Here’s the second part of my musings (originally posted on LinkedIn) on the new Password Plus Test. Check out part one here.
- The reading section is more relaxed than in many other tests. I tried my very best to pick the correct answers, but used only half of the given time (70 minutes). Compare this to the TOEFL, where time management is the name of the game and tutors generally advise students to skip the articles and jump right to the questions.
- The pre-test check-in took quite some time. Maybe about 20-30 minutes. The proctor did not have remote control of my system, like they do for many other tests. Instead, I shared my screen and was directed to open up the task manager and shut down processes and services myself. I also had to flip through all of my Chrome profiles to disable extensions.
- Speaking of proctors, I had the same proctor all the way through and they were really quick to respond to me at all times. I was very pleased with the proctoring provided by Examity.
- Test takers can use paper and a pen to take notes! That’s wonderful! But they are limited to just one sheet of paper. That’s probably not enough.
- There was one instance when the question displayed on the screen did not exactly match the question that was delivered through audio.
- I really like the way that time is allocated in the speaking section. As I mentioned before, there are five “sections” (each containing multiple questions) and test takers can divvy up the given time (20 minutes) as they wish. This makes the speaking section somewhat less nerve-wracking than other tests. ETS folks sometimes ask me why young people shy away from the TOEFL. I normally tell them that it is because the TOEFL speaking section gives them nightmares.