TOEFL vs. IELTS – same difference?

Preparing to study abroad? You’re obviously hearing a lot of buzz about IELTS and TOEFL, their pros and cons. What’s it all about?

TOEFL (Test Of English as a Foreign Language) was developed by ETS (Educational Testing Service), a private, non-profit institute headquartered in the USA. IELTS (International English Language Testing System) has been developed by the British Council, IDP Education Australia, and Cambridge ESOL. Both are used worldwide by universities, corporates and by immigration departments to assess the English proficiency of non-native speakers of the language.

What’s the difference?

Both systems test candidates on their English writing, listening, reading and speaking skills. Some differences exist in their approach, scoring methods and the modalities involved in giving the tests.
The primary difference – IELTS, besides testing writing, listening and reading skills, also has a module for testing speaking skills, in the form of a face-to-face interview. With TOEFL, skills in expression are also tested through the written word, by way of questions involving sentence completion and error recognition.

Each IELTS module you complete (reading, writing, etc.) will be assessed on a “band scale” of 1 to 9. For instance, 1 stands for non-user, 5 for modest user and 9 implies an expert user of the language. The band scores for all modules are totalled and their average is the score that proclaims your overall skill level.

With TOEFL, each module has a numerical score and the total score determines your level of proficiency.

Which is tougher?

It’s all about perception! IELTS’ assessment of speaking skills, in an interview format, is felt to be more intimidating. TOEFL has an extremely simple format and the parameters for judging skills of self-expression are spelt out clearly. On the other hand, it is felt that IELTS is not so clear.

Teachers who train students for IELTS feel that the reading and listening modules often feature tricky questions. Also, in the listening module, answers have to be written down while listening. In the process, a candidate making errors in spelling and grammar stands to lose marks. However, those in favour of IELTS argue that this method of testing closely resembles how students work in a university setting. IELTS, therefore, gives an accurate assessment of one’s “understanding English of an academic nature.”

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