Why is the TOEFL so expensive?

It’s not uncommon to have to take the TOEFL two or three times. I’ve had a few students who have taken it more than four times. That’s obviously not an easy situation to be in: it takes a lot of time and effort to prepare for the TOEFL, and university admission—one of the most important events in a career—depends partly on the results of that test. Clearly, it’s intellectually and emotionally difficult to have to take the test again and again.

But it’s also important to consider the financial difficulty of taking and retaking the test. For many students, simply taking the TOEFL once is a bit of a strain on the wallet.

Taking the TOEFL is challenging in several ways

The other challenges of the TOEFL make some sense. Of course it’s difficult: TOEFL scores have to differentiate between many different levels of English. If it were easier, there would be more students who score a perfect 120, but they would still realistically be of different English levels. The test has to score a near-native speaker differently from a very-good-but-not-perfect speaker. And the emotional stress is unavoidable. The whole application process can be stressful, not just the TOEFL.

But the money factor doesn’t seem to make as much sense. After all, to take the test, you sit in a room full of computers for 4 hours. The TOEFL iBT usually costs $160, but it’s as much as $300 in some countries. Those are four expensive hours, especially compared to some other, new English tests.

Why does the test cost so much?

Why does it cost so much to administer the TOEFL? It certainly isn’t the price of the computers, which are usually old and cheap, or even paying the staff members—there might only be two staff members working at the center with a group of 20 people. You might think that paying the human graders is a major part of the cost (the speaking and writing sections are reviewed by people), but the truth is that those graders only spend a couple of minutes on each essay and only listen to each recording once. They aren’t very highly paid, either. It’s very possible that grading a single TOEFL iBT costs ETS less than $10.

Most of the money goes to ETS, the company that makes the TOEFL, GRE, SAT, and other tests. Now, you can say many good and bad things about that company, but from a teacher’s point of view, I believe you have to agree that the tests are well made. It’s extremely difficult to create questions which have clearly right and wrong answers but are still difficult enough for even the most advanced students. Even the best TOEFL books often have a few debatable questions. On a real TOEFL, though, you will only see well-written questions.

It takes effort to make quality test questions

Although ETS doesn’t state directly that most of their money is spent on making those test questions, I’m almost certain that that’s the case. There is no other company that is as good at making TOEFL-style questions as ETS. The process of making those questions must be very complex, involving many people and thorough experimentation.

There are other factors, of course. It’s important to note that ETS is an American company with many American employees, which means the cost of the product reflects the American economy. What seems like a reasonable price in the U.S. might seem ridiculously expensive in another country. So unless ETS moves their company to another country or sacrifices the quality of their material, the high price probably isn’t going to change any time soon.

Prepare well to avoid having to retake the test

If you’re teaching the TOEFL or are going to take the test yourself, keep in mind the cost of the test, because yes, it is expensive, and that’s unavoidable. It’s much better to reach a target score the first time than it is to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars retaking it multiple times.

This post was written by Lucas Fink, resident TOEFL expert at Magoosh. For more advice on TOEFL prep, check out Magoosh’s TOEFL blog.