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recently I achieved an IETLS(academic) overall band score of 6, however I have a friend that decided to take the FCE to prove his knowledge, he got a good score on this task.

From my point of view it is very hard to establish a comparison between this two results, for the following reasons, the academic version of the IELTS has a very hard writing where the student has to develop and discuss a topic in form of an essay, but this essay in my perspective is a kind of small paper to prove that you are able to write an academic paper, the most common reason to take this test is to apply for a mastery program.

The second fact is that the reading for the IELTS academic has complex vocabulary and is related with science topics and researching.

Due to this reasons my main question would be, how is comparable this score that I got with a good score in the FCE, researching more about the CEFR I found that the IELTS is able to measure a C2 student and the FCE is just measuring until the B2-C1, I am very confusing about this topic since I am not an expert about the FCE, I really appreciate any explanation, thanks for the support.

Additionally if someone decide that this question does not belong to this forum I do not have problems to transfer it to a more appropriated place.

neo33
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    Hi, neo33 - Unfortunately, I don't think this question is correct for ELL, because it's really about the details of test scoring and comparison, not about learning English. Academia.SE might be a better place. – stangdon Oct 12 '16 at 14:18
  • The IELTS exam is the same for all candidates, you can gain a 5.0 (equivalent to A1/A2) up to a maximum of 9.0 (equivalent to C2) A pass on the Cambridge First Certificate exam, which used to be called FCE, is equivalent to B2. A very high mark is said to be equivalent to C1; however, the certificate you are awarded is still only a B2 . On the other hand, you'll have an A as your pass mark. – Mari-Lou A Oct 12 '16 at 14:18
  • If a university demands a C1 a candidate is better off doing Advanced, which used to be called CAE, a normal pass is a C1. But a very high mark will earn you the equivalent of Proficiency C2, which is the maximum level achievable. Even some native speakers wouldn't be able to pass that exam! It's ridiculously tough. – Mari-Lou A Oct 12 '16 at 14:19
  • As far as I know, FCE is roughly equivalent to IELTS band score 5.5 (it could be as wide as 4.0-7.0, though. A good chart can be found at http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams/cambridge-english-scale/institutions/.) As you know, IELTS General and IELTS Academic are the same in listening/speaking tasks. The differences lie in the reading/writing tasks. I think people would generally consider IELTS Academic a little more difficult, though my personal feeling is general English and academic English are just two kinds of English. Neither is necessarily more difficult than the other. – Damkerng T. Oct 12 '16 at 14:24
  • I can't see any de facto reason why this should be Off Topic, unless it's just "Primarily Opinion-based". I don't know anything about the matter, but I just googled IELTS vs FCE and found this chart through Comparing Cambridge English exams to other exams, which looks very relevant. – FumbleFingers Oct 12 '16 at 14:24
  • FWIW, googling for "Bundles in Academic Discourse", though not directly related to your question, might help tune our perception that it's just "different", not "more difficult". – Damkerng T. Oct 12 '16 at 14:25
  • Hello @DamkerngT. Thanks for the support, however I believe that it is important to consider the background that you need to have to get a high score in the academic version, this version was designed for students wishing to enter an undergraduate or postgraduate study programmes, on the other hand the general version was designed for people who have work experience or immigration purposes, due to this fact there is a huge difference between them, you have to have a stronger cultural background for the academic version, I believe that this is enough to suppose a very huge difference. – neo33 Oct 27 '16 at 16:16
  • I don't disagree with you about the difference. My point was that neither is not necessarily more difficult than the other. It's the same language anyway. You just need to be more familiar with lexical bundles in academic prose to do well in the Academic one, and that's all, IMHO. – Damkerng T. Oct 27 '16 at 16:27
  • @DamkerngT, Well yes it the same language in the sense of that you use" English" for both however is like to compare a Research paper with a letter to communicate something to your boss. – neo33 Oct 27 '16 at 17:32
  • Hi Neo, I've asked the moderators on [languagelearning.se] and they believe your question might get a good answer on that site. Unfortunately, it's too old for me to migrate it over there, so, if you're still interested, you would need to re-ask it there. Feel free to link to this question in your new one for context. – ColleenV Jul 14 '17 at 16:43
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it belongs on a different sub (but is too old to migrate). See comments. – Andrew Sep 27 '17 at 16:15
  • @Andrew: I don't think it's off-topic here, just because it's more on-topic on LL. Do you have any specific arguments for closure other than the desire to migrate? – Nathan Tuggy Sep 27 '17 at 16:44
  • @NathanTuggy None specifically. It's more that I don't see how to formulate the comments into a coherent answer, or even that the question can be coherently answered, and it might as well go to where it stands a chance. – Andrew Sep 27 '17 at 17:47

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