Blog
Tips, guides, and insights for English learners.
Linguaskill Speaking Parts 1 and 2: Who You Are Talking To
Part 1 is a presentation to nobody. Part 2 is a report to a named colleague who missed the meeting. Cambridge changes your audience mid test and never announces it.
The English Requirement Nobody Publishes: Employers
Regulators publish a floor and then tell employers to check again. The second requirement is unwritten, unappealable, and it is the one that decides whether you work.
Every English Requirement We Read, in One Place
Twenty regulators, four countries, one federal law and two government spreadsheets. An index of what each one actually requires, and where the surprises were.
How Long Each Step of an English Requirement Takes
Thirteen days for a result, sixty for a retake window, twelve months for a reference, nine years for one endorsement. The published timings, in one place.
One OET Grade, Nine Different Passing Scores
Nine bodies accept OET and no two ask for the same thing. Some want letters, some want numbers, and one gives two different numbers for the same letter grade.
The Professions Nobody Warns About an English Test
Orthoptists, hearing aid dispensers, dental technicians and clinical laboratory scientists all face published English requirements, and almost nobody writes about them.
Nine Questions to Ask Before Booking an English Test
The score is the question everybody researches and rarely the one that goes wrong. These nine are the ones that actually waste a fee, drawn from twenty regulators.
Speaking Is the Highest Bar in Four Countries
Read enough published requirements and one pattern survives every change of country, test and profession. Speaking carries the highest number, and rarely the lowest.
Where a Real Person Must Listen to You Speak
One regulator refuses any test whose speaking section is computer marked. Others require two examiners, or a second independent rating. Here is who insists on a human.
Where the Real Rule Hides on a Regulator's Page
Ten places the decisive sentence turned up while reading twenty English requirements, and none of them is where the score is. A method rather than a fact.