TOEFL Session, NACAC 2013 Conference

• Reading, Listening, 10m break, Speaking, Writing. 30 marks available for each section – total 120.
• Daily calibration, multiple raters for speaking and writing, scoring is separate from the testing site…worldwide responses.
• To take the test, the student must create an online profile – user name and password. Can add universities to send the scores to. View test scores 10 days afterwards…etc
• ID is needed at the test center on test day
• Universities may look at the total score but also section scores depending on their academic programme.
• Brown University – no longer requires TOEFL but highly recommends it. Minimum score of 100 – beyond that, they don’t really look that closely at who got 118 or 105. They accept IELTS however.
• Do Brown superscore the TOEFL ? No.
• Why does Brown like the TOEFL ? (Panetha Ott, Director of Admission, International Recruitment, Brown) Because of the fact that person-to-person adds many other factors. In TOEFL, best scholars involved from around the world.
• Perfect measure ? No – student can have a bad day..Ms Ott has taught TOEFL over the summer and can see how it doesn’t always measure everything.
• Students should learn which sections they need to work on in particular. Most often Reading section.
• Their results are only as good as their intellectual development – e.g. 14-year olds.
• Rebecca Koeller – Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada – Assistant Registrar, International Admissions.
• They expect 92 upwards…they have compared TOEFL with their European Framework of Languages expectations.
• TOEFL has a Youtube channel – tips on learning English, preparing for the test etc.  See http://www.youtube.com/user/TOEFLtv
• 9 for IELTS, 120 for TOEFL. TOEFL allows for better discrimination. Comparison tool on their website.