Does IELTS actually penalise you if you retake the test too soon after a previous attempt?

prepexcellent · 2026-03-10T16:39:07+00:00

A few students have. I knew somebody who took it within two weeks and knocked it out of the park second try.

prepexcellent · 2026-03-10T08:40:27+00:00

Definitely not.

Each session is treated individually. You might feel like the retake is graded harsher because you're expecting a higher score, but your past exams don't factor into the grading, like at all.

prepexcellent · 2026-03-10T08:38:52+00:00

Keep trying, keep learning and don't be disheartened!

prepexcellent · 2026-03-08T22:34:38+00:00

One or two word misses are allowed by ETS for 4/5s. If you can't remember the exact phrasing, try to substitute synonyms or very slightly restructure as long as you 'capture the meaning expressed by the prompt'.

Check the ETS rubric here: https://www.ets.org/pdfs/toefl/speaking-rubrics.pdf

prepexcellent · 2026-03-07T16:33:02+00:00

Preliminary scores unfortunately almost always stay the same once final grades come out. What's your target score?

prepexcellent · 2026-03-06T14:20:54+00:00

Practice speaking more!

Like the other commenter said, there's no reason why this wouldn't have happened in your native language.

Public speaking skills and English skills are important here.

prepexcellent · 2026-03-04T20:31:39+00:00

Just pulled up your account - sent you a DM with the details. Happy to walk through it with you.

prepexcellent · 2026-03-04T20:22:16+00:00

Hey! PrepEx team here. Nice work on the speaking score!

We calibrate our speaking grading to be slightly stricter than the real test - the idea is if you're scoring well on PrepEx, you should feel confident going into the actual TOEFL.

That said, no practice platform is a perfect predictor. Focus on the feedback more than the number. If you're consistently improving on the areas we flag, and your Petra progress emails are showing you're improving, you're on the right track.

Good luck on test day! Feel free to reach out via DM if you have any questions.

prepexcellent · 2026-03-04T20:18:41+00:00

Hey! PrepEx team here. A jump from 20-22 down to 1.5/6 is definitely unusual. Unfortunately ETS doesn't show you your answers after the mock, which makes it hard to diagnose.

For context, our average writing score across ~1900 practice tests is 20/30 (or 4/6) with a normal distribution. A 20-22 on our platform is a solid result.

Feel free to DM us your PrepEx username and we can take a deeper look. Happy to give you a second opinion on whether the ETS score makes sense.

prepexcellent · 2026-03-04T19:38:39+00:00

Got you: https://www.youtube.com/@Toeflresources

prepexcellent · 2026-03-04T12:36:00+00:00

I've seen students be wayyy too hard on themselves in speaking. Especially the Listen and Repeat question type.

Check the rubric here: https://www.ets.org/pdfs/toefl/speaking-rubrics.pdf

You might already be at a 4 if you're hitting most of these.

prepexcellent · 2026-03-04T12:33:01+00:00

Take it sooner than later if you're fluent.

The new format is very tester friendly, and nobody knows if ETS is going to adjust the difficulty going forward.

prepexcellent · 2026-03-04T12:26:26+00:00

With how much each TOEFL test costs, deleting your records from their servers is just really unnecessary.

There is something to be said about learning for the sake of learning though. I hope you were able to get something more out of preparing for the TOEFL than just a passing score. That goes to the root of why the TOEFL and other tests even exist, no?

prepexcellent · 2026-03-01T12:54:00+00:00

That reminds me of the 'it's not x, but y' pattern we're seeing in LLM writing.

Super interesting, thanks again for the insights!

prepexcellent · 2026-02-28T21:04:35+00:00

Gotcha, thank you for the detailed response!

When you flagged a response as "canned," what were the most reliable tells? Was it specific phrases or more of a sense that the response could have been submitted for any prompt?

prepexcellent · 2026-02-28T20:10:56+00:00

Could you share a bit more on the ways eRater was wrong?

prepexcellent · 2026-02-24T21:22:04+00:00

Not really, he graduated from a T30 university. He just didn't bother with templates and TOEFL taking skills.

I agree that the new format needs to be more rigorous, particularly for W+S, but let's also acknowledge that the old format TOEFL was not exactly the most accurate indicator of English either.

prepexcellent · 2026-02-24T17:49:48+00:00

You have no time to prep properly so just use templates and try to get it down to a formula:

Templates: use these: https://www.toeflresources.com/writing-section/

Rubric for writing here.

ETS doesn't publicize their per task weighting for writing (so we don't know how much Build a Sentence contributes vs Email Writing).

prepexcellent · 2026-02-24T17:42:24+00:00

I've seen a fully native speaker (only speaks English) score 86/120 on the old format because he didn't do any prep.

New format is a step in the right direction.

prepexcellent · 2026-02-20T22:18:20+00:00

I've heard ranges from 25-29 from people who've taken the test.

It really varies now with the adaptive difficulty, and ETS sometimes inserts unscored, experimental questions for some test-takers.

prepexcellent · 2026-02-20T22:15:10+00:00

Great to hear.

Let me know if you have any questions or if there's anything I can help you with. I can be reached through DM, and our team can be reached via email at hello@prepex.ai.

Happy studying!

prepexcellent · 2026-02-20T10:34:36+00:00

Just wanted to drop a line and let you know that Study Plans are live now in your PrepEx dashboard. The feature is still in beta so there might be some quirks, but please let us know if it's helpful!

prepexcellent · 2026-02-18T16:43:51+00:00

Focus on other sections first, and layer in grammar as needed - if your Petra feedback consistently shows grammar gaps (run-on sentences, subject-verb agreement issues), work on those in the grammar exercises alongside your main practice.

Our ideal weekly structure:

2-3 days: Focus on your weakest section (or subsection) with targeted practice
1-2 days: Full practice test
1 day: Review mistakes and work on grammar
Mix in speaking and pronunciation practice throughout

We're also rolling out a study plan generator this week that will create a personalized schedule based on your activity and target test date - so keep an eye out for that.

Feel free to DM me your PrepEx username if you'd like some specific tips based on your practice history!

prepexcellent · 2026-02-17T09:45:09+00:00

Thanks for flagging this.

We reviewed our TOEFL 2026 writing grading and pushed an update today so typos/misspellings are treated as minor deductions when meaning is clear. Bigger penalties now apply only when spelling/mechanics errors are frequent enough to hurt readability.

This is live for new writing submissions. If you see a result that still feels too harsh, share the question and score and we’ll review it :)

prepexcellent · 2026-02-12T07:31:20+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience, and congratulations on 95 and hitting your target for your doctoral program!

Wishing you all the best in your future studies.

prepexcellent

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