Submitted by: Hamed.gh
Complaint Details:
I am writing to express my deep dissatisfaction with marking procedure applied on IELTS writing section. Please allow me to elaborate on my complaint thoroughly.
First of all, as an Associate professor in English Language Teaching (ELT), I have been teaching English formally, both as university professor and IELTS instructor, since 12 years ago. I have a PhD in ELT and a TESOL Cert IV. from Australian Qualification Framework. I have also attended numerous workshops held by IDP IELTS in my country. You may kindly find the documents in the attached files.
As an individual possessing a PhD in ELT from an International university, as well as living and teaching in native-speaking country for more than 7 years, I would definitely consider myself to be well-qualified and highly proficient in English. The result of my most recent IELTS proves this as well, with Reading 9, Listening and Speaking 8. However, the problem here is with my writing score, which is non-academically marked as 6.5.
Basically, is it, in your opinion, possible for a person, who has written a PhD thesis in English, published more than 50 articles in internationally recognized journals, taught in native and non-native countries and been IELTS instructor for more than 10 years to get 6.5?! It seems practically ridiculous and ludicrous!
I certainly did not have ANY kind of grammatical problems, and any spelling mistakes, any deviation from topic and surely I observed all the rules of essay writing for IELTS like: CC, TA, Gr, Vocab, Number of words, etc.. Therefore, I find the assigned mark totally illogical and unfair, not to say suspicious!
I am expecting you to take immediate action by taking this matter seriously and asking the related manager to remark my paper. I filled out the Enquiry on Results Form and delivered it to the center exactly on the day I received the results. This, along with other documents like the receipt of remarking, is attached.
Your timely attention to this matter is needed and, unfortunately, if no satisfactory result is obtained, I am ready to take my complaint to higher authorities as well as public. I will definitely send a letter of complaint to Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Then, the same kind of letter will be sent to Australian Consumer Affairs, and finally go to Small Claims Tribunal.
Waiting for your response.
Thank you
Dr. Hamed Ghaemi