In order to be eligible TOEFL iBT raters must:
- Reside in the U.S or Hawaii.
- Be a U.S citizen or reside in the U.S.
- Hold a B.A. or higher degree.
- Be experienced in assessing non-native speakers written or spoken English.
- Be qualified in teaching English as a foreign language.
How will your responses be marked?
Raters are trained to score responses using the holistic method which is based on the theory that the entirety of your response is more important than its individual parts. With this method your responses are marked on the total impression that they create, rather than their individual aspects.
How are the raters trained?
An online interactive tutorial web site provides everything a potential rater needs including:
- Information on assessing the written and spoken parts of the exam.
- Instruction in the scoring process.
- Practice in scoring actual TOEFL iBT responses.
- Internet software instruction. Internet scoring procedures and policies.
How are sessions conducted?
Each session may last between 4-8 hours and they are overseen by a scoring leader, who is highly experienced in TOEFL iBT scoring. The sessions begin with a practice set of essays which are designed to help the raters calibrate their judgments against TOEFL iBT standards. If questions arise during this calibration or actual scoring, the rater and scoring leader can telephone each other to dicuss any problems at hand.
