I just came across a following comment on our site, globalscholarships.com: "Hello! I am wondering if I could apply for the scholarship owning Duolingo English Test certificate instead IELTS or TOEFL. Unfortunately, it is not possible to pass these two exams in my country, Ukraine, due to hostilities...
Many years ago, TOEFL was the most popular test for English Language proficiency, but recently, IELTS has become more popular than TOEFL. For several years, it was a duopoly of IELTS and TOEFL in the huge market of English Proficiency Tests. Now, you see companies like Duolingo introducing Duolingo English Test and Pearson introducing PTE Academic, and both are starting to gain popularity and market share. A few days ago, I also heard for the first time about the Michigan Language Assessment, developed by the University of Michigan.
It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out in the market of English Proficiency Exams in the next several years. I thought it was a great idea for Duolingo to identify a big problem of the existing two English Proficiency Exams, which were accessibility and cost, and solve that problem by providing an online English test. People in many countries do not have access to a TOEFL and IELTS testing center, and even if they do, they often have to travel to get to a testing center. Just a personal experience, I remember having to take the GRE and having to travel 3 hours from my home to Seoul to take the GRE, book a room, and travel back. It did cost time and money, and if there was an online alternative that was as accredited as the GRE, I probably would have taken it instead.
