SCORE DESCRIPTION
BAND 5
A fully successful response
The response is a relevant and very clearly expressed contribution to the online discussion, and it demonstrates consistent
facility in the use of language.
A typical response displays the following:
• Relevant and well-elaborated explanations, exemplifications, and/or details
• Effective use of a variety of syntactic structures and precise, idiomatic word choice
• Almost no lexical or grammatical errors other than those expected from a competent writer writing under timed conditions
(e.g., common typos or common misspellings or substitutions like there/their)
BAND 4
A generally successful response
The response is a relevant contribution to the online discussion, and facility in the use of language allows the writer’s ideas to be
easily understood.
A typical response displays the following:
• Relevant and adequately elaborated explanations, exemplifications, and/or details
• A variety of syntactic structures and appropriate word choice
• Few lexical or grammatical errors
BAND 3
A partially successful response
The response is a mostly relevant and mostly understandable contribution to the online discussion, and there is some facility in
the use of language.
A typical response displays the following:
• Elaboration in which part of an explanation, example, or detail may be missing, unclear, or irrelevant
• Some variety in syntactic structures and a range of vocabulary
• Some noticeable lexical and grammatical errors in sentence structure, word form, or use of idiomatic language
BAND 2
A mostly unsuccessful response
The response reflects an attempt to contribute to the online discussion, but limitations in the use of language
may make ideas hard to follow.
A typical response displays the following:
• Ideas that may be poorly elaborated or only partially relevant
• A limited range of syntactic structures and vocabulary
• An accumulation of errors in sentence structure, word forms, or use
BAND 1
An unsuccessful response
The response reflects an ineffective attempt to contribute to the online discussion, and limitations in the use of language may
prevent the expression of ideas.
A typical response may display the following:
• Words and phrases that indicate an attempt to address the task but with few or no coherent ideas
• Severely limited range of syntactic structures and vocabulary
• Serious and frequent errors in the use of language
• Minimal original language; any coherent language is mostly borrowed from the stimulus
0
The response is blank, rejects the topic, is not in English, is entirely copied from the prompt,
is entirely unconnected to the prompt, or consists of arbitrary keystrokes