Should I do my IELTS exam with the British Council or IDP?
This is a very common question and this may be one of our most important posts ever!!
We had recommended the British Council 100% for a very important reason but it looks like IDP now do the same. You are able to get a breakdown of your IELTS writing and speaking scores from the British Council, and IDP. So, if you got 6.5 in your writing, you can email the British Council or IDP to get them to send the breakdown of your scores and they will send you something like this.
You will actually be able to see your scores…..FINALLY!!
So, why now?
The short version is freedom of information. We don’t know about IDP as they operate out of Australia (We are in the UK), but the British Council operate under EU law. The EU general data protection regulation (GDPR) law that came into effect in 2018 means that you can access any information concerning you. IELTS is part of this.
How can you do this?
You have to email the British Council/IDP to get the breakdown. They will not just send you a breakdown of your writing; you must request it.
Is this important?
Yes, it changes everything. You can now find out exactly what you need to work on when it comes to your writing.
Can I find out exactly what affected by score?
Unfortunately, no. Your writing isn’t touched or marked so if you look at the example above, you won’t actually know what the problem with your Task 1 actually was.
If you want to know exactly what is stopping you from getting the score you need, then you can get an IELTS examiner to assess and correct your writing here. They will show you exactly what you need to do to get higher marks
Comments (4)
Unfortunately, in India, since idp has taken complete control over British council in India… I dnt think that getting breakdown of scores in writing n speaking would b possible.
Good news Lubna. After some investigating and online chats, IDP also provide this service. They don’t advertise it as it’s more work for them but you can also ask for this information from IDP.
That’s great! Thank you so much 🙂
[…] With the new breakdowns of scores being available, before you apply for EOR, you can now see what you got in the writing/speaking and make a more informed decision on whether to pay for EOR or not. If you don’t know how to get a breakdown of your IELTS score, then you need to read this post. […]