I wrote yesterday about my sample of 16 international students admitted to Columbia University.  I mentioned that 15 took the Duolingo English Test, and one took the TOEFL.

What does that mean in terms of revenues at testing firms?

Well, that one dude who was admitted with a TOEFL score took the test three times, paying $400 USD for each attempt. He generated $1200 in revenue for ETS.

It is not uncommon for students applying to Ivy League schools to take the TOEFL two or three times.

I didn’t ask, but he might have spent a few extra bucks to get his scores to a raft of backup schools.  And he may have accidentally clicked to join the “TOEFL Search Service” which is still a fairly lucrative source of revenue for ETS, I think.

The other 15 students took the Duolingo test and paid $59 per attempt.  Most of them took the test only once. There may have been a few repeaters who paid $49 per attempt (after taking advantage of the two-test deal).  They sent their scores to all of their target schools without paying additional fees.

My point is that it is quite possible that the ONE guy who took the TOEFL generated more revenue than the 15 people who took the DET.

This highlights one of the struggles that the legacy firms are facing.  They know, I’m sure, that one of these days they’ll have to introduce a cheap test.  But when is the best time to do it?  From a business perspective, it is certainly possible to introduce the next-gen test too early, especially if it means losing out on that $400 registration fee. Even while under immense pressure from competitors (and while possibly losing market share), both the TOEFL and IELTS tests are revenue generating machines.

(Notes:  the price of the Duolingo test was recently hiked to $65.  The price of the TOEFL ranges from $185 to $450 depending on the country.)

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