so how do IELTS examiners assess your essay in other words how do IELTS examiners
use this document to assess your essay well IELTS examiners compare your essay against the band
descriptors the descriptions of essays in the assessment criteria document so they compare
your essay against the band descriptors and they will start by first comparing your essay
against the band descriptors in the lower bands so for example even if they think your essay might
be around say band 5 or 6 for task response then they might first quickly check your essay against
band 4 to make sure your essay isn't really a band 4 essay to make sure that you're better
than band 4 so let's quickly look at band 4 so the band descriptor for band 4 task response
it's got a bunch of statements in there and some of those statements have some positive elements so
presents a position presents some main ideas but the descriptors also have some negative elements
in there as well so inappropriate unclear difficult to identify repetitive irrelevant
not well supported and so on so the IELTS examiner will compare your essay against
these descriptors and if your essay has all of the positive points all the statements in green
so if your essay does present a position and it does present some main ideas and if your essay has
none of the negative points none of the points in red so if your essay does not respond to the task
only in a minimal way in other words it's better than that or if your answer is not tangential
I'll explain that term in a later video so if your answer is not tangential it's better than that
then you've definitely got at least a band 4 and the examiner will look further up the sheet to
band 5 to see if your essay can get a band five but if your essay has any of the negative points
so if your essay does respond to the task only in a minimal way if your answer is tangential
then you're going to be stuck at band 4. it doesn't matter how well you've presented your
position and it doesn't matter how well you presented some main ideas
you cannot go higher than band 4 if you have any of the negative points you've hit a ceiling
if your essay does not have all of the positive points
so if you don't present a position if you don't present some main ideas then you slide down from
band 4 to band 3 and the IELTS examiner will check your essay against the band three descriptors
this is quite an important concept to understand so if your essay has any of the negative points
in a particular band your essay is stuck at that band you cannot go higher
and again if your essay has all of the positive points and none of the negative points then the
examiner will look further up the sheet to the next band up so let's go there now
band 5. so next the IELTS examiner would compare your essay against the band 5
descriptors to see if you can get a band 5 or if you can go even higher than that
so again at band 5 there are some positive points expresses a position presents some main ideas
and there are some negative points as well so partially developmed is not always clear no
conclusions limited and so on so again if your essay has any of the negative points
then you cannot go higher than band five you've hit the ceiling so if your if your essay addresses
the task only partially or if the format of your essay is inappropriate in places you
cannot go higher than band 5 and that's your final score for task response
if your essay does not have all of the positive points so if you don't express a position if you
don't present some main ideas then you slide back down to band 4 and that will be your final score
for task response but if your essay has all of the positive points
and none of the negative points then the examiner will look further up the sheet to band
6. let's go there now
and again at band 6 there are some positive points addresses all parts of the task relevant position
relevant main ideas and some negative points as well more fully covered than others
conclusions might be unclear or repetitive again i'll explain all these terms during the course
of this section of the course and again if your essay has any of the negative points you cannot
go higher than band six you've hit the ceiling so if your essay addresses some parts more fully than
others you cannot go higher than band six even if you have a relevant position relevant main ideas
and that would be your final band score for task response band 6 if your essay does not have all
of the positive points so if you if you don't address all parts of the task then you slide back
down to band 5 and that will be your final score but if your essay has all of the positive points
and none of the negative points then the examiner will look further up the sheet to band seven
which is where you want to get to and as with the other bands there are some positive points at band
seven and also some negative points there as well you'll notice I think that at band 7 there are
fewer negative points there's fewer stuff in red than in the lower bands so if your essay has again
any of the negative points so if you're supporting ideas lack focus then you're stuck at band 7
and that will be your final score for task response if your essay does not have all of
the positive points so if you don't present a clear position throughout the response then
you slide back down the sheet to band six and that will be your final score for task response
but as with the other bands if your essay has all of the positive points and none
of the negative points then your essay can go higher than band 7 so the IELTS examiner will
check your essay against the band 8 descriptors what this all means is that in order to get a band
7 you also need to understand the band descriptors at band 6 band 5 and even band 4.
and that's because just a reminder to get a band 7 your essay must have
all of the positive descriptors and none of the negative descriptors
from band 6 and below and so when I explain the assessment criteria in this section of the course
i will take you through band 4 band 5 and band 6 as well as band 7 so you understand all of the
positive points and all of the negative points at each of these lower bands and i'll also show
you band 8 and band 9 as well so now we're going to look in depth at each of the four criteria the
four assessment criteria so that you know exactly what they mean and exactly what you have to do
in order to get a band seven or higher for each of them and we're going to start with task response