IELTS, TOEFL and the Cambridge English Qualifications all measure English proficiency, but they are built on different logic: two report a single score across a wide range of ability, while the third asks you to sit a specific exam for the level you’re aiming at and pass or not. Picking the wrong one for your situation can mean retaking an exam you didn’t need to fail. Here is how the three actually differ in structure, scoring and what they’re for — current as of the major TOEFL redesign that took effect in January 2026.
IELTS
IELTS is jointly owned and administered by the British Council, IDP IELTS and Cambridge University Press & Assessment. It comes in two main versions: IELTS Academic, for university admission, and IELTS General Training, aimed at work and immigration applications; a separate IELTS for UKVI variant exists specifically for UK visa categories. The Listening and Speaking sections are identical across versions; Reading and Writing differ in content and task type depending on which version you sit.
The test runs to around 2 hours 45 minutes: Listening (30 minutes, 40 questions), Reading (60 minutes, 40 questions), and Writing (60 minutes, two tasks — a shorter data/letter task and a longer 250-word essay). Speaking is a live, face-to-face interview with a trained examiner, typically 11–14 minutes, and may be scheduled on the same day as the other sections or up to a week either side of them depending on the test centre. Scoring uses IELTS’s well-known 0–9 band scale in half-band increments, with a separate band for each of the four skills plus an overall band that is the average, rounded to the nearest half band. IELTS itself does not set an official expiry date on results, but most universities, employers and immigration authorities will only accept scores from within the last two years — that recency requirement comes from the receiving institution, not from IELTS.
TOEFL iBT
TOEFL iBT is owned and administered by ETS (Educational Testing Service) and is delivered entirely on a computer. It changed substantially on 21 January 2026: the test was shortened from roughly 116 minutes to about 90, Reading and Listening became multi-stage adaptive (question difficulty adjusts based on how you’re performing), and Speaking moved to include new task types such as a “Listen and Repeat” section alongside interview-style questions. Scoring changed too — each of the four sections (Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing) is now reported on a 1.0–6.0 scale in 0.5-point increments, with the overall score calculated as the average of the four section scores rather than a sum. ETS designed the new scale to align more directly with CEFR bands than the old 0–120 scale did. Because this is a very recent change, score reports issued through 2028 will show both the legacy 0–120 score and the new 1–6 score side by side, after which only the new scale will be reported — worth checking carefully if you’re comparing a TOEFL result against an older published score requirement, since an institution’s stated cutoff may still refer to the old scale.
Cambridge English Qualifications
Cambridge English Qualifications, from Cambridge University Press & Assessment, work on fundamentally different logic from IELTS and TOEFL. Rather than one exam producing a score anywhere across a wide range, Cambridge offers a separate, fixed-level exam for each CEFR level: A2 Key, B1 Preliminary, B2 First, C1 Advanced and C2 Proficiency (plus Young Learners exams below A2). You choose the exam matching the level you’re aiming for and either meet the required standard or you don’t, though most Cambridge exams also report a grade for the CEFR level just below the target if you fall short of a full pass, rather than a flat fail with no information. Cambridge states its qualifications are recognised by more than 18,000 universities, employers and governments worldwide. A practical difference that matters for planning: Cambridge certificates do not carry an expiry date set by Cambridge itself, unlike the two-year recency window commonly requested for IELTS and TOEFL results by receiving institutions.
Choosing between them
The right exam depends on what’s actually being asked of you, not which one is “easier” — a comparison that’s close to meaningless given how differently they’re structured:
- If an institution names a specific exam and score (a university listing “IELTS 6.5” or “TOEFL 90,” for instance), sit that exam — scores are not perfectly interchangeable between systems even where crosswalk tables exist, and an admissions office may only accept the exam it named.
- If you want a permanent record of a specific level rather than a score that institutions treat as aging out after two years, a Cambridge qualification at the right level is worth considering, particularly for job applications or long-term CV use.
- If your speaking assessment style matters to you, note that IELTS Speaking is a live interview with a human examiner throughout, while TOEFL Speaking (even after the 2026 redesign) is recorded and scored later — some candidates strongly prefer one format over the other.
- If you’re mid-preparation for the old TOEFL format, check whether your target institution’s published requirement has been updated for the new 1–6 scale, since the transition period means both old and new figures are circulating in guidance documents right now.
Whichever exam you need, treat it as separate from general course progress: an exam-specific preparation course focused on that exam’s format and timing is a different product from a general-fluency class, a distinction covered in more depth on our exam preparation courses page.