For students whose first language is not English, at some point of their life, if they want to study or work in an English-speaking country, they have to make a decision as which English proficiency test to take among all different types of tests: CAEL, CELPIP, DUOLINGO, IELTS, TOEFL. There are a few factors to consider: test format, price, availability of the test result, and level of difficulty, etc. From my students’ experience, the majority of students took IELTS for two reasons: One is because it matches most people’s learning style, paper and pencil, you can easily make notes on paper with a pencil; second, the content of IELTS test is backed up with a strong research team of experts from Oxford University, and it is the most trusted English proficiency test widely recognized by universities, governments.
