racing for IELTS to get a priority ticket to university
Currently, many universities use international language certificates such as IELTS for admission or exam score conversion, causing the demand for studying and taking this certificate exam to increase. Grasping that trend, many parents are willing to invest tens of millions of VND in their children to participate in exam preparation courses with the expectation of expanding their opportunities to university and improve foreign language skills.
Mr. Pham Duc Hanh - a parent whose child is studying in the second year at a university in Hanoi - said that he used to teach his child IELTS from the end of grade 10 to the beginning of grade 12.
"Because my child has to study subjects such as Math, Literature, and attend many other supplementary classes, I chose to let him study online to flexible his time. At first, it was very difficult to find a center because there were too many places advertising, I had to consult friends and let my children try before daring to register officially" - Mr. Hanh said.
After taking the entrance exam, the teacher built a roadmap of 9 classes at each level. The total cost is about 40 million VND, including exam fees. Each class lasts more than 2 months
However, this is only the main tuition fee, because during the review process, students have to buy more books, documents, etc.
"The actual cost has increased significantly" - Mr. Hanh said and said that many parents for their children studying IELTS are not only to apply for university admission, but also to practice foreign language skills, expand learning and working opportunities in the future. Some families orient their children to study in parallel with international or international programs, so they want their children to get a certificate early to reduce the pressure later.
Also choosing the investment direction for her children to study IELTS early, Ms. Tran Thi Minh An (Nghia Do ward, Hanoi) said that she has invested about 30 million VND for her children, both tuition and exam fees.
She said that with her children's abilities, teachers build a roadmap in three stages: Open-up, skill development and specialization - academics, with different tuition fees depending on the difficulty and duration.
"My child has an English background so the total cost of studying can be less than many others" - she said.
Spending nearly a hundred million VND to study for the IELTS exam
As a third-year university student, Vo Hong Anh (Hoang Liet, Hanoi) was surprised when recalculating the amount of money her parents spent on her to take the IELTS exam a few years ago.
Anh said that she got this certificate at the end of her 11th grade with a score of 7.5, after nearly 2 years of review. During that time, he studied IELTS at a center near his home with a tuition fee of about 3 million VND per month.
"In 2 years, this alone cost about 54 million and is also the largest expense" - Anh recalled.
Not only that, Anh also registered for another IELTS course lasting 6 months at a cost of more than 10 million VND. Before the official exam, the family continued to hire a private guardian for 3 months, spending an additional 21 million VND.
In addition to tuition, Anh also spent more than 1 million VND to buy self-study materials and paid the exam fee of 4,664,000 VND.
"So my parents spent more than 90 million VND on me in total" - Anh was surprised by this number but said that her parents determined that owning an IELTS certificate with a score as high as possible was "worth the money" at that time.
According to the female student, more than 90 million VND is a significant investment, but since then, spending a lot of money on IELTS testing has become a no-brainer.
Many students are more expensive than me - Anh expressed and added that more and more students are flocking to centers, buying documents or studying online to improve their scores.
For Hong Anh, IELTS certificates bring many clear benefits, especially in the context of universities prioritizing and accumulating points for candidates who own this certificate, and of course, the higher the certificate score, the more beneficial it is.
"Previously, thanks to this certificate, I and many students had extra points when taking early admission based on transcripts, increasing the chance of being admitted to the desired school and reducing exam pressure. Up to now, early admission has been eliminated, but in general, if IELTS is available, those students will still benefit a lot.
In addition, IELTS is also an important condition for those who want to "hunt" for study abroad scholarships" - Anh said.
Not only in big cities, parents in most localities are willing to spend a lot of money to help their children review for foreign language certificates, the most of which is IELTS.
Nguyen Ba Thanh - a 12th grade student in Buon Ma Thuot, Dak Lak - has an IELTS score of 7.0 after 2 exams, the total fee is about 10 million VND.
Regarding the cost of the review, Thanh said that he studied 3 courses for about 8 million VND per course.
"If you can study by yourself, you will be more frugal, but I find it difficult so I decided to go to a center" - the male student said.
In addition to the desire to comprehensively improve foreign language proficiency, the male student said that the immediate goal of taking the IELTS certificate exam is still for university admission.
