The app, which is available on both the Apple and Google stores, provides users with locations of test centres, score reports including MyBest scores, and test preparation materials so students can prepare without the need to sit behind a desk.

“We want to give test-takers what they deserve”

“With people’s increasingly mobile lifestyles and the use of mobile devices, we wanted to provide whatever they’re able to access on their desktop for TOEFL wherever they are,” TOEFL’s executive director Srikant Gopal.

“It’s giving them everything they have where they are.”

As part of the app, TOEFL learners can undertake a mock assessment, which replicates TOEFL’s real exams through AI-marking for the reading and listening sections, and self-grading against “best-in-class” examples for speaking and writing.

The app’s launch also coincided with TOEFL announcing test marking times had been almost halved from an average of ten days to six days, which the exam provider said brought them in line with other computer-based English tests.

“Test takers during the application season are always under a lot of deadlines, a lot of pressure, they navigate the whole process,” Gopal told The PIE News.

“We wanted to make sure we able to provide them with the scoring feedback as quickly as possible, but while maintaining our highly rigorous quality and fairness standards.”

To achieve faster test marking, Gopal said TOEFL had increased its resources expenditure, particularly through hiring more assessors for the writing section of the exam.

“It is resource-intensive: people cost money. We absolutely will not reduce our quality, but we also want to give test-takers what they deserve, to have scores issued to them as quickly as possible,” he said.

“We want to help test takers, and in return, we hope people will recognise the advantages that TOEFL offers to them over other tests.”

Further improvements are expected to be announced in the coming months.