Before

I originally wanted to sign up for the first July session early to get a feel for the test, but it just so happened to coincide with exam week, so I missed the registration deadline. No choice but to sign up for the next session, which is this one.

Hainan University does not have a computer-based testing center, so I had to take the paper-based exam. The venue was in the teaching building inside Building 5.

It’s 13:03 now. I just finished the exam, played a round of Teamfight Tactics, and had a meal. Let’s write this stream-of-consciousness account while it’s still fresh.

Speaking

My Speaking test was scheduled for the 23rd at 13:50. I rushed through lunch, printed my admission ticket, and headed over. I arrived around 13:10. To be honest, I was extremely panicked and had no idea what to expect.

After arriving at the test center, they did the usual checks for access codes, health codes, and vaccination status, then immediately ushered me to the waiting room to drop off my belongings.

I told the guy I wanted to check my phone a bit more, but he said that wasn’t allowed in the waiting room. I asked if I could go outside, and he said yes. So I stood outside and checked my phone. However, the proctor inside told me to go to the waiting room at the very end, which is used for taking photos and identity verification. So I went there and waited until just after 13:20 before they called me.

Identity verification involved taking off my mask and glasses, recording my fingerprints four times (right index finger), and taking a photo. Then I waited. There were two others with me, labeled S1, S2, and S3; I was S1.

When it was almost time, another proctor escorted people to the fourth floor, one person per classroom. Before leaving, they did another identity verification, checking fingerprints again and verifying my face by removing my mask and glasses.

When I got to the fourth floor, the examiner was already standing at the door. I went over, closed the door behind me, and was led to my seat.

The seats were separated by a transparent partition in the middle, probably for pandemic prevention. Then the exam process began.

Part1 They simply asked for my full name and whether I had brought any devices.

Part2 For Part 2, they gave me a pencil, which was already placed on the right side of the desk, along with a piece of paper for taking notes. The topic was whether I often share with people, when I first started sharing, and with whom. I vaguely remember my answer was a complete mess. I said I share machine learning knowledge with classmates from my association during online meetings. One of my points was that for any knowledge, when you learn to share it with others so they can understand it, that’s when you truly master it. Although the general meaning was there, I’m sure my expression and language organization were terrible. (I really don’t want to recall this part.) Later, because I hadn’t spoken for the full 2 minutes, the examiner asked, ‘Could you tell something more?’ I stammered for a while but couldn’t figure out what to say.

Part3 I remember one question was about why I don’t share with people. I said ‘secrets?’ Then, in a clumsy attempt to add more, I said no one wants to make friends with people who don’t share, and those people are selfish. The examiner said people who don’t share can still make friends. I was stunned and then forgot the rest.

Finally, the examiner said the test was over and escorted me out. It was past 14:00 when I came out, and I was handed an IELTS pencil. The guy in charge of item storage hadn’t given me my wristband yet; he seemed a bit weird.

The paper-based exam was the next morning. I originally planned to wake up at 6:30 to review essay materials, but… 6:30, 7:00, 7:20—I set three alarms, and not a single one rang??? I woke up at 7:22. I was dizzy. Then I went straight to the exam without eating breakfast. After stepping outside, I realized I hadn’t brought my mask, so I had to go back.

When I arrived, I was incredibly thirsty. I hadn’t drunk any water before leaving, so I planned to buy a bottle from the vending machine downstairs in Building 5, but the vending machine was turned off… Once I entered the exam area, it was the usual routine. I waited in the waiting room. Fortunately, the waiting room had small bottles of Nongfu Spring mineral water, but I had to tear off the labels. It turned out that for these two days, I didn’t actually need to print my admission ticket; just bringing my ID card and knowing the Speaking test time was enough.

Before entering the exam room, there was the usual security check. Inside, I had to wash my hands with waterless sanitizer, sign a document (this part was in English), and after entering the exam room, everything seemed to be in English.

Listening

The first two Listening sections were okay; I knew a few words but forgot how to spell them, so I lost points for free. One was ‘balcony’ Balcony, and the other was ‘refrigerator’ Refrigerator.

Later, there was a section where I had to match content. I didn’t understand the whole Listening section at all; there were too many synonym replacements. I need to review this part again. I felt the last two Listening sections were quite difficult (for me).

Listening took 30 minutes, with the last 10 minutes allocated for transferring answers.

Reading

I hadn’t really timed my Reading sections before. Normally, each passage should take about 20 minutes, but the first one took me nearly 25 minutes. Mainly, I didn’t realize there were so many questions at the beginning, and finding answers one by one was slow. This directly caused me to spend only about 10 minutes on the last passage: 5 minutes for answering questions. Fortunately, it was a sentence completion section. I found the answers for the following multiple-choice questions in the last two paragraphs, but for the matching questions in the middle, I simply ran out of time. When they were about to collect the papers, I had to guess the answers BCDEF. I just had to leave the rest to fate, lol.

Writing

I felt the Task 1 (small essay) was relatively simple. It had two pie charts showing water usage in various aspects in Sydney, Australia. I had seen similar ones before, so I was okay with it. Personally, I felt good about it. The requirement was 150 words, and I just wrote casually and reached that count.

The essay task was a bit strange: it presented some people think that in modern world people are becoming more dependent on each other, then another viewpoint was independent, and the requirement was discuss both view followed by asking for my own opinion.

I remember I roughly outlined it, but I don’t think I reached 250 words. Later, I felt time was insufficient; I spent 20 minutes on ideas and 20 minutes on writing content, which was indeed an unreasonable allocation of time.

Introduction: background + two viewpoints Viewpoint A: independent. In the past, people lived in villages, rising with the sun and resting at sunset, hunting and raising animals together (I couldn’t write about farming, md). Nowadays, people live in apartments or houses with different lifestyles. Students leave school at 7:00 AM, office workers head to work at 8:00 AM, and they don’t even have time to say a few words. After school, students still have homework to do, and office workers have leftover work to finish. Viewpoint B: dependent. Many people are willing to help others when in the truble, or donate, so dependent. My argument: I thought we should mental on dependent and action on dependent, because we live in the same world and cannot be completely independent, and then…

I don’t know if I went off-topic…

End

Finally, make a proper summary.

I should probably make a review plan soon, and also find a one-on-one class…

Why call it a one-day trip when it was two days? Because the speaking test was at 13:50 in the afternoon, so indeed everything was completed within a single day - -