A practice score assumes the day goes normally. Most of what goes wrong on test day is procedural, and all of it is avoidable.
Identification. You sit the test on the same identity document you booked with, and the centre checks it. A passport booking means a passport on the day — not a copy, not a different document, not an expired one. This is the single most common reason a candidate is turned away, and there is no appeal and no refund for it.
The order. Listening, Reading and Writing are taken one after another with no break between them, in that order, in a single sitting of about two hours and forty minutes. Speaking may be on the same day or up to a week either side, and you are told which when you book. Plan the day around a long, unbroken block of concentration — that stamina is worth practising at least once before the test.
Writing your answers. On paper, Listening gives you extra time at the end to transfer your answers to the sheet; Reading does not, so answers go straight onto the sheet as you work. On the computer-delivered test there is no transferring at all. Know which version you booked, because a paper candidate who works as if there is no transfer time loses nothing, and a candidate who assumes transfer time in Reading loses answers.
What you may take in. Your identity document, and for a paper test a pencil, eraser and pen if the centre asks you to bring them. Water is normally allowed in a clear label-free bottle. Everything else — phone, watch, notes, bag — goes outside the room, and a phone that makes a sound in the room can void your result.
The four that cost marks before your English is even read.
- Writing more words than the instruction allows in Listening or Reading. Three words where two
- are permitted scores zero.
- Leaving blanks. There is no penalty for a wrong answer in this test. A guess is free.
- Running the clock down on one hard question. Every question is worth exactly one mark.
- Finishing Writing Task 2 short of 250 words. It is penalised whatever the content is, and it
- is two thirds of that paper.
The night before. Sleep matters more than one last practice set. Put the ID, the booking confirmation and the bottle by the door the evening before, and check how long the journey takes at that time of day — centres close their doors before the test starts, and late arrival is not admitted.