Understanding your PET writing scores

Understanding your assessment

Written Production

PET

Level B1

Any written assignment will be graded using this rubric. This is the Cambridge B1 rubric for intermediate written English production. To help you understand what each of the criteria means, click on the slides.

Content

What does this mean?

Content is all about what you write. We check that you answered the writing prompt and completed the task. For this, it is important to stay on task and write relevant information. You should include all the important points the task asks for. If you leave out information from the prompt, or write about something else, your score goes down. To better understand your results, click on the icon and look up your score.

Your rubric has a scale of 1-5. To help you understand what your score means, click on the icon to the right.

Communicative Achievement

What does this mean?

Communicative achievement is about writing in a way that is easy to understand, and appropriate for the task. Each writing task has a format and a style:

• Emails can be formal or informal, have 6 parts, and should be around 100 words.
• Articles should be interesting, engaging, four paragraphs and around 120-150 words.
• Stories are always in the past tense, descriptive, and have a clear beginning, middle and end. They should be around 120-150 words.

To get a good score in this criteria, you should write in a natural way, respect the format of each task, and remember to use punctuation and capitalization!

Your rubric has a scale of 1-5. To help you understand what your score means, click on the icon to the right.

Organisation

What does this mean?

As you might guess, this is about how you organize your writing. The easier it is to read and follow, the higher your score. Your writing should have structure, and clear paragraphs for different ideas. The ideas should flow naturally, and you should connect your ideas with linking words. Your work should not feel like random sentences put together. Using transitions to move between ideas is helpful.

Your rubric has a scale of 1-5. To help you understand what your score means, click on the icon to the right.

Language

What does this mean?

Your rubric combines grammar and vocabulary as one criteria, labeled "language". This means that to score highly, you need to demonstrate your skills in both areas. To score highly in vocabulary, you should have a wide range of everyday vocabulary as well as less common and appropriate words. Reflect on the task topic and brainstorm less common vocabulary before writing! To score highly in grammar, you should have a mix of simple and complex tenses. Mistakes are okay, but keep it at a minimum for higher marks. You want to show off the grammar you know! Find appropriate moments to use advanced grammar. Mistakes are okay, and even expected. You do not have to write perfectly, but when making mistakes, your overall meaning should still be clear.

Your rubric has a scale of 1-5. To help you understand what your score means, click on the icon to the right.