Upper Tribunal allows students appeal in ETS TOEIC fraud case

Politics.co.uk says this was used to justify thousands of deportations as the Home Office claimed that everyone who had taken the TOEIC test conducted by ETS had committed fraud. The Financial Times reported that it is not clear how many people were deported, but more than 30,000 test scores were considered suspect.

AWS Solicitors, who represented one of the two students in the case, released a press release following the ruling which you can read here on Free Movement. A summary of the judgment is also available here.

Test Formats
The TOEFL is a four-section test that includes sections for reading, listening, speaking and writing. It is taken exclusively on the computer. The TOEIC is broken into two separate but complementary exams: the Reading and Listening Test, which is a paper-and-pencil test, and the Speaking and Writing Test, which is taken on a computer. The exams are broken up in this way so potential employers can choose to measure an employee's reading and listening or speaking and writing skills only, or all four language skills. The Reading and Listening Test will take about two-and-a-half hours to complete, and for the Speaking and Writing Test, the speaking section will last about 20 minutes, and the writing section will take 60 minutes to complete.

The ruling was quoted as saying: "Apart from the limited hearsay evidence there was no evidence from the protagonist in this saga, the ETS organisation … The Secretary of State has not discharged the legal burden of establishing that either appellant procured his [English language] certificate by dishonesty."

The students engaging in the Seminar also expressed their dreams as well as thoughts about future competition for a job. P.T, a third year student with Finance major from Thang Long University, told about her personal experience applying for two job posts and got no feedback. T.H, a business administration major student, who had a passion for information technology, asked which IT certificate he should get. All the students expressed their interests in the recruitment testing process as it comes to that, at several companies, the initial screening on English and IT can be waived if the candidates possess standardized assessment certificates.

Who Takes the TOEFL vs. the TOEIC
The TOEFL measures the test-taker's ability to function in an English-speaking academic environment. The target test-taker for the TOEFL is a candidate for higher education in an English-speaking country. The TOEIC, on the other hand, measures the ability to function in a general work environment. This test is used in nonacademic settings as a measure of the ability of a current or potential employee to communicate effectively in English in a variety of business settings and situations.

A Home Office spokesperson told the Financial Times: "We are very disappointed by the decision and are awaiting a copy of the full determination to consider next steps including an appeal. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage."

The best way to start is to download the TOEIC Examinee Handbook and try to read it up to page 7. Then stop! (Otherwise you’ll accidentally read printed transcripts of the audio questions of the online sample test provided by ETS).

Test Content
In the TOEFL, the test-taker is measured on his ability to function in an academic environment. In this regard, the vocabulary on this test is academic in nature and is similar to the vocabulary used in college text books. The topics of the reading and listening passages are similarly academic. You may read a passage on bird migration, for example, or listen to a lecture from an economics course. The TOEIC, on the other hand, measures the test-taker's ability to function in a business environment. Topics may range from dining out in a restaurant to presenting in a budget meeting.

Also, some reading questions will use many different business communication methods (e-mails, newsletters, etc.) that are connected together. This will test your ability to find, gather and understand information from different sources.

The TOEIC test is becoming more and more popular in South East Asia. Each year, businessmen spend thousands of dollars to prepare for the TOEIC test with the hope of achieving more than 900 points, because they consider this as a key to success in the international business environment. Consequently, studying and preparing for TOEIC is a growing trend for students and employees in South East Asia countries. In Vietnam, TOEIC is being used as a benchmark for graduation at more than 127 universities, colleges, vocational schools, as well as a human resources evaluation tool in more than 350 enterprises.

Specialists from The Seminar talked about the fierce competition in the current labor market, and in order to get a job, besides professional skills, students should make themselves more bright and shining by soft skills such as English language proficiency and IT literacy. How to master those skills and catch a recruiter’s eye was discussed in detail by Specialists from IIG Vietnam and HR Managers from Manpower and VP Bank. If you liked this short article and you would like to get more info concerning toeic 400 kindly check out our web site. Besides, the students were provided with the most updated recruitment information from VP Bank, during which the recruiter advised that the students should actively add more experience in their CV by applying for internship in companies.