An interview with an ESL exam industry insider

Discover how to become an ESL examiner, what it takes to land a job writing exams and why it pays to make your own materials

Photo by Darius Bashar on Unsplash

This month TEFL Insider interviews a veteran online IELTS examiner and national exam writer to discover the skills exam bodies look for in examiners and how to land an ESL exam writing job

Our interviewee has worked as an examiner for both the Cambridge and International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exams. They also have many years’ experience writing exam questions for the Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program (CELPIP); a general English test for Canadian immigration and citizenship. To protect the integrity of the exams, our interviewee has opted to remain anonymous.

A: Hello and thanks for meeting me. You started your examination career as a Cambridge examiner, how did you first get into this field?

E: In 2008 I was teaching in a good academy in Istanbul and they had an exams department which offered speaking-exam training for teachers. Teachers at the academy did exam preparation classes and if you had enough years’ experience doing that, they invited you for training to be an examiner for the speaking exam.

Cambridge examiner criteria

E: To be a Cambridge examiner you must apply to the local British Council Exams Agent (usually an academy or school) and in your application prove that you have proficiency in English and experience teaching generally as well as good familiarity with Cambridge exams. If you are accepted, you do a day’s training with Cambridge examiners who teach you to accurately assess speaking levels of candidates, as well as how to reliably conduct the various speaking exams in the Cambridge Suite (for kids or for adults). It is not guaranteed that you will certify.

The reading and listening parts of the exam are graded either by a software system or hand-checked by staff and the written part is sent to the UK for evaluation by examiners trained in examining the candidates written responses.

IELTS examiner criteria

E: The qualification for IELTS examiners is more stringent. I’m not sure what they are at the moment but you needed a degree, a higher level of English (proven native or C2) and you need a fair amount of teaching experience to adults as well as very good knowledge of the IELTS test. You can apply to either British Council or IDP IELTS locations around the world (examiners work for one or the other, not both). There is an application form and if you are accepted you do an interview and then a training which takes a few days. In some places they may ask you to pay for training and in others they provide training for free. Then you have to certify which involves scoring some tests within a limited tolerance for error. Once you certify, you will be monitored to ensure that you deliver the test reliably and that your scores are accurate.

Some exam centres administer both the Cambridge Exams Suite and IELTS. If this is the case, you still can’t just transfer to IELTS. You must undergo the whole process of application to certification for IELTS in all cases. But of course, experience with Cambridge Suite gives your application a leg-up on other candidates for IELTS examiner.

A: What was your experience of being a Cambridge examiner?

E: It was a great job because our school’s exam centre sent us around the country to examine and the travel was covered. I got to see different parts of Turkey and it was paid well. But it isn’t/wasn’t a full-time thing even when teaching overseas, it’s part time and often seasonal. (i.e. more at the end of the school year) and Cambridge Suite of Exams are not in demand here in my home country at all. It might be in more demand in the UK, but of course, much less than in a foreign country.

A: What happened when you returned to your home country?

E: When I returned to Canada, I was able to bring my IELTS examiner qualification and the exam body did all the paperwork to transfer it here. I worked with IDP IELTS in Istanbul (it is the same for British Council IELTS). They are global so if you move you can request that your home centre transfer your IELTS qualification to any IDP exam centre where you want to work. If they need examiners, and they usually do, you carry on examining as usual for the new centre. People move around the world with this qualification and do it alongside their teaching, so that’s a positive.

I also transitioned to doing online exams during the pandemic. IDP determined they needed online speaking examiners to continue offering their tests in the pandemic, and online was a safer option. I was trained and hired out to a Canadian university to do online speaking exams for them. This work is increasing now as they are building a global hub where examiners can be assigned to various places around the world to do online IELTS speaking exams.

A: What is it like to be an IELTS examiner?

E: I am still an IELTS examiner and I grade both the writing and speaking exam. The speaking exam is conducted with students online.

The writing exam

E: Again working with your IDP or British Council Exam Centre, you can also be trained as an IELTS Writing Examiner (which involves more applications, interviews, trainings and certification). After that you can score written exams for candidates in your exam centre. If you want to be an online writing examiner, there is another training, to understand the whole process of getting tests to score, scoring them and all the administrative work. To be accepted you have to make a commitment of scoring a certain number of written exams after an exam day. The demand increases or decreases as IELTS gets busier at different times of the year. For instance, you may be expected to score 100 exams per day after an exam is offered in the busy season. Personally, I like to be accurate so I’m slower than many and I never quite reach that benchmark. The problem with IELTS now, as with all exams, is that it is under a lot more pressure to be competitive and return results faster, so we have to deliver more as examiners.

The IELTS speaking exam

E: The speaking exam is easier for me because there is a limit on how many sessions an examiner is allowed to do online or face-to-face. In Turkey, we were limited to doing 18 tests in a day. Here in Canada we are limited to twelve face-to-face candidates which takes four hours+. When we do online examining, it is maximum of nine tests a day. It is great because it generally pays well and it is usually on a Saturday. But, this is not a full time job as you only do speaking or writing examining when there is a test and the tests are scheduled two or three Saturdays a month and there is the odd Thursday exam as well. Writing can be more days and more full-time, but full-time writing examining is not for me; too much stress. I prefer speaking exams.

A: Can any ESL teacher become an online IELTS examiner?

E: No, any ESL teacher can apply and the exam body will consider your application. [If you are accepted they will] train you and certify you, but anyone can be told they don’t meet expectations at any point in this process. That includes me, an experienced examiner, if my scores and delivery of the test do not meet expectations today. I get a couple of chances and then my certification to examine is revoked and I cannot continue examining. IELTS is a highly regarded, high-stakes (for candidates) global test and the reliability, accuracy, validity and security of the test is taken very, very seriously and this isn’t for everyone. I find it interesting, but lots of people find testing stressful, boring or frustrating.

Also it depends on location…

E: The online IDP IELTS exam project is currently limited to examiners located in Canada, UK and Australia, which is why I am able to do online examining in Canada. But I have heard that some exam centres in Europe are beginning to offer this possibility.

On to exam writing…

Firstly, which exam you are eligible to write for depends on where you live

E: If you want to write for the Cambridge Suite exams or the IELTS exam you must live in the UK. If you want to write questions for the TOEFL exam, you must live in the USA.

A: How did you transition from Cambridge and IELTS examiner to writing exams?

E: Once I left Turkey, I had all this experience with examining. I applied to a job post (I can’t remember where, but probably on Indeed, or a teaching recruitment site) advertising a position to create questions for the Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program (CELPIP).

When I interviewed with them, the organisation was most interested in seeing the materials that I had produced at the academy I had worked for in Turkey. I had lots to show them because while I was working in Istanbul, IELTS had developed a new test; IELTS Life Skills, for people applying for a spousal visa to live (but not work) in the UK. This was a brand-new exam and so there were no materials to prepare for it. For this reason, I developed my own materials based on the sample exams we had for students. Some of these materials were similar in style to some CELPIP exam questions.

Based on this, I was accepted as an exam item writer for the CELPIP. When I started, I learned a lot about the process and how the exam is made. The creation of a single exam question is a two-year process at least. First you write the question. This then goes away for assessment of bias, accessibility and ability to differentiate responses from low-level to higher-level candidates. After many edits, it gets tested with ESL students in an exam simulation. Based on the statistical results, it will be tested again until it generates valid and reliable scores or it will be scrapped. It is a long process until your exam question becomes part of an exam.

A: What was your work agreement with the CELPIP and what was working for it like?

E: Most exam writers work on an annual contract basis and you accept or reject as much work as you want. Working for the CELPIP was a good gig until I got bored. I learned lots about writing exam content.

Final thoughts from our examiner

E: The world of examining is changing, just as teaching is. There are exams that are scored by computer programs and many others are delivered online with or without a speaking or writing part. Cambridge largely continues to be almost unique with their continuation of face-to-face and in person as well as online exams. They used to be the only game in town, now they are feeling pushed to change too.

I hope you enjoyed reading this illuminating interview and thanks so much to our examiner for taking part. If you haven’t done already please subscribe for more articles on the world of TEFL. Bye for now!