EF Education First Turns Testing Industry on its Head With the Launch of the World's First Free Standardized English Test

LONDON, September 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

EF Education First announced that the EF Standard English Test (EFSET), the world's first free standardized English test, will be released on September 30, 2014.

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Millions of people around the world are required to show proof of their English skills for career, university and personal advancement. Traditional tests often cost more than $300 (USD) per exam and are only offered at specific times in certain regions. Often, test takers travel overnight or internationally to claim a seat.

The introduction of the EFSET will have significant impact for the estimated two billion English language learners around the world, who can now accurately measure their English proficiency at no cost. Available online at all times, the EFSET allows learners free access to a high-quality standardized English test.

The EFSET will also be valuable to schools, companies, and governments, where large-scale testing was previously cost prohibitive. In the coming years, EF will work with institutions that want to adopt the EFSET as a formal English certification test, thereby helping millions of students and employees.

Free online access to a high-quality English test is not the EFSET's only innovation. The EFSET is the first standardized English test to use the Computer Adaptive Multi-Stage Testing engine, which adjusts in real time the difficulty level of the test content to the individual test taker's pattern of correct and incorrect answers. This allows for accurate measurement across all proficiency levels. 

The easy-to-understand EF scale (0-100) is pegged to the leading international standard, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

"The EFSET challenges long-accepted assumptions about standardized testing and certification exams.  It shifts power from the test maker to the test taker by allowing the test taker to decide when, where, and why to assess their English skills. We believe that accurate English tests do not have to be burdensome or inconvenient," said Yerrie Kim, Executive Director of EF Learning Labs, the research and innovation arm of EF Education First.

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, visit http://www.efset.org.

Contact:
Adam Bickelman
+1-617-510-1240
Adam.bickelman@ef.com