At least once a week, a student asks me if they should get a TOEFL score review (for speaking or writing).   The short answer is: “probably not.”  The long answer is:  “if the cost is no problem, you should do it.”

However, if you want more information, here’s what you should note:

1. In my experience, a score review results in an increase about 10% of the time.  The rest of the time, the score stays the same.  In rare cases, the score goes down.  This rate is the same for both speaking and writing.
2. However, I have heard from some students who have gotten large increases, up to four points.  I can’t really explain this.
3. ETS says it takes 1 to 3 weeks.  Lately, though, score reviews seem to get finished in just two or three days.  But don’t plan on getting one back so quickly.
4. During a score review, the e-rater (for writing) and SpeechRater (for speaking) are not used.  This isn’t published information, but ETS has confirmed it when asked.  This means that score reviews are done entirely by humans.  If you think that you were punished by the automated scoring systems, you might want to request a review.
5. The person doing the score review will not see your original score.  They will not be biased by your old score, but they will probably be aware that they are doing a score review.

In terms of money:

1. The score review is really expensive.  Eighty dollars for one section.  However, if your score changes this money will be returned to you.  This is not a published policy, though, so it could change at any time.

Note that most students are not able to request a score review since it is not possible if your scores have been sent to institutions.  If you selected some free score recipients when you signed up for the test they will get the scores right away, and thus you will not be able to request the score review.

TOEFL score data for 2018 is now available.  Download a PDF right here.

The most notable bit of data is that the mean score of all test takers reached 83 points for the first time, after being stuck at 82 points for two years.

Here is a short history of mean score progression for a few selected dates.  Note that the mean score of the TOEFL iBT has increased by four points over the life of the test.  It also seems to be increasing more rapidly than before these days.  That probably accounts for the “required score creep” that bugs a lot of students.

• 2006: 79
• 2007: 78
• 2008: 79
• 2009: 79
• 2010: 80
• 2013: 81
• 2014: 80
• 2015: 81
• 2016: 82
• 2017: 82
• 2018: 83 

Note that the data summaries from 2011 and 2012 don’t contain an overall mean score, as far as I can tell.

Score recipients have revised their requirements to keep up with these increases, which represent a challenge for all students. 

What makes this a challenge for some students more than others is that this increase is likely driven by huge jumps in countries with well-developed test preparation industries (and tons of test-takers).  For example, the mean score in Korea has jumped twelve points since 2006.  Korea has the absolute best TOEFL preparation options in the world, and it shows.  Here are scores from Korea for a few selected years:

• 2006: 72
• 2007: 77
• 2010: 81
• 2014: 84
• 2017: 83
• 2018: 84 

Meanwhile, scores in Taiwan have jumped 11 points:

• 2006: 71
• 2007: 72
• 2010: 76
• 2014: 80
• 2017: 81
• 2018: 82 

It is worth noting that scores in China have increased less dramatically, rising only four points from 76 to 80 between 2006 to 2018.  As has been pointed out elsewhere, China has a consistency problem when it comes to the test prep industry.  They have some of the best options for students… but some of the worst as well. It seems like things are improving for Chinese students, though, as China is likely the source of more recent increases to the overall mean score. Note that most of China’s increase has come since 2014.

In contrast to China’s recent growth, it is worth noting that the mean score in Korea has remained about the same since 2014. This indicates that there is a limit to the benefits that students can gain from research into test design and scoring. I imagine that the mean score in Taiwan will probably top out around the same level in a few years.

Once China reaches that level as well,  ETS should probably start developing the “next generation” TOEFL to replace the iBT. If there are too many teachers around the world who can show students how to “beat” the test and score way above their actual level the reliability of the iBT will be called into question.

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For fun, here is the growth in a few notable countries from 2006 to 2018

• Germany: 96 to 98
• Brazil: 85 to 87
• Japan: 65 to 71
• Russia: 85 to 87
• Iran: 78 to 85
• India: 91 to 95

In case you are curious, the top performing countries in 2018 were Netherlands and Switzerland.  The mean score in both of those countries was 99 points.  

Hey, those of you who are interested in my research into the functioning of the TOEFL e-rater should check out this new page.  I took a deep dive into some academic articles that reference apparent changes to the rater.