Job Discussion Forums

bawny34 · Joined: 24 Apr 2014 Posts: 45

Hi, I have posted on here before regarding the CAE exam and am thankful for the advice given Smile

As I said before, I am quite new to exam English, so please bear with me if I ask some stupid questions.

This question refers to the content requirement of the writing tasks. My question is:

If a student, misinterprets a question and doesn't address the content points as they should, is it an out and out fail for the whole exam task?

For example, a student handed me in a proposal for homework and for some inexplicable reason, she seemed to be addressing a different question......although it had some thematic parallels to what she should have done ( I would presume it is an out an out fail as surely the content is the whole essence of the exercise, but I just want to be sure and not misinform anyone). On the plus side, she followed all the conventions of a proposal under the headings of communicative achievement, organisation and language......If it were a different question, she would have done very well Smile

Can someone give me some clarification on this?

Sashadroogie · Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2015 9:16 pm Post subject:

Good question. But don't really know. Cambridge written exams are marked by Cambridge. As far as I know.

Total guesswork here, but I'd imagine content would be just one of the criteria applied. Lexis, grammar range, cohesion etc. being the others. However, the danger is that if the script on no way
matched the task instructions, then memorisation might be suspected. As to what penalties apply then, only somebody in Cambridge Esol could answer...

nomad soul · Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world

I'm not familiar with this particular exam; however, there should be a writing exam rubric or some other form of assessment guidelines addressing this issue. Check with Cambridge or do an Internet search.

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

I work with Cambridge examiners. This would be considered a probable cheat - the student has likely memorized something that could be considered linked at least loosely to a range of potential topic questions. It would fail.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2015 7:47 am Post subject:

That's sort of what I was trying to say, through the vodka haze, hic!

But these Cambridge examiners you know, are they oral examiners only, or do they also mark scripts? Very few of the latter around, it seems to me...

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

I know a script marker:-) Big dog, he is!
Entirely discrete as well, though. This particular issue has been discussed in a different context in our circle recently; there is another popular test that has recently been riddled with memorized script issues, both oral and written. We are collecting samples to provide to the bank of test scorers. In the process of this conversation, it was interesting to find out how scorers of other types of tests would respond to memorized materials.

nomad soul · Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world

Sashadroogie · Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2015 10:53 am Post subject:

As far as I know for other tests like IELTS the marker awards the bands he feels the script should get, but then ticks the memorisation box if there is suspicion of it not being an original script. But somebody higher up the food chain makes the final decision to fail it. Needs to be proved that it was memorised. A bank, such as Spiral mentioned, is one way.

However, an essay that is just off-topic wouldn't fail outright. If it can be shown that the test-taker merely misunderstood the task, then they'll be marked down for that, but awarded marks for other criteria, like grammar and lexis, organisation etc.

All depends on whether the script wanders off-topic, or is totally unrelated (usually with an awkward shoehorning in to try to give a figleaf of relevance to the task).

But I don't really know. Cambridge writing markers are a rare breed, and very secretive... : )

HLJHLJ · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 1218 Location: Ecuador

There is a guide to the marking rubric in the CAE teacher's handbook, which you can download from the Cambridge site. If you don't (or you barely) answer the question you will get a 0 or 1 out of 5 for content. You can still get full marks for the other sections (communicate achievement, organisation and language).

IELTS is graded differently, but again there is a public version of the marking rubric available online. For IELTS, if you've only partially answered the question the maximum grade you can get overall is 5. If you haven't even made a good attempt at partially answering, it's capped at 4.