I continued my “Norton Library Podcast” read along this month by reading “Dubliners” (which has been a favorite short story collection for some time. I think many followers of the blog will enjoy this short story collection. Though the stories were published more than a century ago they are accessible and easily comprehensible. You could find a cheap copy on Amazon. The collection is in the public domain so you can also find it online here and there. Make sure to check out the podcast for some listening practice.
I also read the 25 January, 2024 issue of the London Review of Books. I read and read and read and at the very end I found a perfect TOEFLish article! It’s called “Petrifying Juices” and discusses the traces of molecules that can be found in fossils that otherwise seem to be entirely stone. It describes an article that may have inspired the book “Jurassic Park” thusly:
“In 1982, the entomologist George Poinar and electron microscopist Roberta Hess published a paper on a 40-million-year-old fossil fly stuck in a glob of amber. Exquisite images taken with Hess’s instruments reveal individual cells in the fly’s abdomen, frozen in death, a microscopic Pompeii. Zoom in further and you can see structures straight out of a biology textbook: mitochondria, bubble-shaped fat reservoirs, even cellular nuclei. Poinar and Hess later speculated that if a mosquito were preserved in amber just after it had sucked blood from a dinosaur, it might be possible to recover the dinosaur’s DNA from blood cells in the mosquito’s stomach.”
If you squint hard enough you could image a TOEFL reading passage about something like this. As I recall, one of the TPO sets (or ETS books) has an integrated writing question about the possibility of finding the remains of blood cells in a dinosaur fossil.
Meanwhile, I also read a cool book about shareware by Robert Moss called “Shareware Heroes.” Get it if you are into computer software from the 80s and 90s.
Here’s a direct link to my latest English testing news roundup over on Substack. If you want to get this sort of thing in your email inbox every now and then look for the subscribe link in the article.
I was happy to see that the substack was referenced in this article over on PIE News yesterday!
I stayed up real late to watch a webinar about the new TOEIC Link Test. I learned a few things that are worth passing along:
The full 4-skills version of the test takes about 81 minutes to complete. Compare that to the 200 minutes it takes to complete the 4-skill version of the regular TOEIC.
The test is currently available in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. It will be available in other countries at some other time.
Registration must be completed via an EPN. It is not done directly with ETS.
I’m not a TOEIC expert, but it looks like the TOEIC link has the same reading and listening item types as the regular TOEIC. But the speaking and writing tasks are quite different.
It appears that scoring is done mostly by AI, but with “human review.” Scores are available in 48 hours.
This is an at-home product. Proctoring can be either wholly AI or AI+human. I guess it depends on the EPN. Or something.
The reading and listening sections are adaptive – after a routing module, test takers will get sent to a “hard” module or an “easy” module.
ETS sees the world of higher-ed as a potential source of clients for this test.
There is an interesting experiment going at the end of the DET practice test. Duolingo seems to be trying out “describe-the-picture” tasks that are based on images connected to the test taker’s locality.
I’m in Korea and received a picture of a scene containing elements that would be immediately familiar to most people here. After describing the scene I was asked how familiar I was with the image, how well I thought I did on the task, and if I would like to see similar items on the real test.
Following that, I received an image with elements that would be less familiar to people here and was asked similar questions.
I wrote a few days ago about the quick growth of some tests due to how “nimble” certain test makers are. Duolingo certainly benefits from their ability to quickly run large experiments like this via their online practice test.
The TOEFL website and testing process has been spruced up. I’m seeing an overhauled user account, which is nice and tidy. The user account now highlights a trilogy of videos explaining how to complete the at-home test, how to set up the secondary camera and how to use the ETS Secure Browser (now referred to as the “TOEFL Test app”).
The app seems to function differently than when I last took the test. That may result in a smoother test day experience.
I was researching historic test volumes for a client using the wayback machine. I spotted an announcement from the IELTS partnership that the IELTS test was taken 3.5 million times in 2018.
And today? If we combine figures from the most recent annual reports of the British Council and IDP Education we get a total of about 3.6 million tests. So not much of a change from 2018.
In the same time frame, annual PTE test volumes have increased from about half a million to about 1.1 million. Annual DET test volumes have increased from about zero to an estimated 700,000. And, of course, the long tail of smaller tests we see today wasn’t so long back in 2018.
Some of these numbers require guesswork, but they get to the point of what I’ve been nattering on about for the past decade – the market is getting bigger and newer and more nimble firms are taking advantage of that. Much more so than older and less nimble firms. I realize that I’m being Captain Obvious here… but I guess it is worth stating now and then.
On April 10, the UK government posted an updated tender for the forthcoming HOELT test. I haven’t seen any reporting on this, so it may be useful to share a few notes.
The tender now lists estimated contract dates of August 2026 to August 2031, with a possible extension to August 2034.
Interestingly, the total value of the tender has been reduced from £1,130,000,000 to £680,000,000. This may relate to recent suggestions that the HOELT will be used for work visas only (not student visas). That said, Beth Kennedy’s article from December of last year suggests that the HOELT was never intended for student visas.
The deadline for participation in this third round of engagement is May 1, 2025 and the estimated “publication date of tender notice” is August 1, 2025.
Update: I just noticed that under “Engagement process description” it is noted that one of the primary purposes of the third round is to “Confirm the level of interest in the delivery of the Service under a single Contract.” This suggests that the Home Office may be seeking a single supplier to both develop and deliver the test. As you may recall, the original plan was for those aspects to be handled by separate suppliers. Or separate contracts, anyway.
This sort of change could narrow the range of acceptable suppliers. Not everyone can do both of these things, of course.
Today’s entertainment is a list of which tests are accepted for undergraduate admissions in the United Kingdom. I’ve looked at the 20 mainstream universities with the most non-UK students per HESA.
This is a trickier exercise than examining American and Canadian schools. Here tests from the SELT list are widely accepted (but sometimes with exceptions), as well as a surprisingly large grab bag of non-test qualifications.
AsNicholas Cuthbert highlighted in the PIE news last year, 28 percent of students in the 23/24 cycle bypassed an English test thanks to previous qualifications and 7 percent were exempt from testing for some reason (per data from Enroly).
The point of this exercise was to see which non-SELT tests were explicitly mentioned as acceptable by the 20 universities. According to Enroly’s data, such tests were used by about 13 percent of international students in the 23/24 cycle. I imagine that the figure is higher this year, and higher yet when undergraduate admissions are isolated.
Anyhow, the cited tests were:
DET: 5 universities
Oxford ELLT: 4 universities
Oxford Test of English: 3 universities
Kaplan Test of English: 3 universities
Password: 3 universities
The DET was listed as acceptable in a subset of cases by the University of Westminster, but I haven’t counted it above.
It appears that the at-home TOEFL will soon require the use of a secondary camera. LanguageCert and Duolingo have had this requirement for a little while.
The requirement will begin rolling out in select countries on April 18 2025. New countries will be added in blocks between then and May. Affected test takers have received the above email.
Here’s the text of an email that is being sent to test takers:
We’re writing to tell you about important updates to your TOEFL® test.
These updates will begin April 18th, 2025, and apply to your upcoming test scheduled for [date].
On or after April 18:
1. *NEW* – In addition to your laptop camera, bring your phone to enable it as a second camera during the test. To see if this applies to you, check the country list below.
2. On April 18th an email with additional instructions will arrive in your inbox with all the information you’ll need on test day.
3. On test day, login to ets.org/mytoefl, which will have the link to start your test.
Good luck!
The TOEFL Team
Below is a list of when the requirement will be rolled out in each country.
Welcome to the TOEFL Coupon Code Tracker. Codes at the top of the page are most likely to work, so start there and work your way down. Be sure to check the comments below for codes shared by readers. Note that I also track GRE coupon codes, which are much more common than in the past.
Update: Galvanize has a ton of new coupon codes you can try right now:
GALVANIZETOEFL8 is good for 10% off test registration worldwide (except India).
GALVANIZEASR7 is good for 7% off additional score reports worldwide.
GALVANIZEPREP10 is good for a $10 discount when purchasing the Official TOEFL guide.
IND1168101 is good for a Rs 500 discount in India.
Today is June 23 and the codes work for me. Test takers in India should consult Galvanize’s page for a cashback offer and a discounted voucher program.
Update: Test takers in Korea can use the code TOEFL4ELT to snag a 10% discount before the end of June. This code has a limited number of redemptions, so it might stop working before the end of the month.
Update: Test takers in the EMEA countries can get a 15% discount with the code STUDENTBEANSper this page on ETS’s website. The code will work until December 2025.
Update: Test takers in Korea only can get a 30% discount in February with the code FEB30. The test date must be in February. I got this code in an email from ETS.
Update: ETS has provided a few new codes you can try: TESTRESOURINDIA5 (save 5% in India), TESTRESORUS15 (save 15% in the USA), TESTRESOR10 (save 10% everywhere else). It is May of 2025 and they work for me now.
Update: Galvanize test prep has a new 10% code. It will likely last for a long time. You can find it on their site. Scroll down until you see it. There is one for India and one for the rest of the world. Today is February 7 and it works.
Update: The University of Florida has a coupon code good for a $40 discount. You can find it on their site. Use it quick, as uni-specific codes don’t last long. Today is February 7.
Update: The code UANTOEFL20works for a 20% discount. I saw it on Reddit, so I don’t know the fine print. Today is December 12, 2024 and it currently works. I don’t know when it will stop working.
Update: The code READY2025 is good for a $30 discount in some European, Middle Eastern and North African markets. I got it from the ETS EMEA LinkedIn page!
Update: The code OHLATOEFL15 will give you a 15% discount on the TOEFL in all countries outside of the USA. The code OHLATOEFLUSA20 will give you a 20% discount in the USA.
Update: GALVANIZETOEFL8 is good for 10% off of test registration worldwide (except India), IND1168101 is good for a Rs 500 discount in India, GALVANIZEASR7 is good for 7% additional score reports worldwide and GALVANIZEPREP10 is good for a 10% discount when purchasing the Official TOEFL guide.
Update: The study abroad organization UniApplyNow has a new 20% off code. Try OHLATOEFL20 for that discount. More details on their blog. It seems to be working in January 2025. I don’t know when it will stop working.
Update: ETS gave me these TOEFL TestReady coupons to share with my students in 2024. They all expire on December 31, but might have a few activations left since not all of my students bothered to redeem them. Feel free to give ’em a try. First come, first served. Each has 25 activations.
Update: I’m seeing a big $40 discount with the code BOSTONTOEFL. Today is October 27, 2024. I don’t know the terms and conditions.
Update: Test takers located in Australia can try the code TOEFLAUS2024 to get a 20% discount. Register before November 1.
Update: The TOEFL coupon code SUMMER24 will get you a 20% discount in some countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. I don’t know exactly which ones. Registration must be completed before September 20, 2024.
Update: Galvanize Test Prep has an RS 2005 discount code for Indian test-takers and a $10 code for everyone else on their website. Scroll down a bit and you’ll see it. Today is June 29, 2024 and it still works!
Update: Test-takers in Japan can use the code PREP24TOEFL to save $24.50 on their registration. I think the code is valid until February 28, 2024.
Update: Cialfo, which I guess is some sort of admissions agent, has a coupon code good for a 10% discount on their site. I’ll make you visit them to find it. The code is right at the top of the page. It seems to work worldwide. Today is December 24, 2023. Merry Christmas, folks!
Update: My man John Healy went to the big ETS event in Italy and discovered the code ITAGBVNEWTOEFL20, which is good for a $20 discount on registrations made before December 31 2023. Valid in Italy only, I guess.
Update: ETS Global released TOEFL Coupon codes good for a 25% discount in twenty countries. They are valid for registrations done before December 31, 2023 and seem to be for the home edition only. The list of countries is a curiously mixed bag, but thankfully it includes Nigeria, Turkey and Egypt where currency issues have resulted in serious challenges for test-takers in recent months.
Update: According to the official TOEFL page, you can use the code TOEFLTeam23 to get a $25 discount until November 22.
Update: You can get a $10 discount code from Galvanize Test Prep if you fill out their form. I won’t share the code here since I respect their desire to gather customer contact information.
Update: I got an email from ETS India that says students in India can use the code CCTOEFL to get a discount of INR 1500 on their test registration. It is October 15 as I write this. Update: ETS sent me an email on March 23, 2024 to say that this one still works.
Update: The code STA2023 seems to be working nowadays. It is October 5 as I write this.
Update: The code TOEFLSUMMER23 should provide a 20% discount on your registration. ETS has blasted this all one all over the place. I even got it via text message on my phone. How’d they even get my number? The fine print says this one can be used only 500 times, though, so act fast. It also says that it must be used for a registration date before August 31. Edit: This may only work for people who have already taken the test at least once.
Update: the ETS Facebook account says that SOCL20 will work until the end of June. Try it while you can. And try it in July in case it gets extended. This may no longer work in every country, but it is certainly worth trying.
Update: It is May 9 and SOCL20 is still working for me, and for others. This code might not work in every country, but it works in quite a few. Try it to save $20 on your registration. It is promoted heavily on the ETS social media channels for India.
Update: It is April 14, and SOCL20 is still working for me. Some people have reported failure. Let me know. In any case, ETS is still advertising it on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Update: According to ETS social media, The SOCL20 coupon code has been extended to the end of April. Use it to save $20.
Update: It is March 21 and the SOCL20 code has been refreshed. That means it works again worldwide. Try it to save $20. The same code works when registering for the GRE, by the way. This code is repeated almost every day on the Official TOEFL India Facebook page so check there now and then for coupons.
Update: Our friends at EdAgree have a limited number of coupon codes to distribute. Check out how to claim one of them. Note that today is March 16. They will probably all be gone in a few days.
Update: It is March 4, 2023 and the SOCL20 code still works worldwide. It provides a $20 discount on TOEFL test registrations. Use it while you can, folks!
Update: Students in India should try BNB20 to get a $20 discount on their TOEFL registration. I think this one is only good for India, but it could be worth trying if nothing else works. Let me know in the comments if you can get it to work. I got it from this weird YouTube video.
Update: Use the code SOCL20 to get a $20 discount. Again, I don’t know when this code expires and I don’t know how many times it can be used. I got it from a guy on Facebook. But it works right now (January 28, 2023) and it seems to be good around the world.
Update: Use the coupon code FB20 to get a $20 discount. I don’t know when this one expires. I don’t know how many times it can be used. I got it from a random dude on Twitter. But it works right now (January 9, 2023).
Update: Use the TOEFL coupon code EDUSA30 to get a $30 discount on registrations completed before January 6, 2023. The test should be completed before November of this year. Read the terms and conditions.
Update: Use the coupon code TOEFLNEW to get a $30 discount on TOEFL registrations completed before January 4, 2023. Read the terms and conditions.
Update: Use the coupon code TST30TOEFL to get a $30 discount on TOEFL registrations completed before December 31. Read the terms and conditions before use. This one comes from TSTPrep, so be sure to give them some love. The code can only be used 500 times, so don’t dilly dally.
Update: Use the coupon code TOEFL2023 to get a $30 discount on TOEFL registrations completed before January 4, 2023. This code is direct from ETS! It can only be used 1000 times, so don’t delay. Check out the terms and conditions.
Update: Participants in the EdAgree Virtual University Fair on December 13/15 of this year will receive a TOEFL coupon code. I recommend signing up even if you don’t plan to attend in person, as the contents will be available online after the fact, and I think the code is sent by email later on. They will also give away a free TOEFL registration to one lucky participant. Click to register.
Update: According to the Official TOEFL Facebook page you can use the code GUILIA30 to get a $30 discount on TOEFL registrations completed before December 14. Be sure to read the terms and conditions. Only 500 people can use the code, so it might not last until December 14. Use it while you can.
Update: Study in USA will probably give away a $30 code at this free online event on November 30 . Register now to attend. If ETS publishes the code on their social media after the fact I’ll share it here as well. Be sure to follow Study in USA on Eventbrite when you register, as many of their events include a code.
Update: ETS just released a bunch of “Black Friday” coupon codes for the TOEFL iBT. Students in Brazil, Canada, Colombia, and the United States can save $47 if they register before November 28. In Brazil, use code TOEFLCYBERBR. In Canada use TOEFLCYBERCA. In Colombia use TOEFLCYBERCO and in the United States use TOEFLCYBERUS. Each can only be used by only 500 people. Click for terms and conditions.
Update: I think that all attendees of the free EdAgree Test Prep Workshop on November 29 will get a $30 coupon code for the TOEFL iBT. You can find registration details over here. You probably have to attend (online) to get the code, but I recommend registering even if you don’t plan to attend since it might also be sent via email. I won’t share the code here unless it goes out on social media.
Update: Study in the USA has a new worldwide code that is valid until October 21. It isn’t on social media now, so you should visit their site to get it. Just click and scroll to the end of the article.
Update: According to ETS Japan, students in Japan can use the coupon codes “ETSJ1026” and “TOFURE1026” to save $46 when they register in October. I think they have an unlimited number of uses.
Update: According to the Official TOEFL Facebook page, you can use the coupon “COLLEGE30” to get a $30 discount on TOEFL iBT registrations, and “COLLEGE10” to get a $10 discount on TOEFL Essentials registrations. This will be valid until September 29, or until the maximum number of uses has been reached. Also be sure to check out the terms and conditions.
Update: According to the Official TOEFL Facebook page, you can use the coupon code “JULIANA30” to get a $30 discount on TOEFL registrations completed before September 22 of this year. Be sure to read the terms and conditions.
Update: You can use the coupon code “CHOICE30” to get a $30 discount on TOEFL registrations completed before September 7. You don’t need to take the test before then… you just need to register for it. Once again, this code comes from a partnership between ETS and Study in the USA, so be sure to check them out. You should also read the terms and conditions.
Update: You can use the coupon code “JENNIFER30” to get a $30 discount on TOEFL registrations made before August 23. This code comes from a partnership between ETS and Study in the USA, so be sure to check them out. You should also read the terms and conditions.
Update: ETS Japan has distributed a bunch of codes for use in Japan. Try SAYAKA22TOEFL (link) or TOFURE22TOEFL (link) or ETSJ22TOEFL (link) to get $61 off your registration until September 15 (or while supplies last).
Update: You can use the voucher code “DARREN30” to get a $30 discount on TOEFL registrations until July 26, 2022. Just enter the code at the final screen in the registration process. Go ahead and read the terms and conditions over here. This code was provided through a partnership with Study in the USA, so be sure to visit them.
I saw on the official TOEFL Facebook Page that if you enter the promo (voucher) code “VALERIA30” you can get a $30 discount when you register for the test. This seems to work in all countries and for both the TOEFL iBT and the TOEFL IBT Home Edition. Note that the stated expiration date is July 14, so use it soon. Read the terms and conditions over here.
Some troubling news via the Hechinger Report for the brave few still following the story of ETS and its involvement in the NAEP. Jill Barshay reports that:
“The contractor building this platform, ETS, gave DOGE a demonstration of its features last week. But according to former education officials, DOGE staffers are seeking additional places to cut costs and were less than impressed.
The digital platform is also needed to complete behind-the-scenes paperwork for states to participate in the 2026 assessment. Those steps are supposed to be completed in May. As it stands now, funding for the digital platform runs out again in June.”
And:
“…funding ran out on March 31 for an even more critical task: the creation of the NAEP exams, according to four people who had direct knowledge of this paused contract. That “content development” work is carried out by ETS, and the nonprofit testing organization told its employees who oversee the writing and review of NAEP test questions to take a leave until funding resumes.”
The PTE Core Test can now be used to meet the language use requirement of the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program. Applicants may now submit scores from the IELTS (General), CELPIP, PTE Core, and a couple of French tests.
That’s pretty cool. Longtime readers know that I get pretty excited about competitive marketplaces and the extinguishing of monopolies.
This brings to mind a story from a few weeks ago. You may recall an item about how the CGFNS began accepting PTE scores from foreign nurses seeking visas for the USA in 2022. Pearson’s market share in this use case increased from 7% that first year to 50% in 2024. IELTS dropped from 84% to 35% over the same period.
Around February of this year the Educational Testing Service started adding a 4% “online service fee” to GRE registrations (and other transactions). It appears at checkout.
I believe a similar fee was added to Praxis registrations last year.
It has not yet been added to TOEFL registrations. But let me know if you spot it sometime after I publish this post!
