Breaking news – the cost of taking the TOEFL will increase on August 1. More news on this as I get it.

Update: confirmation from ETS is  here.  It says:

“Effective August 1, 2020, the TOEFL iBT® test fee will increase in some locations. Test fees vary by testing location. To see the current TOEFL iBT test fee for test center appointments or TOEFL iBT Special Home Edition appointments in your location, search for your local test center.”

Update 2:  It appears that you can still book August sittings for the old price.  That is, no prices will change until August 1.   If you plan to take the test, you should probably register now.  I’ll try to add a “before and after” chart for selected countries once the changes go into effect.

Update 3:  The price increases range from $5 to $20.  Here is a list of countries and the changes.

Uh, are you wondering what ETS’s new slogans will be?  They are:

“TOEFL GoLearn!”

and

“TOEFL GoMentor!”

The trademarks were granted this month. Actually, you can see the “GoLearn!” slogan on the cover of the forthcoming sixth edition of the Official Guide to the TOEFL.

“GoLearn” sounds pretty good, but “GoMentor!” sounds a bit too similar to the idiom “Go Mental” which is considered offensive nowadays.

These will replace “In English with Confidence,” which I kind of like.

If you are going to take the at-home version make sure to TEST YOUR MICROPHONE. And I don’t mean just using the ProctorU website. I mean making a whole lot of test recordings.  And actually listening to them carefully.

I can’t prove it, but I think a lot of students are getting low speaking scores (and cancelled scores) because of bad microphones.

Moreover, I can state that about 50% of the recordings that students make at home and send to me for evaluation sound like garbage.  Like they were made on some of Thomas Edison’s wax tubes.