Are candidates penalised for writing over-long or over-short answers?
Candidates are not penalised simply for writing more or fewer than the stipulated number of words. An exception to this is made where answers have fewer than 50 words — these are awarded a score of Band 0. However, as length of answer is a factor of task achievement, candidates would be penalised for over-long answers where the extra material is considered to be irrelevant and has a negative effect on the target reader. Similarly, a candidate who produces considerably fewer than the stipulated number of words is unlikely to have included all the features of content necessary to achieve the task. All FCE Writing tasks are extensively trialled before they appear on a live paper, and care is taken to ensure that tasks do not expect answers that are significantly longer or shorter than the required number of words.
