Hey McKennasul, I have to admit I found the IELTS test to be a pain in the backside. I am an accountant and initially sat the academic and missed out on 0.5 point on the reading test. I the did the general test and missed out by 0.5 twice on the listening test so, on my final attempt I changed test centre and did loads of practice. It sounds ridiculous that I couldn't do it especially after doing 14 accountancy exams but it wasn't as straight forward as I expected it to be. I actually used Thames Migration and they were fantastic. I personally would recommend using an agent but I had a good experience with Thames and the skills assessment was quite a tedious process so I was glad to have them take some of the pressure off.
Good luck with everything