Change in TOEFL exam dates puts students in a fix

Students seeking admission to U.S. varsities face the risk of missing the deadline.

November 07, 2011 03:43 pm | Updated June 06, 2013 02:33 pm IST

As the process for applying to universities abroad for the upcoming fall gains momentum, Chennai students are complaining that irregularities in certain Prometric testing centres have trampled upon their hopes to procure admission this year.

The dates for TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language) that is necessary to procure admissions in U.S. universities, have been changed for students because of a recent fire accident at one of the testing centres in Ashok Nagar. Many of the students who were supposed to take the exam at the prometric centre in T. Nagar also complain about the sudden rescheduling of dates.

“I was informed two days before my test that the centre is closing down for a few days, and my exam had been rescheduled to November 26. Hence, I could not even apply to other centres as all of them were full with most students selecting dates at the last moment,” says S. Sonia, a student.

Over 40 students had registered for the test on various days on each day from August, but due to this incident, all the dates have been rescheduled to November and December, says Srivatsan, a B-Tech student in IIT-Madras. The problem, say students, lies in the fact that since most universities aboard including the prominent ones such as MIT and Columbia close their admission procedure by December and they are likely to miss the deadline.

“We have been forced to do things the reverse way. For instance we are getting the essays and recommendation letters ready first, and as soon as we get the scores, we will dispatch them,” says Karthik Srinivasan, a student of Anna University. Many of these students had not appeared for campus placements in their college as they were keen on continuing with studies. “I had registered as early as in July for the date,” says Sharanya Jayaprakash whose TOEFL date has been rescheduled too.

Many students are also reverting to other examination such as IELTS and PTE (Pearson Test of English) accepted by many universities in the U.S. “But there is the additional expenditure and last-minute hassles, even if the tests are similar in nature,” says Karthik.

Prometric officials say that while the accident was unfortunate, there is little they can do. “The Education Testing Service (ETS) does permit students to shift their test venues, but there is not much we can do when there are no slots available,” says a Prometric official at the Ashok Nagar testing centre.

C. Vijayalakshmi, educational advisor, United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF), says that over the few years the load of students across the State has been lifted off Chennai, with centres now in Coimbatore and Madurai, but there is a need to have more centres in the city too. There has been an increase of about 20 per cent in the number of students seeking higher education options this fall and the foundation will take steps to coordinate with ETS to get additional dates after analysing the problem, she said.

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