Plan your assessment
We are passionate about providing a seamless assessment experience for both our centres and learners. To achieve this, we aim to provide as many supporting materials as necessary to ensure a fun, fair and fruitful assessment environment.
Oracy assessments
A single assessor from ESB International can assess learners within a five-hour day. Larger cohorts that would exceed five hours of assessing would require multiple assessors, multiple assessment days, or both. To help plan your assessments to run as efficiently as possible, our easy-to-follow guide outlines the recommended timings for every qualification across our entire Oracy portfolio, as well as the maximum number of learners a single assessor can assess per day, per qualification.
Whether you’re planning individual or group assessments, this guide ensures you’re fully prepared and making the most of your time. We recommend drafting a running order for all of your groups of learners to help your assessor(s) run the assessment as smoothly as possible.
Arranging your assessment room
You should ensure that the assessment space is prepared beforehand to avoid losing time on the assessment day itself. Remember to provide your assessor with an area that has clear visibility of both the speaker and their peers, as all learners are assessed on their listening as well as their speaking skills. Another important consideration for most of our oracy qualifications is that learners are encouraged to use visual aids during their prepared talks. If a learner has prepared a presentation, they will need access to a TV or smart board, but visual aids can also be physical objects that learners can show/demonstrate to their peers, so a small table or easel may be required for a clear display. The following diagram shows a recommended room set up for our Graded Examinations in Speech, EAL and Building Confidence in Communication qualifications.
For full guidance on delivering our Oracy qualifications, please refer to the relevant Handbook.
| Oracy Handbook for UK-based centres | Oracy Handbook for non-UK centres |
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ESOL Skills for Life assessments
A single assessor from ESB International can assess learners within a five-hour day. Larger cohorts that would exceed five hours of assessing would require multiple assessors, multiple assessment days, or both. We assess ESOL Skills for Life Speaking & Listening learners in pairs. We have prepared the following timetabling tool to help you create a smooth running order that you can you share with your assessor in advance of the assessment.
You should also that you download our ESOL Skills for Life assessment pack before your assessment pack, which contains:
- Assessment rules
- Seating plan for Reading and Writing assessments
- A register for Reading and Writing assessments
- Unauthorised items poster
- Incident report form
Arranging your assessment room
You should ensure that the assessment space is prepared beforehand to avoid losing time on the assessment day itself. Speaking & Listening learners should be paired in advance of the assessment day. The learners are permitted to take notes during the assessment, so should be provided with blank paper and a pen. Please ensure that the equipment that will be used during the Listening section of the assessment is working before the assessment starts. The following diagram shows the recommended layout for a Speaking & Listening assessment.
For full guidance on delivering our ESOL Skills for Life qualifications, please refer to the following Handbook:
| Hanndbook for ESOL Skills for Life assessments (UK centres only) |
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Organiser’s checklists
The following lists have been compiled to equip your centre organisers with ‘best practice’ tips before, during and after your assessment.
Before the day
- Thoroughly check the qualification specification to make sure you enter your learners at the appropriate level.
- Book your assessment through the ‘MyESB Hub‘. Refer to this guide if you are unsure how to do so.
- Upload all of your learners to the correct assessment in the ‘MyESB Hub. Add all Reasonable Adjustments to the appropriate learners.
- Reserve a suitable room for the assessment day.
- Contact your assessor in advance to discuss any requirements.
- Send your assessor a copy of your assessment timetable (ESOL Skills for Life only).
- Refer your learner numbers to the timings guidance document to make sure the day will run smoothly (Oracy only).
During the day
- Check that your assessor(s) will be able to access the premises and park if they need to.
- Prepare the venue as shown in the above diagrams (or as stated in the relevant qualification specification).
- Ensure that a responsible adult can supervise each session (under 18s and vulnerable adults).
- Check that all IT equipment is functioning correctly.
- Provide your assessor with the WIFI connection at your centre.
- Ensure copies of pieces, paper and pens, topic lists and running orders/timetables are provided for your assessor(s) as appropriate.
After the day
- ESB International will send your learners’ reports to you within 5 business days (10 business days during March, May, June and July).
- Please raise any concerns you may have experienced on the day to ESB directly within 15 business days upon receipt of your results.
- Review your ESB experience on Trustpilot.
- Contact ESB’s Communications Team if you would like your learners’ success to be celebrated through our channels.
- Keep across the achievements of all of your learners by downloading a Master Exam Report for your centre. To find out how to do so, please watch this helpful video tutorial.