Here’s what I would ask the IELTS partners regarding the ongoing issues with incorrect IELTS scores:
- What exactly was the problem?
- Exactly how many tests were affected by this problem? “Less than 1%” sounds nice on paper, but that could mean anywhere from 1 to 70,000 tests.
- Were any administrations from before August 2023 impacted by the problem? IELTS has contacted test takers who must be given new score reports. But what of test takers whose results have expired since they took the test? Did any of them receive incorrect scores?
- Are there any instances where a test was incorrectly scored, but a band score change was not necessary (and, by extension, the test taker was not contacted)? If so, how many? And if so, were these included in the “less than 1%” figure given to score users?
- Were any IELTS UKVI administrations (SELT) impacted by this problem? If so, has the Home Office been informed of cases where received scores are inaccurate?