How assessors judge Communicating and Influencing
Assessors score your statement against the level descriptor for the grade, looking for positive indicators and discounting vague claims. Here is what they reward, what they penalise, and what separates a middle score from a top one.
How sift scoring works for this behaviour
At sift, a trained assessor reads your statement with the level descriptor beside it. They are not asking whether you are a good communicator in general. They are asking whether this example contains evidence of the indicators for that level.
Most departments use the standard 1 to 7 scale, where 4 is a solid pass. The score reflects the strength and completeness of your evidence, so two statements describing the same event can score very differently depending on how well they are told.
Positive indicators assessors reward
- A specific audience you had thought about: their knowledge, concerns or mood.
- Deliberate choices: words simplified, channel selected, timing considered.
- Listening shown explicitly: you checked understanding or acted on feedback.
- Persuasion built on evidence: figures, options or a reasoned case.
- Pushback handled: an objection answered without relationship damage.
- A result with numbers: behaviour changed, errors down, agreement reached.
Why this scores well
Statements showing the thinking behind your choices, why that tone, that channel, that moment, score higher than those that only report what was said.
For example, 'I noticed the team had mixed English levels, so I replaced the technical terms with their own words for the task' shows audience awareness an assessor can score.
Negative indicators that drag scores down
- Trait claims instead of evidence: 'I am an excellent communicator' proves nothing.
- The passive audience: people you informed, with no reaction, question or outcome.
- 'We' throughout, so your personal contribution is invisible.
- Jargon and acronyms the reader must decode, ironic in a communication statement.
- No result, or a result with nothing checkable in it.
- Bad-mouthing the audience: customers called difficult, colleagues called resistant.
Common mistake
The most common own goal is writing about the message instead of the communication; assessors want to see how you landed it with people.
What separates a 4 from a 5
A 4 is a clear, relevant example, competently told: right behaviour, your actions visible, a sensible result. It answers the question.
A 5 shows deliberate craft. You analysed the audience before acting, made a choice you can explain, met some resistance and handled it, and ended with a result you can put a number on. The difference is rarely the event itself; it is the thinking made visible.
| Score | What the statement looks like |
|---|---|
| 3 or below | Off-target example, hidden personal actions, no result |
| 4 | Relevant example, clear actions, adequate result |
| 5 | Audience thinking shown, pushback handled, numbered result |
| 6 to 7 | Strategic choices, multiple channels or stakeholders, durable impact |
Evidence assessors want at your grade
The bar rises with grade. At AO a well-handled customer conversation can score a 5. At SEO the same conversation scores a 3, because the level descriptor expects you to influence groups and stakeholders, not individuals.
Check the descriptor verbs for your grade before you choose your example: explain and adapt at junior grades, persuade and negotiate in the middle, shape and set direction at the top.
Mark your own draft before you submit
Before you paste your statement into the application form, read it as an assessor would, descriptor in hand. Three questions catch most problems.
- Can you point to the exact sentence showing you understood your audience?
- Can you point to the moment you listened or handled disagreement?
- Could someone check the result?
If any answer is no, rewrite that part rather than hoping the assessor will infer it. Assessors score what is on the page, and they read hundreds of statements: make the evidence easy to find.
Frequently asked questions
Evidence matching the level descriptor: a specific audience you understood, deliberate choices about language and channel, listening and pushback handled, and a checkable result. Assessors score what the example proves at the advertised level, not general claims about being a good communicator.
Usually one of three reasons: the example did not really test this behaviour, your personal actions were hidden behind 'we', or there was no result an assessor could verify. Less often, the example was too junior for the grade's descriptor. Request feedback where offered and rewrite against the indicators.
No. Each statement is scored against the descriptor and scoring scale, not ranked against other candidates. You are not competing to tell the most dramatic story, only to evidence the indicators clearly. A well-told ordinary example beats an extraordinary one told badly.
Next step
Get the free STAR template — the same structure used in every example on this site.
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