How to Determine Your IELTS Score
IELTS stands for International English Language Testing System which is a well-known examination that assesses how proficient non-indigenous English speakers are in speaking the language. It assesses listening, reading, writing and speaking skills which are then rated on a nine-point scale called Band. These criteria are what examiners use in evaluating performance of IELTS examinees and giving them band scores.
The IELTS Band Descriptors consist of detailed explanations of what one must be able to do to achieve a particular score band in any of the four language skills. The examiners utilize these accountabilities when scoring the test takers’ responses based on whether or not they have shown these specific capabilities. For each level there is: basic, intermediate, advanced and expert and look across at these descriptions for an examinee’s performance or skill.
Understanding IETLS Band Scores
One such test is the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) that measures how much proficiency someone has in English whose mother tongue is not English. It has four parts namely Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking where marks vary from 0-9 each one.
Descriptors of the band for Grasping the Main Ideas:
Band Description
9 Quickly recognizes and easily grasps main ideas, themes, and follows well-developed thoughts.
7 Recognizes main ideas and themes but cannot keep up with other ideas.
5 Recognizes some main ideas and themes though it is difficult to distinguish essential from non-essential information.
3 Can hardly identify the main idea or theme in a passage and fails to understand why the speaker is talking about it.
1 Fails to identify any main ideas or themes.
Understanding Specific Details
This section assesses test-takers on their ability to understand specific details in passages. This includes finding facts such as names, dates, numbers as well as understanding implied meanings and relationships between different concepts.
Descriptors of Band for Understanding Specific Details:
Band Description
9 Easily understands all implied meanings, relations, while accurately pinpointing specific details.
7 Takes note of most specific details accurately but faces difficulties when it comes to understanding implied meaning and relationships between sentences or paragraph’s ideas.
5 Struggles with understanding implied meanings and relationships between sentences or paragraph’s ideas but may correctly identify some specific details.
3 Perceives the speaker’s opinions, attitudes, and emotions with problems, and differentiating facts from opinions might be a challenge.
1 Does not recognize the speaker’s opinions, attitudes, and emotions at all.
Reading Band Descriptors
During the IELTS exam Reading section is where the Band Descriptors are used to measure comprehension. The Reading Band Descriptors are split into three main sections: Comprehending Texts, Identifying Writers’ Views, and Dealing with Different Types of Questions.
Comprehending Texts
This part of the examination tests how well a candidate can find out what an article says as well as its main points. This includes being able to do the following:
• Read quickly to locate specific information in a text.
• Understand why a text has been written and who will read it.
• Pick out important details as well as main ideas.
• Understand words in context.
• Following arguments or story lines through texts.
Identifying Writers’ Views
This band measures one’s ability to understand when writers express their feelings towards something. The Band Descriptors assess whether you can:
• Detect connotations presented by authors’ attitude
• Guess the writer’s intention behind writing and what he wants to achieve with readers
• Recognize what they think about certain things
How to Deal with Different Kinds of Questions
In this part, the candidates are required to answer questions based on various types of questions. The Band Descriptors measure the ability of a person to:
• Comprehend the demands of every question (e.g. multiple choice, true/false/not given, matching, etc.)
• Find specific pieces of information in texts in order to answer questions
• Recognize relationships among various details in passages
• Use logical and inferential reasoning when answering those questions that have no factual information in them.
In general, Reading Band Descriptors represent an equitable and consistent assessment framework for testing reading capacity. This means that learners need to acquaint themselves with these Bands Descriptors so as to understand what they should be prepared for during the Reading section of IELTS examination.
Let’s further move on to Writing Band Descriptors and more in the upcoming blog post.
