The TOEFL iBT “Special Home Edition”

So Let’s See Why The Home Edition Is So Terrible

• • • • • You Must Install The ETS Test Browser — (will not work on Linux or iOS) 🙁
      • • Your System Must Pass The ProctorU Equipment Check

• • • • • This Sounds Like “Good Advice” But It Is Actually A REQUIREMENT…
      • • If Anyone Enters The Room — Or If The Monitor Even THINKS That Someone Enters The Room.  You Will Instantly Be Deemed To Be “Cheating” And You Will Lose Your Money

• • • • • This Means That For People Who Live In Countries That Do Not Have Support For The Exam — But You DO Have The Internet…  Tough Luck…  You Can’t Participate
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      • • • VPNs Will Not Fix This Problem Because The Use Of The “ETS Browser” AND The ProctorU System Already Requires Such An EXTREMELY Fast & Secure Connection That A VPN Will Cause Connetion Problems…  (And then you lose your money because they will say that you did not have the proper equipment.)  😐
      • • Furthermore — Now that Covid restrictions are being liften almost everywhere — the Home Edition is no longer needed  (Especially since it is such a horrible service.)

• You Must Have Privacy During The Test & You Must Be Alone — (no one else may enter the room while you are taking the exam)

• You Must Be AT HOME — (it will not be permitted for you to be in a public space while you are taking the exam)

• You Must Close All Doors In The Room Before Beginning The Exam — (So rooms without doors are not an option — if your family has only one computer in a shared room, you would have to move everything to a closed room)

• You Must Position Your Table And Chair So That The Door To The Room Will Be Visible To The Proctor.  “The Proctor May Require You To Do This At Check In”. — (This implies that you also may NOT be required to do this — depending on the whims of the Proctor. But either way — you may have to move furniture around JUST IN CASE the Proctor decides to make you do this.)  😐

• The Tabletop & Surrounding Area Must Be Clear Of All Non-Approved Items, Including Cell Phones, Cameras, Notes & Study Materials — (This means that the camera that you use during the exam can’t be a built in camera, because you will have to show your desk. So you may need to buy a web-cam before taking the exam)  😐

• You Must Sit In A “Standard” Chair — Not An “Over-stuffed” Chair — (these are the terms used on the ETS website — no criteria for what a “standard” chair is. And if the only private room is your bedroom, if you do not have a table or desk and “standard” chair, you will have to get one. You can’t sit on your bed or any non-“standard” chair)  😐

• Food And Drinks Are Not Allowed During The Exam — (first of all, no one is going to eat while they take their exam, but to say that you can’t have something to drink is completely fascistic — especially considering that water-bottles are allowed at any traditional testing-center…  but not in YOUR OWN HOME!)  😐

Seriously!?!?!?!…  Yes…  They Are Seriously Going To Tell You What You Can And Can Not Wear In Your Own Home

• Your Ears Must Remain Visible During The Entire Test — Not Covered By Hair, A Hat, or Other Items — So by definition, this means that headphones are (ridiculously) not allowed. This also means that you will be using external speakers, and — unless you already have a good quality microphone — you will be using an internal microphone.  Thus, your chances of losing your money because they say that your recording was no clear enough GREATLY increases.  Because we all know that internal microphones suck!  😐

• You Must Be Dressed “Appropriately” For The Exam — This is, of course, Common Sense. But the fact that they are telling you that this is a rule that they can enforce, at your expense is pretty lame. But this is probably the least “bad” of all the rules. Just dress like you would if you were going to a job interview.

• “You Must Remove All Headphones, Smartwatches, Face-Masks, Jewelry, Tie Clips, Cuff-Links, Ornate Clips, Combs, Barrettes, Headbands — And Other Hair Accessories Before Checking In For Your Exam.  You Do Not Need To Remove Wedding And Engagement Rings.” — (Oh how nice of them to not require you to remove your wedding or engagement rings.  This rule used to say “Avoid wearing…”  apparently they didn’t like that, so they changed it so “YOU MUST REMOVE!”.  There is literally NO logical reason for this, but they probably think that you are James Bond, or Batman, and will have some secret device that will help you do cheat on the exam…  which is not possible.)  😐

• (AMAZINGLY!!!)… You May NOT Take Notes On Paper!!! — This is apparently for “Security Purposes”.  But since this is a HUGE step “backwards”, and it is FAR MORE restrictive than taking the exam at an official testing center, I would consider this restriction to be an Absolute “Deal-Breaker”!  Taking Notes Is One Of THE MOST IMPORTANT things you need to be able to do during the exam. This makes about as much sense as wearing a Covid mask, in your home, by yourself, while you take a shower, after testing Negative… for “health” reasons… It makes NO sense AT ALL!!!   😐

• You May Only Take Notes Using:

• • • • • A Small White-Board — Which is actually feasable, but that means that you probably have to go buy one, because almost no one besides teachers actually have one.  This is not a large expense compared to the other things you may have to buy in order to do this version of the TOEFL.  But at the time that this was released — due to Covid — it was very difficult or even impossible for many people to get out to buy a freakin’ whiteboard.
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      • • • It is possible to take notes on the exam this way, but having to constantly erase and continually show your notes throught the exam (which has been reported to me by MANY people) means that you will be interrupted by the ProctorU monitor and will almost certainly miss some important information and your score will be affected  😐
      • • Or, They Say You Can Use Some Paper In A Plastic Sleeve, Writing With Erasable Marker — Which (anyone who has tried this knows) is COMPLETELY infeasible and will cause you to lose even more time and essential information than with the whiteboard method

But If You Still Need Convincing…

his part of the rules makes a little more sense, but it is still not good.  Mostly because the company ProctorU is (in my opinion) one of the MOST corrupt companies on the entire Internet.  More on that later.

esides ProctorU being a terrible company in the way that they literally force you to give them access to ALL the information on your computer, there are a lot of other proplems with the “Equipment Check”.  Especially if you don’t use windows…  Non-Windos users are basically screwed.  Thanks ETS!

• You Must Have A Laptop Or Desktop Computer — you will NOT be able to use a tablet or a mobile device

• You Can Only Use Microsoft Or Mac — No Linux Users Allowed!  They also say that “Un-licensed” versions will not be allowed.  This implies that when you install their spyware, they will somehow be able to monitor your system and know such things.  This is a HUGE security risk!

• You Must Use Firefox Or Chrome Browser

• You Must Have An Internal Or External Microphone Which Is Not Part Of A Headset — But as we all know — internal microphones are crap & can make it so that your recordings for the Speaking Section are not clear enough to be graded. Unfortunately, you will not find this out until either the beginning of the exam — at which time it will be too late to cance — or until after you have finished the exam, when you receive an email stating that you must take the exam again… at your own expense. Which — for most people — also means that they will miss their deadline for scores to be submitted.

• You Must Have Working Speakers — Not Headphones!!! — These can either be the internal speakers of the laptop of external speakers on the desk-top. Headphones are not allowed… for “Security” purposes. However this can pose a big problem if your speakers are not of high quality. Especially if your home is in a noisy area.

• You Must Have A Working Camera Which Can Show A 360° View AND Show The Keyboard — In other words — It Must Be An External Camera. They say that you can use an internal camera, but no internal camera will be able to show both a 360° View AND be able to show your keyboard. It is not possible. More genius moves by ETS & ProctorU.

• You Will Be Asked To Show Your Environment By The Monitor From ProctorU — This is so they can see if it is “appropriate” and that you aren’t going to cheat. Even though there is almost NO way to actually cheat on the TOEFL.  Unless, of course, you want to take notes like a normal person with a pen and paper — like you would in a testing center while taking the “normal” TOEFL Exam.  (Once again, you will not know if your room is “appropriate” until the it is FAR too late to be able to make any changes…  And ETS does not give refunds.  So if your “environment” is not up to their liking… you are screwed once again.)

o as you can see — my view on this new “Edition” of The TOEFL Exam is QUITE different than in the first video.  For this reason, I will NOT be explaining to you the entire process of how to go about registering for this edition of the exam, because I do not want to be responsible for sending ANYONE to take The TOEFL iBT “Special” Home Edition…  Because there is absolutely NOTHING “Special” about it!

here are simply FAR too problems with the way that this exam has been (and continues to be) implemented, for me to be able to endorse The Home Edition.  Furthermore — I have spoken with FAR too many people who have lost their, time, money, & chosen opportunities for going to the University that they wanted to — or to get the scholarship that they need — for me to EVER recommend ANYONE to take The Home Edition of The TOEFL.

The people who where responsible for making the decisions that led to this (and the new Paper Edition!) should be fired immediately, as well as the CEO of ETS, and probably many other people working in that organization.  The TOEFL Exam has been around since the 60s, and up until 2021 was awesome!  But ever since around 2020, every decision that has been made to change the TOEFL in any way has been a HUGE Mistake!

So I Will End By Saying This…

And Now That You’ve Heard From A TOEFL Expert — Watch The Video Below From An IT Expert On Just How Bad ProctorU Is…

Have An Excellent Day!

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