The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) has announced a new feature called IELTS One Skill Retake, which aims to help test-takers achieve their global learning and career goals. The feature will be rolled out globally later this year, following a limited launch in Australia.

IELTS One Skill Retake will allow test-takers to redo one of the four language skills (Listening, Reading, Writing, or Speaking) if they did not achieve the score they aimed for the first time.

According to the IELTS Research Team, based on the perspectives of test takers, academic input and internally conducted validation research, candidates will now be permitted to retake a single component of the test if they believe that they did not perform to the best of their ability on that component. They will only be able to retake a single component once within 60 days of their original test.

Christine Nuttall, from Cambridge University Press & Assessment, said that the One Skill Retake feature would improve fairness in the testing process. She stated, “IELTS One Skill Retake improves fairness by providing an opportunity to retake a single skill if the test-taker feels their original performance was not representative of their language ability.”

The new feature will not compromise the integrity of the test, and the format and scoring system will remain the same. The scores of the retaken skill will be averaged with the original scores, and the overall band score will be recalculated.

The IELTS One Skill Retake policy is not meant to encourage test-takers to rely on retakes to achieve a higher score. Instead, it is intended to give test-takers a chance to focus on their weakest skill and improve their overall language proficiency. The retake policy will not apply to those who have achieved a score of 9.0, the highest possible score in the test.

IELTS is a globally recognized English language proficiency test taken by over three million people annually. It is accepted by over 10,000 organizations in more than 140 countries for academic, immigration, and professional purposes.

Find more information here:

https://www.ielts.org/news/2022/announcing-ielts-one-skill-retake

https://www.ielts.org/-/media/research-reports/ielts-one-skill-retake—position-paper—2022.ashx