New Studies Show Positive Correlations Between the EF Standard English Test (EFSET) and TOEFL and IELTS

ZURICH, Sept. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- EF Education First has released two reports demonstrating positive correlations between the EF Standard English Test (EFSET) and two other prominent standardized English tests: TOEFL and IELTS.

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Professor Richard M. Luecht of the University of North Carolina was the principal investigator: "These reports present empirical, external validity evidence regarding the relationship between EFSET scores and the reported TOEFL iBT and IELTS scores. The study results confirm that the EFSET scores are quite reliable across the corresponding reading and listening score scales."

EF launched the EFSET last fall to challenge long-accepted assumptions that the highest quality English certification exams must be expensive and inconvenient. The introduction of the EFSET has had significant impact on the estimated two billion English language learners around the world, who now have free access to a high-quality standardized English test.

"With these two studies, millions of test takers, employers, schools, and governments can be more confident that the free EFSET is a valid and reliable test of English skills," said Yerrie Kim, Executive Director of the EF team responsible for the EFSET.

Ministries of education, universities, and companies have begun to adopt the ESFET for large-scale testing, and researchers from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to Peking University are using the EFSET for language assessment studies.

EF Learning Labs developed the EFSET in partnership with the world's top experts in language assessment, large-scale testing, and psychometrics - all of whom have extensive experience building prominent certification exams.

For more information about the EFSET, and to download the correlation studies and the EFSET Technical Report, visit http://www.efset.org.

EF Education First (http://www.ef.com) is an international education company that focuses on language, academics, and cultural experience. Established in 1965 with the mission to open the world through education, EF has 500 schools and offices in more than 50 countries. EF is the Official Language Training Supplier of the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics. EF publishes the annual EF English Proficiency Index (http://www.ef.com/epi), the world's largest ranking of English skills.