What is the difference between TOEFL and IELTS exams?

It’s a bit like apples and oranges, and many people would prefer one or the other. The only area where I feel TOEFL is absolutely ‘better’ is in terms of time and cost: it’s cheaper, quicker to take and results get to you faster (although only for a couple of days compared to IELTS). The rest is neither ‘better’ nor ‘worse’, just different. For instance:

- IELTS’ speaking section is face-to-face before an expert examiner. It consists of a short interview (what’s your name? where do you live? what do you do?), then a monologue about a cue-card question (which is always about something quotidian or social, e.g. do you think people respect their parents as much as they should? why?) and then a short discussion with the interviewer about something related to the cue card. TOEFL’s speaking section is done talking to a microphone, and it covers academic-related topics only (e.g. speak one minute about psychological biases, based on a text they give you). Many people (especially those who are too shy) prefer talking to a mic than to a person, many prefer the opposite. Same for topics: there are many people who feel more comfortable speaking about science than about habits or tourism.

- For the listening section, IELTS contains spoken samples from a wide range of accents: RP, Estuary, New York, Sydney, Dublin, etc. TOEFL only uses what’s known as Standard American. Some people would feel better with one or the other – it’s completely subjective.

- Reading section in TOEFL is a bit more academically-oriented. IELTS Academic is also … well, academic, but it usually covers both social and natural sciences, while TOEFL tends to focus more on the latter. IELTS GT is more about everyday topics: working out, having breakfast, sending e-mails and so on. The writing section follows a similar formula. TOEFL, IMO, is a bit trickier in terms of grammar – they sort of put ‘traps’ to filter those who can use more advanced grammar from those who can’t – and IELTS is more about style and the ability to convey your message properly.

As for usefulness, they’re both quite global: even though TOEFL is American, loads and loads of British/Australian institutions receive it; and even though IELTS is British/Australian, loads and loads of American institutions receive it. In Canada, NZ, etc. you can use either, most of the time. In 2006 or earlier, most American colleges did not accept IELTS but that’s changed since and now all the Ivies (for instance) have greenlit it.