# TOEFL vs PTE



## nidi (Sep 17, 2015)

Has anyone tried TOEFL here? I see most of the conversations around IELTS and PTE.

I have heard some good reviews about TOEFL and want to give it a try. Any help/suggestions would be highly appreciated.


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## Aus_NZ_Expat (Jan 9, 2016)

nidi said:


> Has anyone tried TOEFL here? I see most of the conversations around IELTS and PTE.
> 
> I have heard some good reviews about TOEFL and want to give it a try. Any help/suggestions would be highly appreciated.


Most people seem to rate the PTE quite highly as they had little success with the IELTS or TOEFL tests. The TOEFL is easier to manage if you are good with computers vis-a-vis the IELTS which progresses much slower.


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## way2manila (Feb 1, 2014)

I attempted Toefl IBT 15 days back at got 114/120 score. R:29/30, L:30/30, S:27/30, W:28/30. Still overall IELTS equivalent 7.0, because I lost 2 points in writing which lowered my score from 8.0 equivalent band to 7.0 equivalent in overall. Its tight Australia policy. You need 30/30 in writing for IELTS 8.0+ level, which I feel a tad difficult task with very little or no margin for error. I have not attempted IELTS or PTE so can't comment.

Why Toefl ? The country I live presently has very limited IELTS dates (1 date in 4 months) and EA doesn't accept PTE for assessment though DIBP does, so Toefl. Before this, I never attempted any English language measurement test so I was little worried as I have studied throughout in an Hindi medium school in India, and English was just 1 subject per year till 12th standard. I think Engineering was my start of English language learning 

To measure the test level, I bought 1 ETS online mock Toefl (TPO), which proven a good decision. Though, I attempted it only 2 days before actual test to be on my end of prep level. Toefl dates availability was 1 date per month, so I booked nearest, which was 10 days away, and prepped in those 10 days. I thought I did foolish act by not taking time, but I think it was a great decision. You can't learn English in 10 days or 45 days (if you take more days), but you can learn the test very well in this limited time. I used Notefull strategies available on Youtuve and trained myself in notes taking and speaking per Toefl in this time. I didn't do any writing practice but understood the strategies well. Writing practice needs patience.

Surprisingly, my TPO score and final scores were exactly same in total, however, 1 point here and there in individual modules. TPO uses erater for speaking and writing, and I guess it is quite accurate, though it claims that 90% time speaking scores drop in main test because human rates pay attention to matter too which ETS erater can't do at the moment. Mine dropped by 1 point. In main test, as luck would had it, I got experimental reading passage, and in overall, reading felt much difficult than practice tests. Listing felt little easier, speaking and writing were at same level as in practice tests.

By no means I call Toefl easy or very difficult, it all depends on your language skills, however, one needs to remember that these tests are for non native speakers hence they are calibrated accordingly. I told this to myself many times to get out of the grip of stress. Hope it helps to people who want to attempt Toefl.

Regards,
B.


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