Number of Students Taking TOEFL Increased by 59% Post-Covid Pandemic

As soon as the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted, there was a rise in Indian students going abroad. According to the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the number of people taking the TOEFL exam in India increased by 59 per cent since the resumption of international travel that was halted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data from Princeton-based ETS shows that Indians accounted for 12.3 per cent of total test takers globally for the Test of English Foreign Language (TOEFL) and Graduate Record Examination (GRE) 2022, up from 7.5 per cent last year. The increase in the number of Indian candidates is in line with the increase in the number of Indians studying abroad and immigrating.

There was a 53 per cent increase in the number of Indian TOEFL exam takers in 2021 compared to the previous year, reported PTI. In 2022, the number of examinees saw an increase of 59 per cent compared to 2021. The numbers clearly indicate the growing aspirations of Indians towards foreign countries.

Jain said that the top cities in India with the highest number of candidates are New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Gurugram, Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad.

Sachin Jain, country manager of ETS India and South Asia, said that the trend shows that interest is no longer limited to the US or UK, but the destination landscape has become broader. He stressed that this number is expected to increase further as more score reports are received from Indian candidates in countries like Singapore, Australia, France, and Sweden.

What is TOEFL Test?

Test of English Foreign Language or TOEFL is a 60-year-old exam that is the most widely accepted test for academic English, testing all levels of candidates. Students’ knowledge of the English language is checked through TOEFL. The grip students have on standard English is revealed through tests. It is given to those students whose mother tongue is not English and who use English as a second language.

This test is accepted by over 12,000 institutions in over 160 countries and is universally accepted by over 98 per cent of universities in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and the UK. The top US institutions where Indian TOEFL test takers apply are New York University, Columbia University, Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University, Arizona State University and California Institute of Technology among others.

In the UK, Indian candidates can apply to The University of Hertfordshire, The University of East London, The University of Greenwich, Kingston University, The University of Leicester, The University of the West of Scotland and The University of Northampton, among others.

Starting July 26, ETS has made several changes to create an optimal experience for those taking the English Language Proficiency Test. It has reduced the test time to two hours instead of three hours and allowed candidates to see the release date of their official scores upon completion of the test among some of the changes.