Dear all,

I am an ESOL teacher in the UK. Next year I have a very dyslexic student who will need to take the IELTS exam for entry to British universities and I am very worried about this.

Her spoken English is very good but her dyslexia means that it takes her a long time to read, process information and structure essays logically. However, the main issue is her spelling. No matter how hard she tries, she always makes spelling mistakes. She inverts letters in simple words such as “where” which we are working on, but more complex words are impossible for her. She tries her hardest to learn spelling rules but when it comes to an exam situation her work is littered with errors.

I know that dyslexic students are permitted extra time in the IELTS exam which should allow her to finish the papers, but is seems so unfair that her spelling mistakes will still be penalised and this will seriously affect her band scores.

In her A Level exams she is not only allowed extra time, but also a scribe to write her exams for her. I can’t believe that IELTS do not allow this.

Do any of you have any success stories of very dyslexic students achieving a strong band score at IELTS or any advice for me?

Thank you