Delay in Toefl results confounds test takers

Waiting for standardized test scores that may determine future schooling and careers to be posted is a nail-biting process, made even more so when their release is delayed for 10 days without explanation.

Amid the early admissions application process for college-bound students, takers of the Test of English as a Foreign Language, or Toefl, were thrown into a state of panic when test score results were delayed without prior notice.

The U.S.-based Education Testing Service (ETS) announced on its official Web site and via e-mail to test takers that the scores for the Toefl Internet-based tests taken on Aug. 19 will be delayed until Friday without reason one day before the test scores were supposed to be reported. The scores were to have been posted by last Wednesday.

Test takers are usually able to check their Toefl iBT score on the Internet 10-14 days after they take the test. Scores take four to six weeks to arrive via postal mail.

Students expressed outrage and dismay, as Toefl scores are important in determining college applications and employment, and questioned the management of the test, stating that a 10-day postponement was a considerable delay.

For high school seniors, top colleges including Yonsei, Korea, Ewha Womans and Hanyang universities accept early admission applications for five days from yesterday until Saturday.

“To ask to check our scores [this Friday] and submit our early admissions by the deadline the next day is like asking us to gamble,” said one high school senior yesterday, already pressured by the competitive nature of college applications.

The ETS Korea spokesman expressed yesterday, “The ETS is aware that students are in a pinch because of the postponement in the reporting of scores ahead of early college admissions and expresses its deepest apologies for inconveniencing everybody. ETS will be keeping students up-to-date via e-mails and the Web site and announce results by Sept. 7.”

ETS cited Labor Day in the U.S. as contributing to the delay.

By Sarah Kim [sarahkim@joongang.co.kr]