Eighty percent more students would be able to take the Test of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL) through the Internet at the end of this year, the U.S. Educational Testing Service (ETS) has said.
Net-based test seats would increase from 1,950 in June to 3,550 at the end of the year, an ETS press release said last week.
The ETS and China’s National Education Examinations Authority have worked together on their network to meet the increased demand for TOEFL in China.
Further improvements and technological solutions were being instituted* by the ETS to monitor* the TOEFL registration* Web site to ensure an open and fair test registration process, according to the ETS.
More than 6,000 colleges and universities in 110 countries recognize TOEFL scores. The number of students who want to take the test on the Chinese mainland has grown steadily in recent years, with the average staying above 70,000 a year.
“The ETS is committed to ensuring that everyone in China who wishes to take the test gets the chance to do so,” ETS’s global division senior vice-president Paul Ramsey said in the press release.
Some Chinese students see the announcement as encouraging.
“It used to be very hard to get a chance to sit for the test and I had to ask my friends to help take online registration on other computers,” said Chen Lu, a second-year postgraduate student of Renmin University. Chen took the test a few months ago to apply for doctorate studies in the United States.
But some say the increase is still not enough. “More and more students are preparing for TOEFL to get a chance to study abroad or to prove their ability. So I still see a gap between supply and demand,” said Wu Qi, a final year undergraduate at Beijing University.
The current 73 Internet-based TOEFL test sites are based in 28 cities throughout China.
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