Chandigarh: ETS announced its plans to establish seven new test centres in Punjab this year. These new test centres are expected to open in Bathinda, Jalandhar, Patiala, Ludhiana, Amritsar and Chandigarh. These will be the first test centres to open in Bathinda, Jalandhar and Patiala. The establishment of these test centres will enable significant ease of access for TOEFL and GRE test takers.
ETS also announced the launch of the UK-India TOEFL Scholarship’ for 25 Indian scholars in association with the National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU). These scholarships, as a part of celebrations of India@75, ETS@75 and India-UK ties, aggregating to US$75,000 (approx. INR 60 lacs) will recognize and support applicants who wish to excel in academics during their undergraduate or postgraduate years at a UK university. Selected candidates will get a chance to win a scholarship worth INR 2.4 lacs each. Applicants can find more details on this website: www.toefltest.in/scholarship
Speaking to media in Chandigarh, Mr. Mohammad Kousha, Vice President of Global Growth and Languages at ETS, said “Punjab is a growing market for us, so we were keen to identify ways to provide additional support and access to test takers here to accommodate the increasing demand. These state-of-the-art test centres will provide an optimal test-taking environment, enabling candidates to showcase their best performance. Our growing footprint in Punjab will enable support not only for test takers but also for our growing network of study abroad and immigration consultants.”
Recently, ETS announced a series of exciting enhancements to TOEFL iBT, as part of its continuous pursuit to create an optimal experience for test takers. Over the next few months, test takers in India can expect:
A shortened TOEFL iBT test for administrations beginning July 26, 2023. The test will now take less than two hours to complete – previously three hours – as a result of:
Streamlined instructions and navigation throughout the test, A new, more modern “Writing for an Academic Discussion” task, which replaces the previous Independent Writing task, A shorter Reading section, The removal of all unscored test questions, A dedicated customer service center for India, effective immediately. This center is exclusively for Indian test takers, available from 8am to 8pm (IST) 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, A simplified registration process beginning July 2023. Test takers can create an account and register for an available TOEFL iBT test date quicker and easier than ever before.
More localized benefits, such as additional local payment options, effective immediately and expanded in the coming weeks. In addition to widely used global credit cards, test takers will have access to convenient local payment options such as locally issued credit and debit cards, digital wallets and net banking. For the first time, test prices will be presented in their cart in INR.
Increased score transparency beginning July 26, 2023. Test takers will see their official score release date upon completion of the test, in addition to receiving real-time notification of changes to their score status.
In addition, updated versions of the TOEFL iBT Free Practice Test and TOEFL iBT Practice sets will be available on the TOEFL website in the next few weeks.
