Manama : 13,000 students across Bahrain’s 41 secondary school took the second mock International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam, aimed at determining their level in English.
IELTS exam measures the examinee’s abilities in the four basic skills required for proficiency tests, namely listening, reading, writing, and speaking.
During the second term, students underwent a massive training programme on the exam’s skills and sections to prepare them for the post-test.
The post-test aimed to measure the extent of their benefit from the training programme implemented by the Ministry of Education during the second semester of the current academic year following the pre-test, held in February.
During the pre-test, the students scored an average band 2.75, which is 2.5 grades below the minimum international score. Meanwhile, 5% of the students obtained between 5.5 and 8.5. IELTS results are reported from band 1 to 9.
The Ministry of Education launched a programme to train students and prepare them to take the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and IELTS (The International English Language Testing System) proficiency tests.
The plan aims to hone secondary school students’ English skills and help them meet admission requirements in many universities, which would exempt from preliminary programmes should they succeed in obtaining the required proficiency tests.
