My wife will shortly sit the B1 English language test (in the UK) as required for her UK visa ILR application. Reading up on it, there appears to be a choice between Trinity College Graded Examination in Spoken English (GESE Grade 5) and IELTS Life Skills B1.

 

Looking in more detail, the Trinity version is a 10 minute one-on-one chat with the examiner with the first part being a discussion on a subject chosen by the applicant, followed by a short chat with the examiner on two subject areas chosen by him/her. All up it takes 10 minutes:

 

http://www.trinitycollege.com/site/?id=3365

 

On the other hand, the IELTS test includes another person taking the test, who the applicant has to converse with (could see that going badly wrong), the test takes 22 minutes and looks ridiculously complicated compared to the Trinity test:

 

https://www.ielts.org/-/media/pdfs/ielts-life-skills-sample-paper-a-level-b1.ashx?la=en

 

So to me, the Trinity College test seems to be the clear choice by a mile. Am I missing something? I'd be interested to hear any first-hand experiences of either.

 

Thanks.     

4 hours ago, TCA said:

On the other hand, the IELTS test includes another person taking the test, who the applicant has to converse with (could see that going badly wrong), the test takes 22 minutes and looks ridiculously complicated compared to the Trinity test:

Take a look in the Trinity feed on Youtube. There are examples of the B1.

 

I 100% agree with you. Somebody on here about six months ago mentioned that his wife had done the Thai equivalent of the B1 in Thailand. His wife's partner needed to interact with a lady boy who spoke at a hundred miles an hour and his wife couldn’t understand her. If I remember she did pass but, the same as you, I think it introduces another factor into the equation that you don't need if it's possible to do it in the UK.

 

My wife will do the B1 for her 2nd FLR to bypass the A2 and hopefully save £150 if the Government don't change the rules again.

Thanks rasg. I also saw the Trinity YouTube channel mentioned in other posts on here, so will check it out.

Yes, the IELTS B1 test is longer and tests interaction skills with another candidate and the examiner, not just language. The ability (or lack of) of the candidate only affects their own score.

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Thanks brewster. I think the Trinity College test gets the nod as the exam of choice for multiple reasons.

My wife did the Trinity test last October and it was very straightforward.  We didn't even consider the IELTS route.  Just a warning ,however, the questions asked were not that simple.  As an example my wife was asked about public transport an expression she had never heard.  She thought the questions were a little bit more difficult than the videos suggested but having said that she passed with distinction and it is only 10 minutes so very manageable.

Thanks for replying bigyin, that's useful to know. I've printed off parts of the pdfs from the Trinity website for GESE Grade 5 and I see that the two subjects chosen by the examiner (for the second part of the test) are taken from the following:

 

Festivals
Means of transport
Special occasions, eg birthday celebrations
Entertainment, e.g cinema, television, clubs
Music
Recent personal experiences

 

So I'll make sure my wife is well prepared.