IELTS Conversions (to TOEFL) according to ETS ?? Help please

MarkAndrew · Post by **MarkAndrew** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 4:14 pm

I've managed to produce a useful conversion resource for TOEFL scores, but I have a problem. According to ETS, an IELTS band of 4.5 overall is equal to between a 32 and 34 on the TOEFL iBT.

Now I'm asking experienced teachers who have taught both prep courses - Doesn't that sound a bit low for the TOEFL score?

The way I see it - A person can not know anything and get about 7/30 on both the reading and listening parts, because its mostly 4-choice multiple choice questions.

Then, when you think about the ETS official rubrics for scoring the written and spoken responses, its pretty hard to score a 1/4 or 1/5. I would think almost anyone with a basic attempt to answer the question should get at least a 2, which would be about a 14 on the Speaking and maybe a 12 on the Writing section. So even if they got a 10 on both parts, we are looking at a 34 overall.

I've always thought a 30 is like the beginning score, since I don't know of people getting less than it, unless they did not complete the test.

A 4.5 band on the IELTS is right at the middle of their scoring system (9.0 max). Shouldn't a 4.5 be closer to a 50 or a 55?

This has been my feeling for some time, and it was confirmed today by a student who took the TOEFL four years ago and got a 37. Since then, he has dramatically improved his language skills, and he took an IELTS 8 months ago and got a 4.5. He was under the impression that it was mid 50's (converted to a TOEFL score), and he found some unofficial conversion charts stating just that.

So then - Is this conversion chart from ETS a big mistake or what? Refer to p.13 of the following: http://www.ets.org/s/toefl/pdf/linking_ ... scores.pdf

It says explicitly that a 4.5 on the IELTS is equal to a 32 to 34 on the TOEFL.

I'd really appreciate some help on this. Thanks in advance!

MarkAndrew · Post by **MarkAndrew** » Wed Dec 14, 2011 11:05 am

It really must be a mistake.

What confuses me is - After searching on forums all over the net, I haven't found anyone who has spoken about this error.