以下来自剑桥大学的官方网站 ielts
is a high-stakes language test taken by an increasing number of candidates
world-wide. the integrity of test results is of paramount importance
to the test partners, british council, idp education australia and
the university of cambridge esol examinations. every
effort is made to ensure that ielts is administered securely and fairly
and that ielts results can be trusted as valid indicators of candidates
english language ability. it is fully recognized that it is the responsibility
of the test providers to protect the integrity of the test. it is
also recognized that the surrender &#118alue of ielts test results
will necessarily provoke repeated attempts to "beat the system."
advances in technology and the
increasing ease with which information can be transmitted have created
new challenges for test providers in their efforts to combat the attempts
of candidates to gain unfair advantage. british council, idp education
australia and cambridge esol have invested considerable resources
into a comprehensive review of test procedures to further enhance
security. test dates and test
materials ielts is a modular test. test centers are provided with
multiple versions of listening, reading, writing and speaking tests
which are withdrawn and replaced on a regular basis. as such it is
impossible for a candidate to predict which materials they will be
faced with on any one test day. smaller centers, which test less frequently,
use this material in such a way that the same combinations of test
versions are never repeated. many larger centers co-ordinate the use
of material to ensure that a particular set of test versions is delivered
at each administration and not subsequently re-used. from september
2003, ielts will only be available on 48 fixed dates throughout the
year. the test material for each of the 48 administrations will be
used once only. we are aware of
the existence of web sites offering information on ielts test materials
and the content of these sites is monitored on a regular basis. however,
on analysis it is clear that this material is of limited &#118alue
and inaccurate. before ielts results
are released to candidates they are automatically checked for any
candidate performances that do not match performance on other modules
of the test. if this is the case the papers in question are re-marked
and any anomalies investigated. the ielts partners also regularly
monitor the results of candidates at center and country level and
to date there is no evidence of systematic cheating. two
of the ielts modules, writing and speaking, are directly assessed
by trained and certificated examiners. the ielts speaking test is
an interactive event and as such the content and direction of the
interaction cannot be predicted. any attempts on the part of candidates
to memorize prepared sections of speech would be easily identified
and examiners are trained in assessing and penalizing performances
of this nature. likewise, copies of prepared ielts writing answers
are made available to examiners and any candidate responses that make
use of these copies are penalized heavily. test
centers all ielts test centers are approved by british council
or idp education australia. there is a detailed center code of practice
and a comprehensive inspection policy. all staff working on ielts
in centers are rigorously trained in ielts procedures. candidate identity
is checked throughout the testing day and a training program is being
implemented throughout the global network of test centers to ensure
staff are skilled in detecting fraudulent ids, substitute candidates
and other forms of cheating including those involving the use of sophisticated
micro-technology. test report forms the
paper used for test report forms is laser-guarded to make attempts
to alter band scores very obvious. in addition, the paper is specially
made with the letters "ielts" incorporated at regular intervals
across the page. once an ultraviolet light is run across the surface
of the test report form "ielts" is highlighted in yellow.
candidate photographs will be printed onto all ielts test report forms
from march 15, 2003. the addition of a candidate photograph is an
important security feature. it will enable organizations and institutions
using ielts scores to match the candidate who sat ielts originally
with the candidate applying to them. this will make any misuse of
test report forms easier to detect. an
online verification of results service is being developed and will
be made available in 2003 . this service will allow authorized users
to check the validity of ielts scores directly through a secure web
site database. the full security
statement is available for download from the ielts website.
来源:剑桥大学
|