<p>I am an US citizen but because of my parents, i have studied in Hong Kong until last year (I moved back to CA for all most a year now). My English is not prefect but I'm going to graduate from an American high school. I checked the website of UC Berkeley and it didn't actually mention about this. So, in this situation, will I be required to take the TOEFL test?</p>
<p>PS. I have taken the TOEFL test once before I moved back. I got 66 (iBT) 2 years ago when i was in 8th grade (I didn't actually pay attention to it :( ) </p>
<p>If you went to an american high school, you shouldn’t have to take it. However, many universities require to take the TOEFL if you studied in an english speaking high school for less than 5 years so you may want to e-mail Berkeley about it. Your score of 66 is absolutely terrible and thus you shouldn’t even mention it.</p>
<p>thanks for the opinion:D I didn’t know about the “5 years” thing before. However, (forgot to mention this), the previous school(HK) i attended was also an English speaking school, do you think they will consider that as part of the “5 years”?</p>
<p>You’re right, that score was absolutely terrible and I will definitely work on that :)</p>
<p>Hello there, HKer!
As for your question, I’d say different schools have different policies when it comes to TOEFL.
A friend of mine who comes from HK after F.2 and graduated from a high school in Utah was NOT required to take the TOEFL. And she is currently a freshman in BYU.
And, I know that there’re some schools, instead of asking for TOEFL, they look at your English sub-score from ACT/ SAT.
However, on most of the college websites I’ve looked at, they’ve mentioned something like “if your FIRST language is not English, even if you’re now studying in the US, you will have to take TOEFL”
So, I recommend you to retake the test anyways. (I assume that you’re raised in Hong Kong and your first language is Cantonese)
It is always a good idea to e-mail the colleges. Tell them your specific situation and see how they respond to it.
I hope this helps. Good luck lah!!! ;)</p>
<p>In most cases if you have studied in schools where English is the language of instruction for a certain number of years, then you do not need to take an English proficiency exam. In some cases, a certain score on the SAT or ACT or other standardized exam is good enough. However since each college and university sets its own policy about this you really do have to ask each of them separately. Don’t rely on what you learn here. Contact admissions at the places you are applying to, and ask them.</p>