TOEFL® Portfolio: Offering innovative solutions for diverse test-taker needs By Srikant Gopal


India is consistently one of the largest source countries of international students to study abroad. And every year, these students appear for English-language tests, a crucial part of college applications and visa processes, with an aim to go abroad for higher studies or employment. With an ever-growing interest in international education among Indian students, we expect an uptick in demand for English-proficiency tests as well, especially as things come back on track as we navigate out of the pandemic.

As the world’s largest nonprofit educational research, assessment and learning organization, our focus has always been to keep our stakeholders’ needs at the forefront of what we do, and ensuring that our tests are far reaching, accessible and continue to maintain the trust of test takers and institutions worldwide. With our research-based offerings, we provide options not just in terms of testing locations (e.g., in person and from home) but also offer different test formats which students can take (e.g., via computer or on paper), and institutions can accept as valid and reliable demonstrations of English-language proficiency. In our quest to match up to the dynamic requirements of the education sector, we have been consistently working on the high-stakes 
TOEFL®  portfolio of tests. These include the 
TOEFL iBT®  test — offered at a test centre, at home via
 TOEFL iBT®  Home Edition and on paper via 
TOEFL iBT®  Paper Edition — and our newest offering, the 
TOEFL®  
Essentials™  test.

The TOEFL iBT test is the most widely accepted English-language test that is trusted by more than 11,500 universities and other institutions in over 160 countries around the world. A student can opt to take the TOEFL iBT test at any one of the 120 authorized test centres across India. The test measures all four English skills — reading, listening, speaking and writing — the way they are used in a classroom. The content is representative of what any student will experience at educational institutions abroad while strongly predicting the language proficiency that students need to progress and succeed in an academic environment.

As pioneers in the industry, we were the first to acknowledge the challenges imposed by COVID-19 and brought forth an innovative solution — the TOEFL iBT Home Edition — to meet the needs of test takers and institutions who rely on tests like the TOEFL iBT test for high-stakes decisions. It’s the same TOEFL iBT test — in format, content, on-screen experience, scoring and pricing — just delivered from the safety and comfort of students’ homes under very specific and rigorous security conditions. Throughout the test, a live online human proctor ensures that security is maintained, and they are assisted by several best-in-class artificial intelligence technologies, thereby providing equally valid and reliable scores to the traditional test centre version.

To further strengthen the TOEFL iBT portfolio, TOEFL iBT Paper Edition was introduced in October 2021, with superior test-taker-oriented features to provide the best possible testing experience. It is the same four-skills TOEFL iBT test, just delivered in a different format over two sessions. In the first session, test takers will take the Reading, Listening and Writing sections on paper at an ETS-authorized test centre, followed by the Speaking section in a separate, second session from the comfort of home, with an online human proctor, within three days. In addition to this, test takers can send unlimited score reports free of charge, which will automatically include 
MyBest®  scores, the combination of the highest section scores from all valid TOEFL iBT tests in a two-year period.

To recap, there are now 
three  ways to take the world-renowned TOEFL iBT test, with immense test-taker benefits, no matter which option they choose.

Alongside the flagship TOEFL iBT test, the 
TOEFL®  program also accelerated the timeline for the development of a unique, innovative and first-of-its-kind product — 
the TOEFL® Essentials™ test  — a versatile, at home English-language test offering a unique combination of quality that institutions want with student-friendly features, affordability and accessibility that students value and need. The questions are fast paced and dynamic, and the test features a multistage adaptive format that efficiently measures language proficiency by matching test content to test takers’ ability. Thousands of students from more than 150 countries including India have already taken the test which, as of the end of November 2021, is being accepted by more than 230 college and university programs worldwide, a number that is growing steadily.

While we are offering diverse products to meet the different needs of our test takers, we also greatly value our stakeholders — agents, influencers and institutions — in India and around the world. With our agent outreach programs, we are trying to reach as many agents as possible to not only enhance their knowledge and expertise regarding the high-stakes TOEFL test portfolio, but also to help them to guide and mentor students and test-takers alike with vital information to help them expand their study-abroad options and pathways.

In our efforts to expand our operations and establish strong relationships with education agents to ensure easy access and turnaround for the TOEFL test, we recently organized a three-city 
Market Ambassador  outreach event, held between 8th of September to 1st of October 2021.

 

At the first event held in Ahmedabad, Michelle Hampton, Director, TOEFL Institutional Relations from ETS’s Princeton, New Jersey, USA office, welcomed more than 70 study-abroad consultants and companies from across the state. During the second event in Chandigarh, special guest Vishal Batra, brother of Paramveer Chakra recipient Late Captain Vikram Batra, addressed over 200 attendees. Last but not the least, the final event took place in Hyderabad and had over 150 participants from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. David Moyer, Public Relations Affairs Specialist, from the U.S. consulate in Hyderabad and Dr. Kumar, Principal Secretary, Higher Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh, were the guests of honor. The star attraction of the event was Nabha Natesh, a famous Telegu film actress who spoke about her student life and career and shared some tips for aspiring students.

 

These events were organized to create a knowledge-sharing platform to share vital information with agents who work tirelessly to make a difference in the lives of students who aspire to go overseas for higher education.

 

The TOEFL program is committed to strengthening ETS’s relationships in-country, especially with the recent establishment of our ETS India office, and focusing on the delivery of high-quality English-language testing options to test takers across India and institutions around the world.

For more information about TOEFL, visit 
https://toefltest.in .

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