A few days ago I completed the writing component of the British Council’s EnglishScore Test. I unlocked this component by first completing the EnglishScore “Core Skills” Test. You can read my thoughts on that test in an earlier post. This is a mobile-only test which takes 30-40 minutes to complete.
As I noted in that post, the EnglishScore Test is used by individuals seeking to increase their employability, as well as institutions. The test is free, but an official digital certificate can be purchased for $24.99. Below find my own certificate, which includes derpy photos taken while I completed the test (a security feature).
A few notes:
- The content of the writing test is determined by the test taker’s score on the core skills test. According to the test’s validity report, test takers are placed into one of three streams based on those results. The stream affects the difficulty and nature of the questions they get.
- A mobile-only writing test is a bold proposition. Some might find it awkward to write 70-word responses on a phone. Needless to say, auto-complete and spelling suggestions are turned off. Test takers should probably practice this skill.
- There are four types of tasks on the writing test: write what you hear, respond to a question, describe a picture, have a chat.
- Instructions can sometimes be a bit clumsy. At the beginning of the short answer section I was told to write as much as I could. When the questions themselves appeared, I was told to write between 50 and 70 words. When I exceeded 100 words, the word counter turned red and I lost the ability to manually submit my answer. I let time run out without deleting anything, and I suppose my answer was submitted.
- My approach to tutoring would probably focus on achieving grammatical perfection (or as close as possible). On top of that, I would remind students to show off a bit of grammatical sophistication (probably through the use of coordinating and subordinating conjunctions) and squeeze in a few uncommon words.
- Results arrived in less than 24 hours. I’m not sure of the exact amount of time, because I didn’t get a notification. Perhaps one should be added. My certificate was available a couple hours after I requested it.
- In addition to an overall score, the certificate includes subscores: language, organization and communication.
- Most of the scoring is done by AI. Some of the scoring is done via peer review. I think this approach is innovative, but some could feel otherwise. Details are provided in the test’s validity document (I’ll link to this in the comments). At least 16 different peers (other test takers) assess the responses of a given test taker. I think I assessed 20 at the end of my test.
- A printed certificate is not available for the writing test. Only a digital version is available.
- There are quite a few practice questions and responses on the EnglishScore website.
I’ll take the speaking component when I have a moment.
