Michael Goodine's Blog, page 32

Testing is Fun!

So I sat down at a tea stand in Amritsar to drink tea and read The New Yorker (as one does).  I looked up and across the street spotted a big ol’ “go to Canada” consultancy.  What are the odds?  Pretty good, actually, as there are whole city blocks filled with almost nothing but such […]

TOEFL Website Overhaul

The TOEFL website was just overhauled!  There is a new registration portal that looks like this: The date of birth error I mentioned a couple of days ago has been corrected. Also, the rest of the website has been reorganized with an improved navigation system.  There is still too much stuff on the site, but […]

Prometric Prepping for Sale?

I read this report that Prometric might be for sale. Prometric does a lot of things related to English testing; it operates test centers around the world, remotely proctors the “OET@Home,” and owns both the CAEL and CELPIP tests. Regular readers know that Prometric was owned by ETS from 2007 to 2018. It was sold […]

Skills for English Partners Meet

  I had the honor of speaking at the Skills for English Partners meet in Chandigarh a couple of days ago.  My congratulations go out to Prakash Upadhyay and Mazhar Hussain and Lesinda Leightley for their deft organizational skills, and my sincere thanks go out to them for inviting me to take part. I spoke […]

TOEFL Date of Birth Error

The new TOEFL website has reset the birthdays of many (all?) users to January 1, 1970.  This cannot be fixed by the users.   Update:  ETS has told me that this is an UI error, and that the proper birthdate is stored in the system.

ETS 990 form for 2023 Now Available!

The ETS 990 form for the year ending September 30, 2023 is now available.  You can read it on Propublica. A few things are worth noting here: ETS reported revenue of 1.06 billion dollars for the year.  That’s down from 1.12 billion in 2022. Other than the pandemic-impacted 2020 financial year, you’ve got to go […]

My TOEFL Score Report (119 points)

Here’s the PDF version of my TOEFL score report. Interestingly, the PDF file was available the same day my scores were. Traditionally, there has been a 24-48 hour delay on the PDF file. The overall score for my test was 119 out of 120 points. Let me know if you have any questions about how […]

New Lemann has Dropped!

I saw that Nicholas Lemann has written a new book on standardized testing called “Higher Admissions: The Rise, Decline, and Return of Standardized Testing.” I’m looking forward to reading it, as Lemann’s “The Big Test” (published 25 years ago) is one of my favorite works on the topic. It was also the inaugural selection for […]

You Should Read More – Part 49!

A quick mid-month column this month since I am off to India tomorrow morning and won’t have time write (though I will have plenty of time to read magazines, as it is a long flight). First up, I’ll remind you that I reviewed a couple of TOEFL books this month.  I really liked The TOEFL […]

I Took the TOEFL iBT Home Edition!

I took the TOEFL iBT Home Edition a few days ago. Below are a few nitpicky comments I scribbled down right after I finished:   To prepare, I used TOEFL TestReady. This was my first time to interact with that product as a test taker might. I like it a lot, but it desperately needs […]