The Wall Street Journal is reporting that ETS has held talks to sell both the TOEFL and GRE tests.  The non-profit is reportedly seeking a purchase price of about 500 million USD, or a for-profit partner who might invest (but not purchase outright) the tests.

According to the WSJ’s report, ETS “has narrowed the talks to several firms that could potentially buy the exams or act as a strategic investor to expand ETS’s reach into the Middle East and India, said people familiar with the matter.”

As for potential buyers, “[i]nterested parties include the Singapore-based investment firm Hillhouse, the private-equity firms Nexus Capital and Veritas Capital and the education entrepreneur Martin Basiri, some of the people said.”

ETS CEO Amit Sevak has declined to comment.

Regular readers know that Nexus Capital recently purchased the ACT test from its non-profit owner for about 240 million dollars.  Veritas Capital, meanwhile, purchased the assets of non-profit testing giant NWEA for about 890 million dollars. Martin Basiri, of course, is the co-founder of the fairly successful Canadian firm ApplyBoard (which everyone reading this is quite familiar with)  and more recently an admissions-related company called Passage (which we are all much less familiar with).

Most astute test watchers are well aware that we’ve been on the path to such a move for a very long time.  The dominance of both tests has been eroded since the pandemic years, while ETS itself has experienced financial woes that have necessitated several rounds of layoffs and buyouts. Several much smaller testing products have already been eliminated from the organization’s portfolio.

I’ll have more to say on this topic in the days ahead, I’m sure.

Jia Peng, 24, has been sentenced to three months imprisonment in Hong Kong for cheating on the TOEFL.  Jia was the “other dude” I mentioned in a post a few days ago about another case of cheating in Hong Kong.

According to court records, Jia hired a convincing lookalike to take the TOEFL for him at a test center in Malaysia.  It appears, as in the earlier case, that the scheme was uncovered by the university sometime after a score report was submitted.

I spoke yesterday with a source who has experience being locked up in Hong Kong. They described conditions in the city’s jails as “pretty spartan,” with inmates being kept two to a cell.  The same source described the food served to prisoners as “not bad.”

A point I’ve been trying to make here is that some test makers might insist that their on-site tests are far more secure than at-home tests offered by their competitors… all while not being fully aware of exactly how many people are cheating on those on-site administrations.

We are in the era of the new TOEFL.  A few notes:

1. As expected, the old TOEFL will live on as “TOEFL iBT Australia” for those headed down under.  I understand that scores can only be sent to institutions in that country.  It could take some time for the new version to be approved by the Australian DHA.
2. TOEFL TestReady lives on as a means of selling prep only for “TOEFL iBT Australia.”  As announced earlier, it is no longer used to supply prep for the new TOEFL.
3. Accordingly, there is far less free prep available than before.  Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but as I understand it there are no longer any free graded tests available for the new version. There are plenty of paid options, though.
4. ETS is no longer advertising an updated “Official Guide to the TOEFL.”  Instead, they are advertising an “Official Guide to the TOEFL iBT Test: Pocket edition” (coming soon).  This product  is described as a “time-limited digital release.”  I’m not sure what that means.  Amazon still has a full official guide listed for a late-May release.  No sign of updated “Official Tests” books, though.

I’ll take the new test when I return home in a few weeks. Probably at a test center.

I received many DMs regarding test delivery options following my post about the topic a few days ago.  Those turned into some stimulating conversations.  Most of the people I talked to were very supportive of test center delivery, and quite concerned about at-home testing.

This is reasonable.  Often, at-home testing is pretty bad.  Cheating happens quite frequently.  Regular readers are probably aware that a group which appears to offer cheating services for the at-home GRE has advertised on Reddit (including the GRE subreddit itself) for more than a year.  Everyone knows, of course, that Pearson just paid a big fine amid allegations that thirteen thousand people cheated on the at-home version of the PTE Academic test. And speaking of Pearson, even more distressing is that according to reports from 2024, Florida Man managed to beat their at-home security 820 times on behalf of candidates for some kind of insurance industry licensure test.

But on-site testing isn’t covered in glory.  We still get regular reports of hidden cameras and of dudes hidden away in nearby toilets sending in answers via walkie-talkie.  There are still body double candidates.  And even after a century of trying, test providers haven’t figured out how to stop paper-delivered exam forms from being leaked, so  “Exam tourism” to compromised test centers continues to be a thing.  A few years ago, one fellow was arrested in India after allegedly tampering with IELTS test forms for twenty years. That he was (allegedly) able to do this for two decades before being detected is concerning.

My point here is that cheating abounds on all delivery methods.  Perhaps data exists which can prove that one version is better than the other… but the test makers aren’t sharing it.

This means that score users are on their own.  For the most part, they are left to decide which tests to accept based on anecdotes and press clippings.

Accordingly, if you are a score user who cares about security, you might take the time to ask the testing firms you partner with some pointed questions about test security.  As you do this, you must keep in mind that not all at-home tests are the same.  Nor are all on-site tests.

With this in mind, you might consider asking the test companies you work with about the finer points of paper-delivered vs computer-delivered on-site testing.  And maybe ask about methods to prevent body double testing.  You might also ask how a fingerprint or palm scan might help (or not).  When it comes to remote testing, consider asking your partners about the benefits of a second camera… or whether they have even implemented a second camera.  Or if they are using a secure browser.  You might even be bold and ask how many tests each proctor observes at the same time.

The list goes on and on and on.  If you are a score user and you don’t have the list… you might be doing it wrong.

I’m taking a very long holiday in the Middle East. I hope to return home some day.  I’ve made a pledge to avoid spending too much time writing about English tests during this holiday, but if regular readers would like to keep themselves informed about goings-on in the test world without my assistance, there are a few things to watch for:

1. The annual audit of ETS will probably be available sometime around January 15.  The audits all show up on Propublica eventually, but you can find them first via the Federal Audit Clearinghouse.  These audits might be my favorite thing in the whole world of testing.  I spend a terrible amount of time reading charity audits and 990 forms.  Not just from testing companies… but non-profits of all sorts.  They are fascinating.
2. The British Council’s annual return is supposed to be available at the end of January, but of course these have all been late in recent years.
3. Duolingo’s Q4 report will be available around the end of January.  But you will have to wait a few extra days for the 10-Q form to find revenue figures from the DET.
4. Pearson’s trading update will be published January 14.  This will be followed by the full results sometime in February.
5. There are new TOEIC Program stats from that test’s biggest market (Japan) but I haven’t had time to write about them.  
6. The IRCC was supposed to fulfill my Access to Information request re: testing at the beginning of this month.  They haven’t done that.  If they give me what I want, I’ll sift through it when I return.  But in the meantime, I’ll be happy to dump all the data on anyone who asks for it.
7. IDP Education Ltd will publish a half-year report at the end of February, but I really hope to be home by then.
8. And, of course, the new TOEFL launches January 21.  I’ll take the test as soon as I get home.  I’ll convene an Office Hours session shortly thereafter.  Let me know if you want a registration link.