The TOEFL is back on in Iran! ETS announced a few days ago that testing for both TOEFL and GRE are again available in Iran thanks to new routes for registration and payment that are UN-approved.
More details can be found online at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/world/middleeast/30testing.html
ETS, the company that runs the TOEFL, just announced that they are no longer registering students for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) in Iran in response to new sanctions against Iran that have been adopted by the UN and the US. There rationale is that they are unable to handle payments from Iran as a result of these new sanctions. IELTS, a British-based competitor of the TOEFL, continues to be available in Iran.
For more details and follow-up articles, see http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/07/19/qt/ets_suspends_toefl_registration_in_iran
The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam has come under fire recently because of several allegations of cheating in Australia. Because of new immigration regulations, skilled migration visa holders are now required to show competency in English; they are no longer given a temporary leeway to bring their language skills up to par. As a result, education agencies have been illicitly selling the exam for AUD $12,000-15,000 (or USD$10,000-$12,500). An investigation is currently underway to determine if government agents are involved. As of now, only a small number of test takers have been identified as trying to defraud the exam, either through buying the current exam or using false passports to take exams in someone else’s name.
For more information, see http://www.smh.com.au/national/cheating-alleged-in-immigration-exams-20090725-dwsj.html
Students in Trinidad & Tobago who signed up for the GCE O Levels for May 2009 are being told that they will have to wait a year because the exams have been cancelled due to a dispute between Edexcel and the MOE. More information can be found online at http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161476623
The 2008 data for TOEFL is now available at
It looks at native language and native country separately as well as differentiating between the iBT and still-sometimes-given PBT.
On the iBT, Denmark and the Netherlands were tied with scores of 102, while the lowest score of 52 came out of Mali. The PBT is given less often so there wasn’t as much data,
but Denmark came out in the lead again with 613 while the Congo scored in at 465.
The Korea Times and other local papers highlighted today’s government announcment that it intends to develop a new test that will hopefully replace much of the TOEFL exam volume in South Korea. As announced by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, one purpose of the new test is to reduce the amount of money people spend on private cram schools and language institutes. The new test, tentatively named the State English Aptitude Test, will be modeled on Japan’s EIKEN test, which has earned international recognition. ”We believe, as long as we can develop a quality test, many overseas schools will accept it,” said Education Minister Ahn Byoung Man. He further stated that he expects the new test to replace TOEIC and TOEFL in university admissions and job applications. The government will run pilot tests between 2010 and 2011 before formally introducing the new test in 2012.
from: http://blog.educationusa.or.kr/2008/12/korean-version-of-toefl-to-debut-in-2012/
Pearson’s is coming up with a new test to prove English Language proficiency, and it may be called Pearson Test of English. The important difference over TOEFL and IELTS is administrators receive digital recording of the speaking test. The test is expected to be available in October 2009, for 2010 intake.
Here’s a link to the page:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/10/02/english
According to the REAC for South Central Asia, Kathleen Kisting Alam, there has been an on-going disagreement between the Sri Lankan Ministry of Education and the teachers who mark the examination papers. As a result of this disagreement, the marking of exam papers might be delayed and the results of the exam will possibly not be released until the disagreement is resolved, possibly as late as
January/February of 2009. This may adversely affect students applying for admission into US degree programs.
