General feedback
None of the associations interviewed received a great deal of feedback about the English language
assessment. Some individual candidate comments were as follows:
A minimum assessment of 6.5 or 7.0 in each of the skills is deemed to be too high by some applicants,
especially in one sitting of the test.
A small number have expressed a preference for the TOEFL test, which some applicants perceive as
being easier than IELTS, but this test is not currently acceptable to many of the associations interviewed.
Some candidates (for example, Chinese candidates entering the health professions) have claimed that
the requirement to sit for an IELTS test is potentially racist. The counterargument to this is that health
professionals in particular practising in an English-speaking country must be able to communicate
effectively with patients, colleagues and statutory authorities.
Some members of organisations who were dealing with IELTS on a regular basis expressed a wish to
experience the test for themselves so that they were more familiar with the tasks that candidates were
expected to handle.