Taking the TOEFL® in India

As the TOEFL being the test for non-English speaking students, we understand that many of the test takers are not in the US and also not taking the test in the US. That is why we would like to talk about the test taking process in other countries. And in this blog post, we will talk about India in particular.

Indian students in the US

There are a great number of Indian international students studying in the US and even more in all English speaking countries. During the 2013-2014 school year, it was reported that Indian students made up 11.6% of all international students in the US. That is only second to a number of Chinese students in the US. That number also means that there are lots of students in India who are and will be taking the TOEFL each year in India.

What is the average TOEFL iBT score in India?

The average overall TOEFL score in India is pretty high compared to many other countries in the world. The average TOEFL score in India is 91 out of 120. The average score of each section is as follows:

• Reading = 22
• Listening = 23
• Speaking = 23
• Writing = 23

How does this Score Data Fit into Worldwide Averages?

The ETS has conducted a research on the average percentile of the overall average TOEFL scores of all the test-takers all over the world. From this information, the ETS calculated and set up worldwide percentiles as well as the overall average of a specific country. The average of all test takers in the world is about 84 out of 120. The average score of each section is as following:

• Reading= 21-22
• Listening = 21
• Speaking = 20-22
• Writing = 21-22

From this information, we can easily tell that India’s overall average is higher than the worldwide by quite a bit. (Way to go India!)

The Importance of the Information

How does knowing the average of the world and Indian test takers be of any use? This data is helpful when it comes to comparing the TOEFL performance of a particular student to that of other students in the same native country. So, if you live in India, you can use this information to compare yourself to the rest of your peers in the same country.

On the same point, if you don’t live in India, this information is not very useful for you. This is because ETS did not take into account the differences between countries when conducting the research. These differences include the number of test takers in each country, how many years the student has been studying English, and how many hours of English lessons the student get at schools, and other factors.

Here is the ETS report: https://www.ets.org/s/toefl/pdf/94227_unlweb.pdf

So, for all our Indian students, you can take advantage of this report to see how you are stacking up against your peers or what your TOEFL score goal could be.