difficult for the examiner to understand them.

Evidence
When I first moved to Spain from Japan and examined in Spain, I could hardly understand what anyone was saying!  My ear wasn’t tuned to the Spanish accent.

IELTS examiners have to be retrained every 2 years in a process called recertification.  When I have done recertification IELTS training, I always find it easy to understand the Japanese examples used, whereas the other examiners I do it with that have never lived there struggle to understand what they are saying.

Of course, doing IELTS in your home country has drawbacks but in terms of this particular part of the speaking exam, it’s easier to do it in your home country.

So now what?

Want to do an IELTS speaking test with an IELTS speaking examiner and get advice on how to get higher marks?  You can order one here.

Need your writing corrected and scored by an IELTS writing examiner?  You can order one here.

Join the thousands of people who have got what they need in IELTS with us.  And join our Facebook group too.  You can chat to examiners there.