Michael Goodine's Blog, page 42

More Layoffs at ETS

More layoffs are coming at the Educational Testing Service (ETS). According to a WARN notice published yesterday by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, 62 employees will be let go in July of this year. This comes as ETS seeks to rebrand itself as a “global education and talent solutions” organization.  It […]

TOEFL Scores Cancelled: An extremely unusual difference between…

Someone contacted me once again to report that their TOEFL scores were cancelled (no refund) because they increased too much over the span of seven months.  This is what ETS refers to as “an extremely unusual difference between” two test dates.  Or perhaps “Inconsistent performance in your responses between” two test dates. I wrote a […]

ACT Sold to Private Equity

According to Forbes, the ACT will be spun off into a for-profit company. That for-profit company will be majority owned by Nexus Capital Management, a private equity firm. ACT’s current CEO will serve as CEO of the new company. The non-profit ACT organization will continue on as a sort of hub for research. Or something. […]

On the Future Popularity of Tests

I posted the following on LinkedIn last week, and IELTS tutors piled in to my page to insist that it will never happen, and that people are proud to take the IELTS instead of some other test.  Look, I could be wrong.  But I must note that no TOEFL tutors came to say that.  TOEFL […]

New TOEFL Website Design

Oh wow.  ETS redesigned the TOEFL website.  And they’ve got a new logo, too.  Check it out.  The new logo is a bold choice. Content seems about the same, but there is some new stuff for score users.  That seems to be an area of focus for ETS at the moment.

On the Usefulness of Score Comparisons

Now in open access from “Language Testing” is an excellent article about test score comparison tables by Ute Knoch and Jason Fan. It explores the concordance tables provided by the makers of the TOEFL, IELTS, PTE-A and C1 tests. This is a wonderful area to explore in 2024 – most readers are probably aware that […]

On the Popularity of Tests

Some anecdotal evidence of changes in language testing for university admissions. Twice a year, first year international students (undergraduates) at Columbia University reach out to me for tutoring while they are preparing for Columbia’s placement test (the ALP Essay Test).  Basically, students whose first language is English take a test to determine if they’ll have […]

On Effective Test Marketing

Here’s an example of some fairly effective marketing from Duolingo.    The UCLA student in the video says of the Duolingo English Test: “I didn’t have to travel halfway across the city to go find a test spot. I didn’t have to book a test spot. The website didn’t crash on me. And it was […]

You Should Read More – Part 43

I underwent surgery this month, so my reading slowed a bit.  But I did check out a few things. First, I continued my read-along with the wonderful Norton Library Podcast by reading Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.  This was a fun read (and a fun listen).  It tells the story of the young Jane Eyre as […]

New Australian Student Visa English Requirements

Those Australian student visa changes are now in place. Here are your new language test requirements (old –> new): IELTS: 5.5 –> 6.0 TOEFL: 46 –> 64 C1 Advanced: 162 –> 169 PTE-A: 42 –> 50 OET: No change This is my first time to see the requirements for tests other than IELTS.