IELTS writing and speaking

[saqibali]

What about reading section?
1)Does spelling and grammar both counts?
2)What if the answer requires you to abridge/rephrase a sentence into two words ?In this case answer of all people will be different?will all answer be correct?
3)Does computer read our answer sheet? or a human?I hear only computer read our answer sheets.
4)If computer read our answer sheet, in that case sometimes our writing get illegible(Can not be read with using a human mind because of too personalized writing style of people) such a way that a machine can never distinguish characters?Whats happen in such case?
5)Is some particular writing style is recommended to write answers(both listening and reading)
Like a)Saqib b)SAQIB c)S A Q I B

6)Is it acceptable to write answer in a way that all alphabets are much much interconnected and inserted into each other(Like a normal handwriting ...Like people normally do) or write alphabets with separately so that a machine could read them? Example(http://www.crossway.org/blog/wp-cont...ature.jpg]This Is My Signature There Are Many Like It But This One Is Mine My[/url])

Please answer all above questions one by one.I feel that I lost my marks for these reasons only as I was sure about my answers and result was 2 bands lower.

[pudpep04]

From the information I got during an IELTS Preparation Course, before IELTS test papers are approved, all questions for all modules would have to go through some series of testing (checks and balances). It is done to avoid any apparent or possible errors that may have happened during the test planning. So, I think you can be rest assured that the answers for all questions, including the reading module, are correct. And yes, spelling and grammar must be correct and I think the envigilators' supervisor in every test would have explicitly said this "...Clear writing is important. Spelling and grammar are also important...". So, if you believe and are confident, based on answers you have given during the test, that you should get a higher mark then there must be other explanation(s).

I am still not sure myself how they mark the reading or listening. All I know is they have already got fixed answers for all questions of both modules. So, you will only either lose or gain marks. If they only let computers to check for the answers, there would be some software that enables writing and characters recognising. I believe they use both computer and manual checking system. What computerised system can't do or fails to do can only be checked and fixed by human.

About your marks, I was once like you believing I have done well but the results spoke otherwise. I did some reflections and I must admit that there might just be some genuine errors I probably had made. These could be writing the correct answers but they might not be done accroding to the instructions e.g. I might give two-word or more answer when the instruction might have only asked me to give ONLY one-word answer for each question; or sometimes for a chunk of short answer questions there was a box down below full of options for each possible answer and each would be alphabetically numbered, then I would be asked to give answer of the alphabet (such as "B. pollution") only i.e. "B" but I might have answered "pollution" instead. Or for some multiple choice questions there are some questions if you read each of them as a whole sentence, it might lead you to believe the answer would indicate some concept of understanding in a specific paragrapth in the passage while in fact the correct answer would have had to refer to a specific word in the question with the correct answer laid in a different paragraph.

However, if you had already noted all these possibilities and had already avoided them then the only possible answers might lay within the IELTS' conspiracy theories that have been growing over times by many test takers... lol I have done IELTS test for 7 times and personally I believe even though IELTS is regarded as one of the most desired English testing systems, there are still some important flaws need to be addressed sooner. Here in Australia these conspiracy theories refer to the the relationship of the IELTS' business model and the Federal Government's (political) roles within IDP Australia. SPOOOOOOOOKIEEEEEEEEE If you understand the organisational structure of IELTS' ownership you will understand what I mean...