Listening Time: English Practice Your English Level - Is Your TOEFL or IELTS Score Important?
Sep 22, 2025
The hosts dive into the complexities of language proficiency tests like TOEFL and IELTS. They explore how these scores can often misrepresent a person's real conversational abilities. There's a fascinating discussion about the difference between test-taking skills and actual fluency. The episode highlights the importance of targeted preparation and reveals the limitations of focusing solely on academic language education. It's an insightful take on how test scores might not tell the full story of one's English capabilities.
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C1 Certificates Not Always Real-Life C1
- Connor recounts Ramon’s experience teaching candidates who passed C1 tests but spoke at B1–B2 levels in real conversations.
- This mismatch showed many students only performed well on tests, not in everyday English use.
Don’t Rely Only On Test Scores
- Do not evaluate your English level solely by standardized test results because they can misrepresent your real skills.
- Use tests as a general indicator and combine them with real conversations or teacher evaluations.
Test Taking Is A Separate Skill
- Studying specifically for exams trains test-taking skills distinct from everyday language fluency.
- Test performance can overstate or understate true conversational ability depending on test familiarity.