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[teenoso]

I am teaching an IELTS preparation course (speaking and writing) and find it hard to advise my students about problems which are not fully covered in the band descriptors/marking criteria :-

In speaking - how does the examiner deal with 'memorised answers' in Part II which are on-topic? Some of my students think they can learn answers to common or recent topics and adapt their answer to the actual topic in the exam.
Will the examiner often stop the candidate mid-flow and give them a new topic, if memorisation is suspected, or let them continue and impose a penalty, and if so, how big a penalty ?
Obviously my advice is: do not try to memorise the long turn! But it would be useful to know, and be able to warn the students about , the real consequences.

In the writing task 2, what kind of penalty is imposed for being off-topic? There are some clues in the 'task response' band descriptors , but is there an overall reduction of the band, because, for example, an off-topic answer is not coherent, and does not demonstrate vocabulary pertinent to the topic? Is there any guidance for the examiners along the lines: partially off-topic - minus 1 band overall, mostly off-topic - minus 2 bands etc.?

Any help would be much appreciated!

[suphanburi]

During the speaking test the interlocutor will follow a basic script and the responses are scored according to a scoring rubric.

For obvious reasons, Cambridge does not allow SEs to discuss the interlocutor framework and scoring rubrics beyond what is already available in the band descriptors but for higher levels of IELTS you can rest assured that memorized scripts won't work.

The case is similar with the writing portion of the test. It is not so much about wandering off topic as long as their is a logical sequence, coherence, and connectivity to the topic but just writing gibberish in order to fill in space won't get very far.

I can tell you that there are clear requirements and band descriptors in the scoring rubric.
If the student meets the criteria for a particular band then they have achieved that band level's requirements.
If they do better than that then they move up to the next band.
Low to high (adding to the bands) and not vice versa (minus points).

.

[teenoso]

Thanks very much for your reply.
I suppose my concern is there are things in the exam process which are not clearly addressed in the public marking criteria/band descriptors.

On the writing answer sheet , the examiners have 'tick-boxes' for underlength answers, illegibility, memorised answers and off-topic answers, but there is little indication in the public IELTS materials what the impact these things may have on the mark.
For example, I can guess that a 10% -20% underlength answer may lose one band, 20% -30% underlength 2 bands etc, but really who knows whether this is right.

From what you say about written answers being off-topic, it sounds like if the answer is tangential or partially on-topic , the 'task response' mark (alone) will reflect this , and the tick -box may only be for wholly off-topic gibberish .....

[suphanburi]

[Sashadroogie]

Marks are taken away. If the script is underlength, by so many words, then a band is knocked off the TA or TR score. Two bands for even more underlength scripts etc.

Precisely how this is done is not for public consumption, though. Just tell your students to make sure they satisfy the word count. That's all they need to know.

[teenoso]

Thanks , Sasha..
it is quite clear the examiners do take marks off , because on the answer sheet there is a box marked 'penalty' after the underlength tickbox! But it's very helpful to know the penalty only applies to TR or TA.

[Sashadroogie]

No worries. But, I don't think anyone else here has had any IELTS examiner training, so I'd say your questions are perfectly valid, reasoned, and to the point : )

[scot47]

I was an IELTS Examiner and can confirm what the "Roosian" says about deductions for underlength efforts in the written tasks.

IELTS Examining was incredibly boring and not particularly well-paid.

[Dedicated]

I am an IELTS examiner and can confirm that marks are deducted for the task being under length.