In-house Entry Test(IHET)
The In-House Entry Test assesses students’ abilities in three skills – listening, reading and writing– in under one hour and 20 minutes. Throughout the English Language Program students will have already received a lot of practice in these three skills. This will have given them the skills of listening and reading (with comprehension) and of writing coherently using suitable and accurate grammar and vocabulary.
Students who are eligible to site the In-House Entry Test are second year Diploma and Advanced Diploma students. These students should be in Semester 2 and 3.
The In-House Entry Test is consists of three parts which are listening, reading and writing.
Listening Part
The first part is listening that lasts for 20 minutes and has fifteen questions. This part consists of two sections; a conversation, a lecture or a part of a lecture. In section 1 students are asked to choose the correct letter (A,B or C) to say if the statement is True , False or Not given, and to write a short answers to questions using no more than a particular number of words or numbers. In section 2, students need to complete some notes based on the lecture they have listened to, using no more than a particular number of words or numbers.
The following are some important tips to answering the listening part successfully.
- The recording will be played once only, so you have to answer the questions as you listen.
- 40 seconds are assigned to read all the questions before you hear each recording.
- 5 minutes are given at the end of the listening part to transfer the answers to the answer sheet.
- Answers which are spelled incorrectly will be marked wrong
Reading Part
The second part is Reading and comprises of one passage. The duration of the reading test is twenty minutes. Fifteen questions of the passage need to be answered. There are three types of questions, namely choosing titles for the paragraphs of the passage, saying if the statements are True, False or Not Given, and completing a text using words or numbers from the passage. During the reading section, all answers are to be written carefully on an answer sheet during the test. In the case of any incorrect spelling, answers will be marked wrong. Students will be asked to stop writing at the end of the 20 minutes.
Writing Part
Writing is the last section to the In-House Entry Test. Students are given 40 minutes to answer it and they are asked to write at least 250 words. There is one topic provided in which students have to either write a discussion essay or an argument essay. Students will receive marks for their answer based on:
- How fully the question is answered.
- How well the answer is organized.
- How correctly vocabulary is spelled to express the ideas.
- How wide and accurate the grammar used is.
- Any phrase or sentence that is copied directly from the writing question paper will not be regarded when writing is being assessed
- Marks will be deducted for answers which contain fewer than 250 words
Tips before taking IHET
If you are planning to take the In-House Entry Test, you should start preparing for it at least one month before the test. Earlier preparation lets you know which part among the 3 needs your attention the most. The writing part requires you to write an essay with a proper structure; therefore, make sure you download examples from the Academic Module.
Students should be aware that the Writing part in this Test is similar to IELTS Academic Module Task 2. There are plenty of useful websites that can help you prepare for In-House Entry Test. Here are some of them:
- http://www.ielts.org/test_takers_information/test_sample.aspx.
- http://www.dcielts.com/
- http://www.ieltsbuddy.com/
- http://ieltsliz.com/
- http://www.ihlondon.com/blog/posts/2014/all-about-ielts/
- http://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/prepare
