Michael Goodine's Blog, page 7

More on the Collapse of the GRE

The GRE snapshot for 2019-2024 is now available (or maybe I missed it when researching earlier this week).  A few things are worth noting: The total number of tests taken in 2023/24 is actually lower than my earlier estimate.  The total is actually 256,215 tests for the year.  That’s the lowest figure (by far) for […]

TOEFL Institutes “Country Change Fee” – So Stupid

Note that the TOEFL program has instituted a “country change fee.” If test takers who have completed a home edition test wish to change the address in their TOEFL account to a new country they are now required to pay a $99 “country change” fee.  I repeat:  the fee is charged if you want to […]

TOEFL Essentials Confirmed for Canada

ETS has now officially announced that it has been named a recognized testing organization by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and that the TOEFL Essentials Test will soon be accepted for immigration purposes. The press release confirms that the test will be offered at testing centers at that time. ETS will be in competition with […]

More on Offshored TOEFL Raters

The PIE News has dug into the issues surrounding a petition launched by TOEFL speaking raters who are seeking clarity regarding their status with testing giant ETS. According to the petition, scoring of TOEFL speaking responses has largely been offshored to India, a process which began in December of last year.  This comes after about […]

LSAT Cheating Out of Control (Until October)

The LSAT will be suspended in China for an indefinite period of time following the October administration of the test. This is due to excessive cheating in that market. The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) has indicated that testing may resume when they can figure out how to offer in-person testing in China (which appears […]

IELTS Test Statistics for 2024/25 Now Available

IELTS test statistics for 2024/25 are now available (I think they were published earlier this month). Interested readers can now access updated demographic and test taker performance data. Nothing unusual caught my eye, but let me know if you see something interesting.

Office Hours 4.0! Tomorrow! (Friday)

Just a reminder that Office Hours 4.0 will happen tomorrow (that is, Friday August 22). You can register at this link. This one will be an experiment in unstructured chat. Possible topics include: new tests and requirements in Australia, HOELT delays, TOEFL Essentials in Canada and (of course) the revised TOEFL. All are welcome. This […]

Updated GRE Percentiles and Volumes

The Educational Testing Service has published updated interpretive data for the GRE Test.  The rolling three year total of test takers is now 930,062 for the period from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2024.  Check that link for the new percentiles. This means the test was taken 269,387 times in the most recent year. […]

Me on TEFL Development Hub Livestream

Here’s me on the TEFL Development Hub Livestream.  You can tune in to see me talk about how great it is to have humans involved in the assessment process.  What the-?!

Duolingo’s Interactive Writing Task

Here’s a post from the official Duolingo English Test blog about the DET’s multistage interactive writing task.  It summarizes a long article in Language Testing.  Twenty-five page explorations of individual tasks give me great joy. The article explains that this task is an attempt to address the fact that “most large-scale writing assessments do not […]