Assessment and progression

We constantly review our assessment regime to ensure it meets the requirements of the academic departments to which our students progress. This means that details of assessments may be subject to change.

For all our Pre-sessional English courses, you can learn about assessments by reading the information below.

Assessment: 40 week and 30 week

During the 40 week and 30 week course, you'll be assessed informally on your progress in all four skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) with tasks which may include essay writing, comprehension tests, presentations and a portfolio of reflective assignments. These formative tests will be used to help you understand your level, your progress, and areas that you need to work on. The assessments may take place either during the 10 week stage or at the end of the block of study. If during the stage or by the end of the stage we feel you're not making satisfactory progress, we'll allow you to move to the next course. However, you'll need to complete an Individual Learning Plan to guide and document the additional work you're undertaking to improve your level of English.

Assessment: 20 week

Your English skills will be assessed mid-way through the 20 week course and at the end of the block of study. The assessments comprise reading-to-write essays, summary listening tests, and an individual presentation and group seminar discussion. You'll need to demonstrate the appropriate level of English in all four skills and overall to progress to the 10 week summer course. There are no resit opportunities. If you don't achieve the required score, you won't be allowed to continue with your Pre-sessional studies and we'll withdraw you from the course. If you're holding a Student Route visa and you're withdrawn from the course, UKVI regulations mean that you'll need to leave the UK within a specified time.

Final assessment

All students will take the same final assessments during the last four weeks of the Pre-sessional course.

The English Language Centre (ELC) takes an integrated approach to assessment on the summer courses. This means that we don't test speaking, listening, reading and writing skills separately. As is the case on your academic courses, you'll need to combine all four skills in different assessments to be successful.

Your ability to understand spoken English is assessed using academic lectures as the basis for group discussions in the lectures and seminar discussions element of your course. Your understanding of written English is assessed by your ability to incorporate ideas from authentic academic journal articles, books, reports and/or other professional texts into your Research Project, with a target level of CEFR B2/C1.

Your speaking skills are assessed in group discussions and an individual reflective presentation.

The Research Project is a 1500-word essay. The titles are related to your academic programme.

There may be some slight differences in the delivery of assessments on online courses due to the circumstances of online assessment.

Progression to academic study

The marks from your final assessments are used to calculate an overall mark.

Our Pre-sessional assessment grades are aligned with the CEFR. The score you need to achieve to proceed to your academic course will be different depending on the direct entry requirements for your chosen academic course. For example, students for whom the direct entry requirement is IELTS 7.0 will need a higher score in the final Pre-sessional assessments than students who've been asked for IELTS 6.5 in their direct entry conditions.

In addition to the overall mark, you'll need to achieve a minimum score in each skill to meet the English language requirements of UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI). If you don't meet this requirement, you won't be able to progress to your academic course and will have to return home. Please note that you won't be able to combine your Pre-sessional scores with scores you've obtained on other tests to demonstrate proof of your English language level.

Most students who successfully complete the Pre-sessional course won't need to retake IELTS before moving on to their academic programmes. Please check the conditions in your offer letter.