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Frequently Asked Questions

Am I required to take English classes during my studies at AIT?

Students with scores 5.0 and 5.5 are required to attend mandatory English writing courses and pass EL19 in order to graduate.


Why is my score 4.5 or below?

  • Task Fulfillment: The writer tries to answer the topic question, but cannot because key points and details are missing and the writing does not make sense due to poor grammar and information that is not related to the topic.
  • Coherence & Cohesion: The writing is difficult to understand. Paragraphs and sentences are not linked together; the reader cannot understand the information.
  • Vocabulary & Sentence Structure: The writer makes mistakes in nearly every sentence. Some sentences have no verbs; some have no subject. Many words are misspelled, or the wrong word is used. There are so many grammar errors that the reader feels stress when trying to understand what is written.
  • Suggestion: The writer must learn basic grammar and must study and read more in English to learn more words and sentence patterns.

Why is my score 5.0?

  • Task Fulfillment: The writer mostly answers the topic question, but details are missing and some parts do not make sense. There are some serious grammar mistakes, but the reader can understand.
  • Coherence & Cohesion: The writer does not link the parts of the answer together correctly. Different points of the answer are mixed together or repeated again and again. It is difficult for the reader to understand the writer’s ideas.
  • Vocabulary & Sentence Structure: The writer does not know enough English words to express her or his ideas. Some simple sentences are correct, but many sentences contain grammar errors. The writer does not use singular and plural forms correctly. Subjects and verbs are often incorrect. Tenses are incorrect. Some spelling errors are rather common. The writer has not learned to use the correct forms of a word in a sentence such as develop(verb)development(noun) or economic(adjective)/economy(noun).The writer has not learned to use the correct preposition with a particular verb, noun, or adjective.
  • Suggestion: The writer must study basic grammar and must spend more time using English, especially reading more in English to learn more words, phrases and sentence patterns.

Why is my score 5.5?

  • Task Fulfillment: The writing is generally adequate, but the essay contains information that is a) incorrect,b) unrelated to the topic, or c) not suitable for academic writing; therefore the writing does not completely answer the topic question. There may also be some details missing.
  • Coherence & Cohesion: It is sometimes difficult to understand the writer’s main points because sentences are not linked together properly and the parts of the essay are not properly organized into paragraphs.
  • Vocabulary & Sentence Structure: The writer has problems expressing ideas because she or he doesn’t know enough words. Sometimes the writer uses the wrong word, which confuses the reader. The writer does not use simple, compound, and complex sentences well enough. Some sentences are grammatically correct; however, longer sentences contain many mistakes. Errors in agreement of tenses or subject/verb agreement are common. The writer does not use the correct form and meaning of nouns, verbs and adjectives: develop/developing/developed/development. The writer has not mastered which preposition to use with certain words and which words may not be used with a preposition: to discuss a topic (no prep) vs to talk about a topic.
  • Suggestion: Increasing vocabulary and practicing writing a lot as well as reading English often. The writer must read in English everyday.