The Global Gateway Program (GGP) at the Baylor International Study Centre is an academic course that prepares international higher education students for degree study. It’s run by Study Group in collaboration with our partner, Baylor University.
We use the iTEP Academic-Plus English language proficiency test as part of our approach to ensuring accurate placement in our 3-level EAP pathway, where students take both English
classes and university core classes.
We chose iTEP Academic-Plus because it ticked all the boxes for us. During our decision-making process we asked a lot of questions: about the test bank, about the time involved, and
about the weight and content of each skill section. All our faculty and staff tried the test and were in favor of it. We appreciated that iTEP provided virtual proctoring and that the writing and speaking sections were graded by ESL experts, which relieved our faculty. iTEP was priced competitively, and the time commitment and proficiency range being evaluated was what we were looking for.
The real boon of working with iTEP has been the highly-personalized support of our program. We met with test developers and assessment experts (who are regular voices in the field) to figure out the iTEP score alignment to our program levels. We described our test scores, and our students and curriculum, and together we worked up a set of cut scores that have provided consistent, reliable support for the last several years.
The other outstanding part of our experience with iTEP has been working with the sales and test support staff, who respond quickly whenever we have an urgent case. At the height of COVID iTEP staff always moved quickly to provide solutions, resetting a portion of the test; and even responding on the weekend in a couple of cases! And with COVID challenges easing, we have found the exceptional levels of customer support to continue. Having a test we can rely on, as well as prompt, friendly support when we need it, has made using the iTEP Academic-Plus a real asset to our program