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Senior Manager
Joined: 01 Feb 2007
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Location: Silicon Valley via Russia, China, Canada and Wharton/Lauder
Schools: Wharton/Lauder (Mandarin Chinese)
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ETS is badly run in China [#permalink]
 03 Oct 2007, 04:51
I have to take TOEFL, and I have been trying to register for the test in China for FIVE months now -- no seats until January next year. Aghhh...
While I am lucky because I am going to Toronto soon, ETS is clearly a great obstacle for lots of MBA candidates from the PRC. For most people here, it is impossible to leave the country to take the test. Even Hong Kong is out of reach. And it is now fully booked until the end of December.
ETS does not keep up with the demand in a market where growth is only restrained by their capacity!
I think they should hire an MBA to sort it all out.
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VP
Joined: 09 Jan 2007
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Re: ETS is badly run in China [#permalink]
03 Oct 2007, 06:40
xerox wrote: I have to take TOEFL, and I have been trying to register for the test in China for FIVE months now -- no seats until January next year. Aghhh...
While I am lucky because I am going to Toronto soon, ETS is clearly a great obstacle for lots of MBA candidates from the PRC. For most people here, it is impossible to leave the country to take the test. Even Hong Kong is out of reach. And it is now fully booked until the end of December.
ETS does not keep up with the demand in a market where growth is only restrained by their capacity!
I think they should hire an MBA to sort it all out.
This is not a exclusivity of China. In South America this also happens. I live in Portugal and had to fly to London to take the test as I could not find seats in Lisbon...
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Senior Manager
Joined: 01 Feb 2007
Posts: 464
Location: Silicon Valley via Russia, China, Canada and Wharton/Lauder
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I think universtities, and b-schools in particular, should put pressure on ETS. Alternatively, applicants should petition schools to diversify the list of accepted examinations.
There is IELTS, BULATS, TOEIC, MELAB... the list is long, but for some reason everyone is locked on TOEFL and ETS. 
Time to act, people! Ask schools to amend the admissions criteria. Send them emails, mention it to school reps, call, fax, send postal pigeons.
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Director
Joined: 09 Jan 2007
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xerox wrote: I think universtities, and b-schools in particular, should put pressure on ETS. Alternatively, applicants should petition schools to diversify the list of accepted examinations. There is IELTS, BULATS, TOEIC, MELAB... the list is long, but for some reason everyone is locked on TOEFL and ETS. Time to act, people! Ask schools to amend the admissions criteria. Send them emails, mention it to school reps, call, fax, send postal pigeons. That would defeat the purpose of standardized tests. That is, if they allowed 10 different tests.
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Senior Manager
Joined: 01 Feb 2007
Posts: 464
Location: Silicon Valley via Russia, China, Canada and Wharton/Lauder
Schools: Wharton/Lauder (Mandarin Chinese)
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gmatclb wrote: That would defeat the purpose of standardized tests. That is, if they allowed 10 different tests.
all of them being standardized, makes no big difference
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GMAT Club Legend
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
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Some schools allow the GRE but thats because its cheaper to take. I dont think it will ever move beyond the GMAT or GRE. They want one test to compare everyone with, not a dozen. Even if they are standardized tests they wont be equal. Plus the GMAT is so important with rankings no school will want to decrease their pool to choose from.
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Director
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xerox wrote: gmatclb wrote: That would defeat the purpose of standardized tests. That is, if they allowed 10 different tests. all of them being standardized, makes no big difference Unless the last 10 potential students all took different tests.
97 percentile on LSAT is VERY different from 97 percentile on GMAT.
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SVP
Joined: 31 Jul 2006
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gmatclb wrote: xerox wrote: gmatclb wrote: That would defeat the purpose of standardized tests. That is, if they allowed 10 different tests. all of them being standardized, makes no big difference Unless the last 10 potential students all took different tests. 97 percentile on LSAT is VERY different from 97 percentile on GMAT. I agree. The pool of applicants taking each test is vastly different, so a test is "standardized" only for the pool taking a particular test. There's no reason to believe that there is much standardization across multiple tests because the pool of people taking the things is so different.
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Manager
Joined: 04 Aug 2005
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I'm just curious - the only ESL-type tests I've ever heard of are the TOEFL and ETS (which I guess backs up xerox's claim that those are the two everyone focuses on). What are all the other ones used for?
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Director
Joined: 18 Sep 2006
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ishcabibble wrote: I'm just curious - the only ESL-type tests I've ever heard of are the TOEFL and ETS (which I guess backs up xerox's claim that those are the two everyone focuses on). What are all the other ones used for?
ETS administers the TOEFL, it isnt a test in itself
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Manager
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Oops, I knew that! Sorry, it's been a long week already, folks.
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Senior Manager
Joined: 01 Feb 2007
Posts: 464
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ETS is not IELTS (which is what you obviously confused ETS with). The former is an organization and the latter is a test administered by Cambridge Assesment, formerly UCLES.
What I meant in my previous post was that there are other English tests and other organizations that administer them. Why give preference to the very inefficient Educational Testing Service (ETS)?
Well, IELTS is a great test -- much better than TOEFL, but I cannot take it anymore because I am an IELTS examiner. However, schools cannot accept my examiner status as proof of my language proficiency! 
I had to get a Band 9 in all four skills (Academic Module) in order to qualify to become an examiner in the first place, but schools do not want to be flexible in my case.
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