iTEP International has just launched a quarterly newsletter. You can read the newsletter and subscribe to keep on top of what the folks at iTEP are up to. The iTEP is a test I hope to learn more about this year. The team over there has been doing their thing for a couple of decades and have amassed a decent number of accepting institutions and partners over the years. I even stumbled upon one of their test center partners in Seoul last year.
Month: June 2025
Here’s a new video that summarizes all of the coming adjustments to the Duolingo English Test. It describes the “interactive speaking” question I wrote about on Monday and also notes that:
- A “listen and complete” task will be added to the beginning of the “interactive listening” task.
- The “Read aloud” and “listen then speak” tasks will be removed.
- Minimum speaking and writing times will be removed from some of the longer speaking and writing tasks. Test takers can move along whenever they feel they’ve completed the tasks.
UPDATE: More complete descriptions have been added to the DET Help Center.
IDP Education’s share price plummeted 48% today after a disappointing update from the testing and student placement firm. Shares are down 66% for the year, so far. They are currently trading at $3.88, which is the lowest they’ve been since December of 2016
According to the update, in FY2025 student placement volumes are expected to decrease 28 to 30 percent compared to FY2024. Testing volumes (IELTS) are expected to decrease 18 to 20 percent.
The update notes that IDP “has a focused roadmap of digital and AI enabled product development across Student Placement and Language Testing that will underpin long-term volume and revenue growth, margin expansion and shareholder returns.”
On a call with investors, a few noteworthy topics were raised.
Regarding China, IDP notes: “We continue to progress our entry of IDP IELTS into China, are confident in the long term business case, continue to work constructively with the Chinese government and will update the market as appropriate as we continue to work towards our full IELTS opening in China.”
When pushed for a date when testing might begin, IDP didn’t provide one. They noted that the government there has taken an “encouraging view” of IDP’s entry into the country, but that the regulatory process has “slowed.”
Regarding bright spots for IELTS, on-shore testing in Canada was identified (due to testing for PR) as well as increased domestic usage in Asia (probably Vietnam, though it was not specifically named).
Regarding the HOELT test, it was indicated that the IELTS partners will apply for the tender as a partnership (rather than, say, individually). It was also confirmed that the HOELT will only be for work and migration visas (not student visas). The current concession, though, has been extended for another 12 months.
Starting in July, the Duolingo English Test will include a new speaking task that seems like an attempt to simulate a back-and-forth conversation. In this task, test takers will receive a series of short questions on a given topic followed by a series of short questions on some other topic. They must quickly respond to each question.
Interested parties can demo the new task by taking the free practice test via the DET website. When I took the test, I received four questions about staying focused at work and four about family and growing up. I was given six seconds to prepare each response and 35 seconds to speak each time, so quick thinking was mandatory. I suppose this task is a good measure of one’s ability to produce spoken English fairly spontaneously. Note that a few people have reported getting just three questions about each topic.
I suppose there is a discussion to be had about how regular test revisions reduce the impact of cramming and test prep strategies on scores in general. Perhaps this will be a feature of more tests, as we move forward. I would love to see it as part of the HOELT, for one.
Below are a few screenshots from the practice test. A new article from The Koala News references this task. The article includes a link to an information session you can sign up for to learn more.
Tomorrow (June 4) I’ll host an “office hours” chat on Zoom to talk about the upcoming changes to the TOEFL. Just like we had when the Test was revised in 2023! If you want to hang out with some people in the test prep space this is for you! There have been 128 registrations so far. If memory serves, about 25% of registrants show up for these sorts of things, so there should be enough people for a fun conversation. You can sign up over here.
Just note that this isn’t a webinar or a presentation or anything like that. It’s just an opportunity to chat about what’s going on in testing (particularly the “transformed” TOEFL iBT). A few topics come to mind:
- What does it mean when a test is “adaptive” and how might this be added to a test which has not been adaptive for the past two decades?
- Might the speaking and writing sections of the TOEFL be adjusted? The verbiage used to describe the changes suggests that they will not change, but the announcement isn’t exactly clear in this regard.
- What about Australia? The last time the TOEFL was revised, the Home Office paused acceptance of the test for several months.
- Speaking of changes, this is the third major revision of the TOEFL iBT since 2019 (the fourth if you count TOEFL Essentials). All of the changes have been attempts to increase its competitiveness in a challenging marketplace. Will this be the one that does the trick?
I’m also interested in hearing about what sorts of materials people in the prep space are currently using, and how they might respond to a bigger than expected change to test content.
Anyway. All are welcome – whether you are in the test prep space, student recruitment or work for a testing company. I’ll even upgrade my Zoom plan just in case more people than expected show up.
A recent article in the Waterloo Region Record has some stats that serve as a good postscript for my article about what English tests students use for admission to Canadian schools (and, more importantly, which schools testing fans ought to be paying attention to).
It reports that in Q1 of 2025, Conestoga was issued 410 study permits. That’s a decline of 95% since Q1 of 2023, when they were issued 8550 study permits.
Despite the reduction, Conestoga remains the number one recipient of study permits (tied with the University of Toronto). Here’s the top 9 for Q1 2025:
- Conestoga College
- University of Toronto
- Seneca College
- Humber College
- University of Niagara Falls
- Sheridan College
- Fanshawe College
- University of British Columbia
- Centennial College
So, ya know, if you are into the business of English testing you shouldn’t just follow the well respected Canadian schools. You should also follow the schools that are not so well respected. Indeed, you should probably pay more attention to those schools.