ETS and the IELTS partnership have published new score concordance tables for the IELTS Academic and TOEFL tests. These replace the results of an earlier concordance study published in 2010.
Do check out the link above. I suppose that a few things are worth noting about the results:
- The study was completed using test results from August 2023 to March 2024, so it reflects changes to the TOEFL introduced in July 2023. It was completed as part of the Australian Department of Home Affairs’ REOI re: English tests.
- The score comparisons are noticeably different from those published in 2010. Score users who set requirements based on the 2010 charts may wish to update their requirements. But, as the report notes, “score users are advised not to rely solely on published score equivalences in making their decisions. They should weigh evidence from additional sources where feasible.”
- Score users who based their requirements on the 2010 charts may consider adjusting high-end requirements and low-end requirements in different directions, if you get what I mean. For instance, back in 2010 an overall IELTS score of 7.5 was listed as comparable to a TOEFL score of 102 to 109. Today it is listed as comparable to a TOEFL score of 100 to 107. Meanwhile, in 2010 an overall IELTS score of 6.0 was listed as comparable to a TOEFL score of 60 to 78. Today it is listed as comparable to a TOEFL score of 67 to 80. This phenomenon is particularly noticeable if you look specifically at the listening and reading comparisons.
- I’m curious about the distribution of TOEFL reading and listening scores. Let me know if you have any thoughts.
- There is some fascinating data in here about the first language populations of each test. We can learn that in 2022, the top first languages/first language families for TOEFL test takers were: Chinese (35.4%), Indian (13.2%), Spanish (8.6%), Korean (7.8%) and Japanese (6.8%). For IELTS, the top first languages were: Indian (39.6%), Chinese (15.8%), South-East Asian (8.2%), Arabic (5.4%), Spanish (1.8%). Those who reported using some “other” first language sood at 12.5% of TOEFL test takers and 23.3% of IELTS test takers.
Fun fact: of the 937 test takers included in this study, not a single one scored 8.5 or 9.0 in the IELTS writing section.