SIMPLE YET ACCURATE WAY OF PREDICTING IELTS SPEAKING SCORE



I have been teaching IELTS for over a year now and have faced a lot of challenges when teaching students. One of many challenges that often haunt me day and night is giving meaningful score prediction. Feedback is supposed to be based on the result of the students so I need to consider what they have achieved every now and then.

However, it is generally known that grading of Writing and Speaking can only be done by authorized, certified IELTS assessor. I feel like not having such capacity and this has given headache when it comes to predicting students' score and formulating the best way to evaluate their study achievement.

So far, I simply use my intuition and never give them the exact number for the score. If I say that their writing or speaking is good, then it is definitely good (proven by the test score). If I say they need to improve it, it usually means that they're gonna need some time to work on it. The intuition is always right so far, but in a case where the office asks for student report, this method is no longer preferable.

So I have recently tried to formulate a simple calculation to predict Speaking score (and later, Writing score). This is not a sophisticated statistical calculation or anything like that (You see, I am no mathematician and I can't stand such mathematical shitstorm so let's just keep it simple). I checked out several articles about what's-so-called rubrics scoring and it seems quite legit and do-able. So I read and read and read, and I tried to apply it in IELTS band score calculation. Let's see how it works 👇

So IELTS band score is ranging from 0 to 10, in which zero indicates that the test taker does not attempt the test at all. I do not want to bother with the zero so let's just omit it and presume that all people pay hundreds of dollars to actually take the test, like, really take the test and not just pay.

The score is divided into three levels of skill, namely Basic Independent and Proficient. This is too broad tho, so let's combine it with CEFR grading. I do not know for sure what kind of criteria is graded in IELTS Speaking(again, I am not a certified assessor), but a list of criteria below should be good enough in  predicting someone's speaking skill. There are only eight of them, but please add any other criteria if you deem it necessary.

Besides these criteria, the score will also be based on a more specific speaking band descriptor. It is so long and tedious and I don't want to bother writing it here. Please find it on the internet. I simply give you a note under the criteria, just in case there are other criteria or consideration being made for the test takers. And, yes, the note is based on speaking band descriptor so you may want to read it first.

SPEAKING SCORING CRITERIA

Criteria
             and                            Score
Basic User
1-3
Independent User
4-6
Proficient User
7-9
Fluency



Pronunciation



Comprehension



Vocabulary Range



Organization of Ideas



Relevancy



Grammatical Range Accuracy



Coherence & Cohesion




CEFR Equivalent
IELTS Band
CEFR Level
1.0-3.0
A1 A2
4.0-5.0
B1
5.5-6.5
B2
7.0-8.0
C1
9.0
C2


Note
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..............

Now, it is time for trying out!
Say I have a student named Smitty Werben Jagerman Jensen. He is trying out his speaking so he speaks and speaks and speaks. Based on a professional judgement, his score can be described as follows:

SPEAKING SCORING CRITERIA
Criteria
    and
    Score
Basic  User
1-3
Independent        User
4-6

Proficient       User
7-9
Fluency


 7
Pronunciation

 6.5

Comprehension


 7
Vocabulary Range

6.0 

Organization of Ideas

6.0

Relevancy

 6.5

Grammatical Range Accuracy

 5.0

Coherence & Cohesion

 5.0


CEFR Equivalent
IELTS Band
CEFR Level
1.0-3.0
A1 A2
4.0-5.0
B1
5.5-6.5
B2
7.0-8.0
C1
9.0
C2


Note

1.Smitty has a problem with the process of generating ideas. 

2. Taking too much time to think but showing no hesitation and there were not too many pauses in is speech.
3. His grammar is accurate but he does not use complex sentence at all
4. and so on and so on...




……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

In general, Smitty got overall 49. The overall score is divided by 72, and then multiplied by 9.0. It appears that Smitty got 6.125 for his speaking. You know that it should not not be rounded up if the decimal is less that .25. His final score is 6.0

That's all for now, I do hope that it will help you predict you Speaking rough score (despite the inaccuracy). I do hope that you all have feedback (critics, so that I know what is wrong, suggestion so that it can be improved). But before giving the feedback, please read my disclaimer below.

Disclaimer:
1. The grading is only used for a rough prediction, it may or may not be accurate. I am just trying to help myself here, but I'd be glad if you find it useful too 👍

2. IELTS official assessment is only done by certified assessor and I am NOT a certified assessor, the scoring is used to predict the score, not to calculate your exact score

3. This article is written for information purpose only, I am not representing any institution

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Speaking Material

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