CERTIFICATIONS: TOEFL, IELTS, LINGUASKILL, DUOLINGO, TOEIC...

Don't worry - only a few of our partner universities require an official certification of language level.  Most of them will accept the level given by your IEP language teacher at the end of semester 1.

There are several English certifications on the market.  The most recognised ones are TOEFL & TOEIC (run by ETS), IELTS (Cambridge) and now DUOLINGO.   

TOEFL iBT & IELTS Academic test your ability to study in English at university and are the hardest tests (about $250). TOEFL has a test you can take at home!!  If you are unsure which to take and plan to apply to both N American and UK destinations, you are in a tricky situation... it seems to us that IELTS Academic covers the most university places, but not all.

TOEIC & LINGUASKILL test your ability to work in an English-speaking work environment ($100-250 depending on how many parts you do)

and now the DUOLINGO test is accepted by many universities and businesses  (around $50-60).

See here for more details about the different language tests.

UK destination (visa English test/university entrance English test)

To study in the UK for more than 6 months, you need a student visa and to get the visa, you need to get a certain score in one of the accepted tests (see UK government website).  

Also, some of our UK partner universities require you to get a specific score that might be higher than the visa score.

The IELTS test might be a wise choice as it could be accepted both for the visa and for the university requirements (you need to check the university website).

IELTS Test

You would need the "IELTS Academic" test.

This is an excellent level test as it assesses all the skills including speaking.

There is an online version, but this is currently not accepted for the UK visa (UKVI).

The UGA has an IELTS test centre and registration closes at the end of September but other test centres are available elsewhere: 

https://sdl.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/se-certifier/ielts/ielts-193772.kjsp

https://ieltsregistration.britishcouncil.org/orsnbc/ors/book-test

Toefl test:

Though expensive too, it is an excellent test of a student's language level in an academic context.  Unless you have a nervous breakdown during the test, your score will be a perfect reflection of your level.  The combination of integrated and independent tasks test all 4 skills.  The tests are tightly timed so you need to be quick and concise.  Unfortunately for any lazy language learners who may be reading this, taking a toefl course 4 weeks before the test will make little difference to your level.  What makes the difference is long hard years of serious language learning... Having said that, reading the following documents and going to a course can help fine-tune the skills you already possess and make you familiar with the test.

Understand TOEFL scores: www.ets.org/toefl/test-takers/ibt/scores/understanding/ 

Has an online version: TOEFL home edition.

You may be able to take it at UGA, but sometimes they reserve the sessions for UGA students: https://sdl.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/se-certifier/toefl/toefl-193775.kjsp

3 essential tips for a tip top performance on the day.  

1) work on timing yourself in speaking/writing tasks, particularly reading - give yourself 20 minutes per text as it is easy to run out of time.

2) convert your keyboard to QUERTY and put stickers over the changed keys.

3) record yourself using free Audacity or other software.

To register   www.ets.org/fr/toefl/test-takers/ 

Your scores must be available for the IEP IR dept.  mid January.

The rest of the information will be provided as it is updated.

Test Prep

It is good to access the official preparation materials at the library or purchase them.

Online resources are easy to find, though good, free resources are not. Here is a short list of sites that do offer some free practice activities.

There are great resources on Youtube:  Liz IELTS  or "notefull TOEFL" are my favourites!

Take a free test and get your score (not speaking and writing though): www.testden.com/challenge/free-toefl.asp 

Free practice tests and affordable extra practice modules.  www.toeflibtcourse.com  

A good, free TOEFL preparation handbook: http://www.scribd.com/doc/22872898/Vocabulary-for-TOEFL-iBT

To get an idea of the score you'll get according to competence: http://www.etweb.fju.edu.tw/elite/ETS%20-%20EngLangCompDescriptors.pdf

These sites are not iBT-specific, but there are English language/grammar tests available that will help students preparing for the TOEFL. Many of them are free, some are not.

Sciences Po Centre de Documentation has TOEFL and TOEIC books on loan.

For those struggling with the speaking section of the test, I’ll always suggest finding a native-speaker to help you with fluency, pronunciation, and overall comprehensibility.  Why not do a free language exchange with the app https://www.hellotalk.com/?lang=en or use AI (you can talk to Chatgpt for instance)