Technical Glitch Hits Students Seeking to Take TOEFL Test

[Harold F. Schiffman]

December 19, 2007
Technical Glitch Hits Students Seeking to Take English-Language Test

Students arriving to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language were
turned away last weekend at test centers in North America, Europe, and
India because of a technical glitch.

A spokesman for the Educational Testing Service, the nonprofit
organization that owns and administers the Toefl, as the test is known,
explained via e-mail that, on Saturday the 15th, we encountered an
internal service disruption that resulted in difficulties for students
checking in to take their Toefl exams. Neither the spokesman nor a
statement on the Toefl Web site indicates how many students were affected.

Many universities in the United States and Britain, and even in a growing
number of non-English speaking countries that offer programs in English,
require foreign students to submit their Toefl results as part of their
applications.

Test centers in East Asia, a fast-growing and lucrative source of students
for Western universities, were unaffected by the glitch, according to ETS.
The organization has faced criticism in the past year for how it has
handled the transition to Internet-based versions of some of its tests,
which include the Graduate Record Examination.

ETS has scheduled a makeup date for the Toefl on January 5 and, said the
spokesman, will also provide a letter of explanation to any test taker who
wants it, that we will send to the colleges where they are applying
indicating that any delay in them receiving Toefl scores from the student
is through no fault of the test taker.

A link on the Toefl site allows students who want copies of the letter to
submit their requests. The organization also apologized for the
inconvenience. Aisha Labi

http://chronicle.com/news/article/3664/technical-glitch-hits-students-seeking-to-take-english-language-test

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