TOEFL AND IELTS

TOEFL or IELTS - Which is Better?

Executive summary about TOEFL and IELTS by Walton Burns

One of the most frequent questions I hear is which test is easier or which test is better. The IELTS test administrated by the British Councils, the University of Cambridge, and IELTS Australia or the TOEFL? Pick the test you think will be easier for you to complete.

Structure of the TOEFL

As of last year, official TOEFL is almost universally given in the iBT (Internet Based Testing) format.

Reading

The TOEFL Reading section asks you to read 4-6 passages of university level and to answer multiple-choice questions about them (multiple-choice means you choose the answer from provided options). Questions test you on comprehension of the text, main ideas, important details, vocabulary, inferring, rhetorical devices and style.

Listening

The Listening Section presents long 2-3 conversations and 4-6 lectures. Speaking

The Speaking section is recorded. Two questions will ask you to summarize information from a text and a conversation--and may ask your opinion as well. Two questions will ask you to summarize information from a short conversation. Again, the topics of the conversations are always university-related.

Writing

Finally, there are two short essays on the TOEFL.

IELTS Structure

The IELTS contains the same 4 sections, Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing, but the format is very different.

Reading

The variety of questions on the IELTS is quite broad, and not every text will have every question type. One question type asks you to match headings to paragraphs in the text. There may be multiple-choice questions that ask you about key details. Finally, some questions are short-answer but the answers will be taken directly from the text itself.

Some questions come before the text and may not require careful reading to answer.

Listening

The IELTS has four listening sections. There are two writing tasks on the academic IELTS.

Speaking

The first part of the test will be a brief introductory conversation followed by some short questions about familiar topics.

Writing

There are two writing tasks on the academic IELTS. The first asks you to summarize a table or chart in about 300 words. The second task asks you to present your opinion on a statement about a fairly open topic.

British versus American English

While both the UK and the US accept both tests, and while British English and American English are not as different as some think, the fact of the matter is the IELTS tends to use British English and the TOEFL uses exclusively American English. If you are more comfortable with US English, the TOEFL is a good bet but if you are used to British English and accents, you'll do better on the IELTS.

Multiple choice versus Copying Down

For the reading and listening sections, TOEFL gives you multiple-choice questions, whereas IELTS generally expects you to copy down words from the text or the conversation word-for-word. Multiple-choice questions will tend to be require slightly better abstract thinking, but the IELTS favors people who have good memories and think more concretely. Of course, the TOEFL is also more predictable than the IELTS. If you like talking to people, the IELTS is a better bet. Finally, the speaking and writing sections of the TOEFL are graded holistically. The IELTS by contrast is marked by individual criteria and you are scored individually for grammar, word choice, fluency, logic, cohesion, and a dozen other criteria. The IELTS will not overlook bad grammar.