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IELTS examiner certification
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shawadywady



Joined: 13 Mar 2013
Posts: 40

PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 3:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
and I'll email GZ yet again to get their POV


don't bother. It's in their interests for people to examine as often as possible and that's what they'll encourage you to do. But in reality as long as you examine every 3 months or so you can do it as infrequently as you like.
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canrun30



Joined: 03 Oct 2012
Posts: 116

PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 9:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks...my 'office mate' (Chinglish? we share the same cubicle), who is certified (and certifiable!), says more or less the same thing.
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Mr. Leafy



Joined: 24 Apr 2012
Posts: 246
Location: North of the Wall

PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 12:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

vikeologist wrote:
If you're an IELTS examiner, you can teach IELTS courses. You just can't reveal any confidential information about the exam or tell people what grade they'd be.

So, Mr Leafy. Feel free to apply to be an examiner.


Thanks for that. I think I will.
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tangal



Joined: 11 Nov 2012
Posts: 47
Location: Da Nang Beach

PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 11:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

vikeologist wrote:
If you're an IELTS examiner, you can teach IELTS courses. You just can't reveal any confidential information about the exam or tell people what grade they'd be.

This reply by this poster is filled with inaccuracies, which is so often the case here, where longtime regular posters start to believe they have the answers to everything regardless of their expertise or experience.

There isn't any confidential information! When I took the examiner training workshop over a weekend in Guangzhou in November 2008, we learned how to properly score candidates using the band score assessment criteria and how to time and conduct the exam at IELTS testing centers.

I've been using this knowledge and skill set with students at several colleges and language schools since then, and when I took an IELTS training course in Hanoi two years ago, the instructor taught the same strategies and techniques, including how to conduct the test the same way the British Council does.

You can, in fact, tell students what band score you think they are speaking at. The sort of confidentiality this poster is preaching about is preposterous and misleading. This isn't NASA folks, this is EFL in China!

Quote:
Maintaining confidentiality is important. They probably wouldn't be keen to have someone do the training if they were never going to examine, because they'd be worried that you'd use the training to reveal confidential information.

No, it's not! Who cares (or really knows, unless you work for the BC) what they think? The important thing, if the training will be beneficial to your job and/or career, you get invited and you have the time, is to get the training and use all of the skills and knowledge you take away from it.

It's amazing how some of the posters here think that following unwritten rules and towing the line, which is fear-based thinking, should stop us from pursuing whatever training we choose to get as we trudge the happy roads of our teaching destinies.

Quote:
If you breached the confidentiality agreement, you would never be able to examine anywhere, ever again.

Really? And people are thanking this person for statements like this? This statement is so untrue, because just a few weeks ago I was paid 200 RMB per hour to examine students at a college near my main university, using the skills and techniques of examining students based on the BC format. And if I so choose, I could easily apply to be an official examiner at the local IELTS testing center in my area.

As an unfamiliar and far less established poster here, I probably won't get thanked for this kind of accurate information, but I'm pretty sure I'll get a good bashing from the folks who sponsor this sort of counterfactual and speculative advice.

If so, all I can really add is...touché!
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shawadywady



Joined: 13 Mar 2013
Posts: 40

PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 12:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

tangal - the vikeologist quotes you use are entirely correct.

there isn't any confidential info?? now i think you must be trolling. or just clueless.
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NoBillyNO



Joined: 11 Jun 2012
Posts: 1762

PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 12:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A lot of the examiners I know are leaving due to visa requirements not satisfied.
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canrun30



Joined: 03 Oct 2012
Posts: 116

PostPosted: Sat Oct 19, 2013 12:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So then tangal you basically did what I'd like to do, no? You did the training workshop then never really worked for the BC in any capacity afterwards, right?

(I've not found your past comment to be troll-like at all, so I give a lot of credence to what you have put forth).
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vikeologist



Joined: 07 Sep 2009
Posts: 600

PostPosted: Sat Oct 19, 2013 1:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think tangal has some beef with me. What I wrote was accurate. , but then shawadywady pointed this out anyway.

Of course you can do the training, and then never examine. The reason I though it might be a bad idea was because you might want to be an examiner in future. If you reapply for training again, you're asked on the application form if you've done the training before. I think there's a risk that your school will use your 'examiner' status for advertising, and if the BC found out, that would disqualify you from being an examiner in future (or indeed now).

I just think it's a bad idea, and could cause you problems in future. Anyway, if your school want you to do the training, make sure you ask them to pay for it.

When I teach IELTS I can use anything that's publically available and tangal is essentially correct in his comments about the training. For instance you won't see any of the actual IELTS questions / frames or any materials that could be construed as really confidential.

The thing is that I'm not going to go into details about what is and isn't confidential because, it's erm, confidential.

When Tangal said he "learned how to properly score candidates using the band score assessment criteria", well to be honest, I don't reveal every aspect of this when I'm tutoring IELTS because I err on the side of confidentiality. I didn't find out who shot JFK during the initial weekend training though.

But everything I wrote was accurate. I mean, I don't know whether they'd be happy for you to do the training without examining. I don't know the answer. I just said probably, but you wouldn't be applying to do the training. You'd be applying to be an examiner, so to get to the training you'll have to be dishonest.

Of course nobody can stop you doing mock exams. I'm not saying that actual examiners can't do mock exams. (And I'm not saying they can either). They just can't tell students what band they are.

I wouldn't say Tangal's a troll, but he is wrong. It's funny how sometimes people are attacked for not taking the advice they receive on this site, but for every correct piece of information, you get a corresponding piece of nonsense. You take Tangal and I; at least one of us is an ignorant idiot. That's probably about the only thing the two of us agree upon.
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canrun30



Joined: 03 Oct 2012
Posts: 116

PostPosted: Sat Oct 19, 2013 9:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fair enough, vikeologist. As we say where I'm from, I've got no dog in yall's hunt.
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colonel



Joined: 19 Jul 2005
Posts: 89
Location: Nanyang and Cha-Am

PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 5:59 am    Post subject: Re: IELTS examiner certification Reply with quote

canrun30 wrote:
Quick question: I'm interesting in getting certified as an IELTS examiner ....



Let's hope it was a typing error. Embarassed
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canrun30



Joined: 03 Oct 2012
Posts: 116

PostPosted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 8:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good Lord, look at what living in the Middle Kingdom for eleven years will do to ya! Funny how none of us really caught that till now.

Now I feel so boring... Embarassed
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happeningthang



Joined: 08 Oct 2003
Posts: 117

PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 9:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Honestly - for the OP - I think they'll be less keen on having you join up if you tell them that you don't intend to do much testing. Obviously they're recruiting to have examiners for every test date - and if someone else says they'll do all they can - they'll take that person over you.

My advice is to keep it to yourself.

You're NOT OBLIGED to work any given weekend - and every month you'll have the opportunity to tell them when you're available and when you're not.

tangal wrote:
vikeologist wrote:
If you're an IELTS examiner, you can teach IELTS courses. You just can't reveal any confidential information about the exam or tell people what grade they'd be.

This reply by this poster is filled with inaccuracies, which is so often the case here, where longtime regular posters start to believe they have the answers to everything regardless of their expertise or experience.

There isn't any confidential information! When I took the examiner training workshop over a weekend in Guangzhou in November 2008, we learned how to properly score candidates using the band score assessment criteria and how to time and conduct the exam at IELTS testing centers.

I've been using this knowledge and skill set with students at several colleges and language schools since then, and when I took an IELTS training course in Hanoi two years ago, the instructor taught the same strategies and techniques, including how to conduct the test the same way the British Council does.

You can, in fact, tell students what band score you think they are speaking at. The sort of confidentiality this poster is preaching about is preposterous and misleading. This isn't NASA folks, this is EFL in China!

Quote:
Maintaining confidentiality is important. They probably wouldn't be keen to have someone do the training if they were never going to examine, because they'd be worried that you'd use the training to reveal confidential information.

No, it's not! Who cares (or really knows, unless you work for the BC) what they think? The important thing, if the training will be beneficial to your job and/or career, you get invited and you have the time, is to get the training and use all of the skills and knowledge you take away from it.

It's amazing how some of the posters here think that following unwritten rules and towing the line, which is fear-based thinking, should stop us from pursuing whatever training we choose to get as we trudge the happy roads of our teaching destinies.

Quote:
If you breached the confidentiality agreement, you would never be able to examine anywhere, ever again.

Really? And people are thanking this person for statements like this? This statement is so untrue, because just a few weeks ago I was paid 200 RMB per hour to examine students at a college near my main university, using the skills and techniques of examining students based on the BC format. And if I so choose, I could easily apply to be an official examiner at the local IELTS testing center in my area.

As an unfamiliar and far less established poster here, I probably won't get thanked for this kind of accurate information, but I'm pretty sure I'll get a good bashing from the folks who sponsor this sort of counterfactual and speculative advice.

If so, all I can really add is...touché!


I'm a current examiner and I can confirm what vikeologist is saying is true.

They have recently (in the last 2 years) ramped up restrictions and are very serious about the confidentiality of their test.

Examiners must sign a confidentiality agreement EXPLICITLY saying

1)They cannot publicise the fact that they are examiners in advertising for their schools, training centres or even themselves as tutors.

2) They can never disclose any of the CONTENT of the IELTS exams they administer.

3) They can never administer an exam to someone that they know.

If you're caught out - you're fired and cannot be employed by the British Council in the foreseeable future - if not forever.

I don't think there's anything in there about telling people what band level you think they are - so that's ok as far as I know - but basically you can't disclose anything specific about what's in the exams. No great surprise.
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backtothefront



Joined: 02 Sep 2012
Posts: 48
Location: uk

PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 5:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Is it correct that you don't receive a visa as such if you employed as an IELTS examiner? Do you basically need a stand in/part-time job during the week to stay in China?
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vikeologist



Joined: 07 Sep 2009
Posts: 600

PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 9:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

backtothefront wrote:
Is it correct that you don't receive a visa as such if you employed as an IELTS examiner? Do you basically need a stand in/part-time job during the week to stay in China?


Yes, the British Council won't / can't sponsor your visa / residence permit. Doesn't necessarily mean that all examiners have other jobs or only examine at weekends though.

Examiners are classed as independent service providers.
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backtothefront



Joined: 02 Sep 2012
Posts: 48
Location: uk

PostPosted: Wed Nov 20, 2013 10:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you are an examiner in one country are you able to relocate and teach in other countries?
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