Month: February 2025

Pearson 2024 Results

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Pearson has reported its 2024 full-year results.  Regarding the PTE, the report notes that:

“PTE performed well against a tough market backdrop of tightening migration policies. While volumes declined 10% we grew the business and continued to gain market share.”

The PTE was taken just over 1.1 million times in the calendar year.

As for the future, the report indicates that:

“We expect PTE to decline due to a continuation of the challenging market backdrop, including upcoming elections in Australia and Canada, but remain confident in the medium-term outlook given demographic projections and our competitive strength. We will focus on continued expansion in the Middle East and Latin America markets, AI product enhancements and proficiency assessments.”

You Should Read More – Part 54!

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While I was traveling around at the beginning of the month, I read another issue of the London Review of Books.  I can’t remember which issue, ’cause I threw it away when I finished with it.  But a couple of fun articles stood out:

  • “Even the Eyelashes” is about the role of mummies in Inca society.  It’s a shorter than usual LRB article, which probably makes it better as a study resource.  This topic could make a fun TOEFL reading passage.
  • “When Paris Sneezed” explores the reasons why people were so pissed off in Paris between 1748 and 1789.

Meanwhile, continuing my journey through the Norton Library Podcast, I read Charles Chesnutt’s “The Marrow of Tradition.”  Chesnutt’s book is a work of fiction set before and during the Wilmington Massacre of 1898.  I strongly recommend this book; for a 127 year-old novel, it is surprisingly accessible.  For some listening practice, you can check out the two-part podcast episode starting here.

For a little more listening practice, you might enjoy this Paul Wells podcast from a few days ago about the topic of book burning – mostly in Canada, but also elsewhere.  It also touches on the value of reading “the classics,” which matches one of the ongoing themes of this column.

On the Predictive Power of TOEFL and IELTS

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Language Testing Journal published an article (in Open Access) this week by Khaled Barkaoui of York University. It explores the relationship between ELP test scores (IELTS and TOEFL, specifically) and academic achievement.  I’ll preface my summary by noting that when I shared this on LinkedIn yesterday there was some blowback in the comments and shares.  Some people took issue with the conclusions.  As for me… I’m not an academic.

Anyhow…

Barkaoui studied data for 6481 undergrads at York who were admitted to York with a TOEFL or IELTS score between 2009 and 2019.  That includes 5215 students who submitted an IELTS score and 1266 who submitted a TOEFL score (which is an interesting bit of data on the market shares enjoyed by each test).

A few things were observed about how test scores hint at semester 1 GPA.  To quote the author:

  1. “[Multilevel modeling] results indicated that IELTS overall scores exhibited a significant and positive association with Semester 1 GPA, whereas the TOEFL total score did not.”

  2. “Correlation analyses also indicated that IELTS scores exhibited stronger associations with Semester 1 GPA compared to the TOEFL iBT, irrespective of study major. The correlation between TOEFL scores and Semester 1 GPA was negative and weak. On average, a one-band increase in IELTS total score was associated with a half-point rise (0.521) in Semester 1 GPA, while a 10-point increase in TOEFL total score was, on average, associated with a hundredth point (0.01) increase in Semester 1 GPA.”

The author also explores differences in the trajectories of GPA experienced by submitters of each test.  Both experienced the typical “U-shaped” GPA trajectory, though the TOEFL submitters experienced a slightly higher initial drop in GPA.  Higher IELTS scores were associated with greater academic resilience over time, while TOEFL scores “did not exhibit such a significant interaction with time.”

In concluding, the author notes:

“Taken together, these results suggest that IELTS is not only more effective at predicting academic achievement at the start of university studies (i.e., Semester 1), but can also provide insight into the trajectory of academic achievement over time. This predictive ability can be used to offer students targeted support throughout their academic journey. In contrast, TOEFL iBT scores do not appear to offer similar predictive information in the context of the university where the current study was conducted. This suggests that IELTS scores can be a more useful tool for planning English language support for international students.”

But importantly, he reminds us that:

“Finally, the study highlights the limited predictive power of ELP test scores. Collectively, the two tests only explained a modest percentage of the variance in Semester 1 GPA. IELTS scores exhibited the highest explanatory power, while the TOEFL explained a very small portion of GPA variance. This finding does not mean that ELP plays a negligible or no role in university academic achievement; rather, it underscores that factors beyond language proficiency, such as student motivation, social and academic support, and teaching quality, play a more substantial role in determining academic achievement (cf. Hill et al., 1999). Consequently, universities and researchers should take these factors into consideration when making admission decisions and examining the relationships between ELP and academic achievement.”

 

Latest on IDP IELTS in China

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IDP Education’s investor call today touched on their move to administering the IELTS test in China.  That’s a topic that has garnered quite a lot of interest over the past few months.  As you know, IDP administered IELTS tests there in November and December… and then stopped.

Around  the 26:00 mark, CEO Tennealle O’Shannessy said:

“We made good progress in positioning ourselves in the China market with IELTS.  IDP has established a strong cooperative relationship with a respected professional examination service provider in China.  And in half-one we conducted IELTS pilot tests in November and December which performed strongly and received positive customer feedback and endorsement.  We will continue with preparations for scaling the offering from an operations, technology and regulatory perspective.  Currently, the Chinese Ministry of Education is in the process of approving the official expanded entry of IDP IELTS into the Chinese market.”

During the Q and A section there was some related bafflegab starting around 37:00, and towards the end of it O’Shannessy noted that:

“We continue to engage with the Chinese government who are really pleasingly taking a very encouraging view of our expansion into China.”

And:

“The long term business case continues to be very attractive, however what we would say is the regulatory processes associated with the approval for an official launch have slowed our launch and ramp-up plans to some degree… but we remain confident in the long term market opportunity.”

Further discussion around 42:00, referred to some “short term delays” while waiting for approval from the Chinese authorities, though O’Shannessy again stated that the longer term plan still holds up.  She is hopeful that these issues will be “worked through” in the “the next couple of months.”

These comments line up with popular speculation that regulatory hurdles have impacted IDP’s entry into the market. But test takers and investors alike will be happy to hear that they may soon be handled.

(the transcriptions are my own… forgive any errors)

IDP Education Half-Year Report

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IDP Education has issued an interim financial report for the half-year ended December 31, 2024.

Worldwide, revenue from English language testing (IELTS) is down 22% compared to the same period last year. Volume is down 24%.

In the competitive market of India,  revenue from English language testing is down 55%.  Outside of India, revenue is up 2%.

In total, the IELTS was taken via IDP 683,708 times in the half-year.

The decline in India is attributed to “a series of regulatory changes (e.g. cap on international student numbers, removal of SDS route into Canada), ongoing visa approval and processing issues, and increased competition.”

Overall, IDP’s revenue is down 18% compared to last year.

IDP’s share price is down about 14% in early trading.

TOEFL PowerPrep from 2003!

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Here’s a fun item (dated 2003) from my collection of standardized testing ephemera.  For a few years, this “TOEFL POWERPREP” CD was mailed to everyone who registered for the classic TOEFL (the one that came before the TOEFL iBT).  On the back is an advertisement for the TOEFL ScoreItNow service.  For a fee, users could upload their practice essays and get a score from the cutting edge ETS e-rater.  Sound familiar?  It’s not too different from the TOEFL TestReady product currently sold by ETS.

I think the CD was also sold via ETS’s storefront on Digital River (remember them?). It was advertised heavily in ESL Magazine (remember that?). In the world of test prep, there has always been a great demand for score estimates.  Students have always been obsessed with discovering their current level… as precisely as possible. Michael A. Pyle, who authored the Cliff’s Notes guide to TOEFL from 1982 to 2001, even offered an evaluation service by snail mail – students preparing for the test mailed in their essays and received (some weeks later) a corrected version and a score estimate.

 

Update on Cost of TOEFL Express Scoring

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A quick update to my post about the fee for express scoring of the TOEFL test.  I mentioned a few days ago that the fee was increased to $149.  There is an exception, however.  For tests taken in India, the fee is about $75.

This is the sort of thing that drives test takers bonkers.  Though they all understand the concept of regional pricing, it does stick in the proverbial craw.

As I’ve mentioned here many times, a student who takes the TOEFL from his bedroom in Palestine pays $270 to ETS.  Meanwhile, a student here in Korea is charged $220 to take the test at home.  Some other kid, taking the test from his bedroom in Switzerland, will pay $470.  Though the tests are the same and the delivery method is the same, the prices are quite different.

Test takers are bright enough to know why it has to be that way… but some find it unfair.  In earlier posts I’ve explored how newer tests have increased their popularity by instituting a single global price for at-home administrations (or something very close to a single price).

Right now, it seems like Pearson is somewhat disinterested in at-home testing for the PTE. Meanwhile, the at-home IELTS remains limited to a relatively small handful of countries. I certainly admire ETS’s continued commitment to this delivery method… but I think they could do a bit better.

 

College Board Office Locations, Historic

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Sharing this here because I just spent some time going through my old LinkedIn posts looking for it.  And maybe I’m not the only one who is interested in where the College Board used to be located:

There are more sites to add to the standardized testing pilgrimage route!

I read in “College Board: Its First Fifty Years” that the original offices of that organization were in the Low Memorial Library on the campus of Columbia University (which apparently is not actually a library). They later moved to offices in Hamilton Hall, which as most readers will know was recently the site of a running battle between student protestors and the NYPD.

According to the same book, the organization later rented a house at 431 West 117th street (which no longer stands). They then moved to a house at 425 West 117th street (again, which no longer exists) where they remained until the 1950s. The book indicates that in the 1920s the board intended to construct a six-story headquarters but those plans were dashed by the financial collapse of 1929.

Curiously, old issues of the “College Board Review” indicate that the College Board was one of the first tenants of the Rockefeller-funded Interchurch Center (aka “the God Box”) when it opened in 1958.

This is how I spend my weekends, apparently.

 

IELTS Prices Going Up

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I read that the cost of taking the IELTS in India will increase to ₹18,000 on March 1. That’s an increase of ₹1,000.  Social media posts from IELTS are urging people to register before the increase comes into effect. I don’t really track IELTS prices because it is difficult to do so, but in the last few weeks I’ve received a few emails and DMs about increases in various countries.

If anyone knows an easy way to keep up with price changes around the globe, do let me know.

Pearson Campaign: Fairness in English Testing

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Pearson is coming in red hot this morning with a new advertising campaign that extols the virtues of the PTE’s AI scoring and raises some pointed criticisms of the human scoring used in other tests. The above link is to one of the campaign’s Instagram videos (which is way more effective than anything found in the Youtube component of the campaign).  If you watch one Internet video today, this should be the one.  It tugs at the heartstrings.

Some test takers who experience issues with human raters complain that they feel unheard and ignored.  On social media and the other places test takers go to seek help, complaints about biased or impolite interlocutors are quickly brushed aside by experts who believe they know better.  Time and time again, these test takers are basically told that their complaints are all in their head. It really gets my goat.

Personally, I love humans.* But I agree that giving a voice to individuals who feel they are disadvantaged due to bias is probably a smart way to market a test.

 

*And I don’t care who knows it.

On the Usefulness of Practice Tests

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Here’s a blog post from Duolingo about how DET test takers benefit from the free practice test accessed via the DET website.  Remember that this test is generated by AI, so it is different every time a test taker accesses it.  As a result, they enjoy an unlimited number of free practice tests.

The blog notes that according to research, “test takers who took more practice tests reported higher confidence levels when taking the official test. They also felt more prepared and motivated compared to those who took fewer or no practice tests.”

Yeah, no kidding.

Much has been written about the meteoric rise* of the DET.  Various factors are mentioned – the cost, the length, the at-home format, the green owl (RIP), the item types, engagement with admissions staff – but I don’t think enough credit has been given to the free practice test.

Historically, students preparing for legacy English tests have spent a ton on test prep.  A significant amount of that spending goes to the test makers themselves.  A quick glance at the Pearson site reveals that they offer scored PTE practice tests for $35.99 a pop (or buy five at a time for a discount).  ETS charges $45.95 for the same (ever unable to curate its offerings, ETS still sells dozens of separate test prep products).  Some students spend hundreds of dollars on this kind of stuff.

Duolingo’s choice to give unlimited mock tests away for free makes the DET an attractive proposition.

We take it for granted that testing companies are also test prep companies.  But it hasn’t always been this way.  For decades, ETS didn’t offer any paid prep products at all.  Whatever prep they provided was given away at no cost.  Moving into the test prep space was a choice.

Nowadays, test makers go whole hog with coupons and sales worth five or ten bucks… but when we consider the ancillary costs including (but not limited to) test prep, those marketing efforts seem pretty inconsequential.

I spent years begging my friends at ETS to provide a practice test similar to the one provided by Duolingo.  But my friends all took buyouts last year and I’m too tired to start begging anew.  Seriously, though – this is the sort of decision test firms should emulate to help ensure their long term viability.

*actually, the rise was slower than you think

PTE Academic Online Eliminated

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I think the PTE Academic Online was eliminated in December and I didn’t notice. Did anyone else notice? Was there an announcement?

I cannot register for the test via my Pearson account, and all references to it have been removed from the PTE website.

When I posted about this on LinkedIn, a connection wrote the following comment:

The Pearson Academic Online test started its discontinuation process way back in July 2023 (where test takers were reflected the booking appointments with a 60 day waiting time period, i.e. A test taker who logged into his portal to find the test dates in July 2023 was only able to book the test dates of September 2023).

During my conversation with one of their Business Development Manager (BDM) at an event in July 2023, I questioned them whether this was a bug and the possibilities of its resolution. To my surprise, the BDM said that PTE has decided to wrap up its at online tests in view of technical difficulties faced by test takers in terms of hardware (microphone and computer).

But the real story as per my opinion is that Pearson was well aware about the cheating malpractices that test-takers utilized to gain unfair advantage at their online tests. This was the time when Pearson Academic got its approval to be an accepted test for the Canadian SDS student visa pathway (August 2023) and I sincerely believe that in order to help the testing integrity and credibility of Pearson stay intact, they discontinued their testing programs.

Here’s the old PTE website (November, 2024):

Here’s the current website (February, 2025)

Printed LanguageCert Certificate

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A couple of weeks ago I received this keen certificate from LanguageCert in the mail.  It was printed on nice cardstock and came protected by a durable mailer.  Everyone who takes the LANGUAGECERT Academic test gets a certificate – it isn’t necessary to opt-in and no extra fees are charged.

I appreciate how, at $165, the LanguageCert test represents a pretty decent value.  It seems to be part of a new category of at-home tests that has emerged in recent years.  We might dub the category “affordable-traditional.”  This category also includes the Kaplan Test of English which costs about $149, and the Password Skills Plus Test, which costs about $139.

The category has become particularly valuable for test takers as fees charged by more established companies have increased precipitously in recent years.  At-home tests from legacy firms cost more than $400 in some countries.*  Notably, the at-home TOEFL just hit $470 in its most expensive market.

Of course my friends at Duolingo will be quick to point out that their test costs just $70.  But I think you get my point – in an ideal world individuals aren’t charged an arm and a leg just because they opt for a more traditional testing format.

*Yes, some testing companies charge a different price depending on which country the test-taker is located in. Prices can differ by hundreds of dollars depending on the location of the test-taker.