hello everyone and welcome to this video on the
difference between the toefl and ielts exam so let's get started
in this video let's examine reasons to do the toefl or ielts test where you can do these tests
differences in timing and exam format the price and scoring of toefl and ielts and which tests
you should do reasons to do the toefl exam toefl is recognized as a proof of english ability in 90
of institutions and organizations in the united states and canada reasons to do the ielts exam
ielts is recognized by over 10 000 institutions and organizations as an assessment of ability
in the english language ielts ukvi is required for visa applicants to the united kingdom
the toefl exam was originally created by stanford university and is now developed by ets that's the
educational testing service in the united states whereas ielts was originally created by cambridge
and is now co-created by cambridge the british council and idp australia so really the ielts
is more of a british exam interestingly a lot of people who want to study or work in canada
can do either the ielts or the toefl exam where you can do the test for toefl there are 4
500 centers worldwide in 169 different countries and for ielts there are 1200 centers
in most international cities exam timing toefl ibt it's about 3 to 3.5 hours the ielts exam two hours
and 45 minutes that three and a half hours of time for toefl includes that arrival time
to prepare for the test so for ielts actually you should also give yourself another extra half hour
just to get a breather put your stuff in the locker and get ready for the exam exam format
this chart will show you the main differences between the toefl
and the ielts exam so you can see that the reading test in toefl is 54 to 72 minutes
and 60 minutes in ielts 30 to 40 questions in toefl and 40 questions in ielts so the reading is
fairly similar in timing the listening exam is longer in toefl because it's 41 to 57 minutes
30 minutes in ielts or 40 minutes if you're doing the paper-based test speaking 17 minutes for toefl
it's shorter for ielts it's 11 to 14. writing 50 minutes where there are two tasks
and ielts 60 minutes two tasks oh by the way you have ielts academic ielts general exams those are
slightly different ielts academic the passages in the reading are more academic in the writing
you have to write a graph the general test you just write a letter in toefl you can expect all
of the text to be academic and also the audios and listening in toefl are academic exam content
reading so in toefl reading there are three to four academic passages 10 question types that
include factual detail and table completion in ielts reading there are three academic passages
in academic ielts three to five general texts in general ielts the question types include true
false not given and sentence completion questions therefore once you know which exam you want to do
good idea to prepare yourself for the different types of questions that come
up because indeed they are very different between toefl and ielts exam content listening
in toefl listening there are two parts there may be a third part if the exam is extended
you'll have conversations and lectures the lectures are university academic type audios
and the conversations are two people usually a man and a woman talking about a campus related
issue so for example it could be two students or it could be a professor and a student discussing
in ielts listening there are four parts there are also conversations and lectures
one lecture the fourth one that's the fourth part of the listening is academic and the conversations
may not be academic they may just be general conversations now let's compare toefl speaking
and ielts speaking they're quite different in the toefl ibt speaking test it's done at the computer
so the student is alone speaking into a microphone and there are four parts to the speaking test so
you have part one it's independent speaking where you're just speaking freely and part two three
and four it's what we call integrated speaking where there's some reading some listening and
speaking ielts speaking is completely different because you usually do the test in an exam center
or by computer if you're doing the ielts indicator exam which is done at home there are three parts
of independent speaking where you speak directly with the examiner who asks you questions exam
content for writing there are two tasks in both toefl and ielts the first writing task
in toefl is integrated reading listening and writing and the second writing task is an essay
now ielts writing you also have the two writing tasks but the first one is describing a graph
if you're doing academic ielts or writing a letter if it's general ielts and the second
writing task is also an essay however in ielts there are different essay types that may come up
whereas in the toefl it's usually an agree disagree essay so as you can see there are
many differences between the ielts and toefl exam once you know exactly where you want to study
or work and you know which exam you need to do the best thing you can do is to get the right book
for either ielts or toefl familiarize yourself with the exam format and start studying the
difference in scoring between the toefl and ielts exams toefl you get a raw score which is converted
to between 0 and 120 points in the computer-based test or zero to 677 points in the paper-based test
ielts you get also a raw score which is also converted to a nine-band score level
so you get between zero and nine zero being the worst and nine being the highest and that scoring
system is the same for both the computer and the paper-based test all right everyone let's talk
money how much does the toefl or ielts test cost the toefl ibt that's the computer-based exam
is 185 the paper-based test is a little bit cheaper at 180 again that is u.s dollars the ielts
exam is a little more expensive at 242 245 u.s dollars and of course on the ets or ielts website
you can buy the tests in your own currency where and when you can do the toefl test
the creators of toefl ets developed a new exam called toefl home edition
this exam you can do at home in the privacy of your office or your bedroom on the computer
you do the exam and you're proctored via webcam by an examiner during the test
to make sure that you're complying with all the regulations of the exam otherwise you can do
the toefl ibt or the paper-based test in any of the recognized exam centers worldwide ielts also
have a petition exam it's called ielts indicator that you can do at home as well on the computer
however i should say it's not recognized by all institutes therefore do your research about the
university you're applying to to make sure that you do the right ielts exam before paying for it
otherwise you can do the outs exam at any of the recognized exam centers worldwide
if you're doing the uk vi ielts which is the exam to apply for a visa to enter the uk then
you need to do it at a special secure exam center and for more information about the exact location
of test centers near your town or village or city then go to either the ets.org website for toefl
and then for ielts you can check ielts.org or idp the last question is should you do the toefl exam
or the ielts exam if you're planning to study in the united states or canada then toefl is
the exam for you if you're planning to work in the united states organizations may also require
you to show a toefl certification to prove your ability in english if you're planning to study in
the european union the united kingdom republic of ireland australia new zealand or canada then ielts
is the exam for you so as you can see students often do ielts to go to canada or toefl to go to
canada but toefl is very much the recognized exam for the united states i hope this was helpful for
you to understand the difference between ielts and toefl exams maybe you have more clarity
on which one that you need to do but again it really depends on where you want to study or where
you want to work once you know exactly what you want to do you'll have a better idea which exam to
take thank you for watching good luck in either ielts or toefl we'll see you in the next video
you