IELTS Vocabulary: collocations

I keep seeing comments and questions from students that include the following sentences:

- I gave the test on Saturday.
- I gave my IELTS exam last week.

Both of the sentences above are wrong! You don't "give" a test or exam. This is the wrong verb + noun collocation.

Here are some correct collocations with the words test or exam:

- I took the test / exam.
- I sat the test / exam.
- I did the test / exam.
- I passed the test / exam.

It's important to use the right collocations. Getting them wrong makes your English sound strange. "I gave the test" sounds completely wrong.

Comments

[iroshan464]

Thanks, Simon for sharing. This is something I used to do.
Something I still do is mixing up "in" and "on".
I sit in the table rarely. ;)

Anyway, I received the reassessment of my IELTS exam and sadly score didn't change.
Listening 8.5
Reading 9.0
Writing 6.5
Speaking 7.0
Overall 8.0

So I booked the exam on 25th again. This time I'm gonna work very hard on writing. Will let you know the result.

[Zoe]

iroshan464

I would suggest you have your writing assessed by a native speaker in order to find out what is going wrong.

[Iroshan464]

Zoe

Thanks for the advice. I will try to find a native teachers who I can afford, and will take feedback on few essays.

[VeraC]

Hello Simon, I just have one question related to this post. If I am a teacher and want to "give" a test or an exam to the students, what would be the proper verb to use? I'm looking forward to your reply. Thanks in advance!

[lara]

VeraC

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=give+them+a+test%2Cset+them+a+test%2Cgave+them+a+test%2Cgive+them+an+exam%2Cset+an+exam%2Cset+an+examination%2Cgive+them+an+examination%2Cgave+them+an+examination&year_start=1960&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cgive%20them%20a%20test%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cset%20them%20a%20test%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cgave%20them%20a%20test%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cgive%20them%20an%20exam%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cset%20an%20exam%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cset%20an%20examination%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cgive%20them%20an%20examination%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cgave%20them%20an%20examination%3B%2Cc0

[VeraC]

lara

That is very informative. Thank you!

[Simon]

VeraC,

Yes, of course: the teacher "gives" his/her students a test.

[Beatrice Ishaka]

I am having a little difficulty with the use of commas and fullstops.Please do you have a website where all these are addressed thoroughly?