Introduction

The TOEFL® (Test of English as a Foreign Language) is a standardized English proficiency test that measures the English language ability of non-native speakers. It is widely accepted by colleges, universities, and other institutions in English-speaking countries as a requirement for admission. The TOEFL®(internet-based test) is the most common format of the exam.

Test time

The total test takes about 3 hours to complete, but you should plan for 3.5 hours, allowing 30 minutes for check in.

Test sections overview

Section     Time LimitQuestionsTasks
Reading54–72 minutes30–40 questionsRead passages and respond to questions
Listening41–57 minutes28–39 questionsAnswer questions about brief lectures or classroom discussions
Break10 minutes
Speaking17 minutes4 tasksTalk about a familiar topic and discuss material you read and listened to
Writing50 minutes2 tasksRead a passage, listen to a recording, type your response

How to Interpret Your Scores

Your scores are based on your performance on the questions in the test. You must answer at least 1 question each in the Reading and Listening sections, write at least 1 essay, and complete at least 1 speaking task to receive an official score. You will receive 4 scaled section scores and a total score:

  • Reading (0-30)
  • Listening (0-30)
  • Speaking (0-30)
  • Writing (0-30)
  • Total Score (0-120)

Although the scaled scores of the 4 test sections (Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing) all range from 0 to 30, each section is a separate measure and each measure has its own scale. Therefore, scaled scores obtained on a particular section can be compared to other scaled scores obtained on that same section on different test dates, but it is inappropriate to compare scaled scores across different sections. All score reports include MyBest® scores along with the traditional scores from your selected test date. This feature combines your best scores for each section from all your valid TOEFL iBT scores from the last 2 years, allowing you to show your best performance in each skill area.

Score Report Posting and Mailing

Your TOEFL iBT scores are posted online approximately 4–8 days after you take the test (11–13 business days for the TOEFL iBT Paper Edition). If you provided a valid email address during registration, you’ll receive an email letting you know when your scores are available.

Reading Section

The TOEFL®  Reading section assesses how well you can read and understand materials used in an academic environment.

It includes three or four reading passages, each approximately 700 words long, with 10 questions per passage. You have 54 to 72 minutes to answer all the questions in the section.

Reading passages are excerpts from university-level textbooks that would be used in introductions to a topic. The passages cover a variety of subjects. Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with the topic of a passage. All the information you need to answer the questions will be included in the passage. There is a glossary feature available to define words not commonly used if you need it.

Study

The following sections will explain each of these question types. You will find out how to recognize each type and see examples of each type with explanations. You will also find tips that can help you answer each Reading question type.

Basic Information and Inferencing Questions

Tips for Factual Information Questions
You may need to refer to the passage to know what exactly is said about the subject of the question. Since the question may be about a detail, you may not recall the detail from your first reading of the passage. Eliminate choices that present information that is contradicted in the passage. Do not select an answer just because it is mentioned in the passage. Your choice should answer the specific question that was asked.

Tips for Inference Questions
Make sure your answer does not contradict the main idea of the passage. Do not choose an answer just because it seems important or true. The correct answer must be inferable from the passage. You should be able to defend your choice by pointing to explicitly stated information in the passage that leads to the inference you have selected.

Tips for Vocabulary Questions
Remember that the question is not just asking the meaning of a word; it is asking for the meaning as it is used in the passage. Do not choose an answer just because it can be a correct meaning of the word; understand which meaning the author is using in the passage. Reread the sentence in the passage, substituting the word or phrase you have chosen. Confirm that the sentence still makes sense in the context of the whole passage.

Tips for Reference Questions
If the Reference question is about a pronoun, make sure your answer is the same number (singular or plural) and case (first person, second person, third person) as the highlighted pronoun. Substitute your choice for the highlighted word or words in the sentence. Does it violate any grammar rules? Does it make sense?

Practice

THE ORIGINS OF CETACEANS

Paragraph 1

It should be obvious that cetaceans—whales, porpoises, and dolphins—are mammals. They breathe through lungs, not through gills, and give birth to live young. Their stream-lined bodies, the absence of hind legs, and the presence of a fluke (1) and blowhole (2) can-not disguise their affinities with land-dwelling mammals. However, unlike the cases of sea otters and pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses, whose limbs are functional both on land and at sea), it is not easy to envision what the first whales looked like. Extinct but already fully marine cetaceans are known from the fossil record. (A) How was the gap between a walking mammal and a swimming whale bridged? (B) Missing until recently were fossils clearly intermediate, or transitional, between land mammals and cetaceans.

Paragraph 2

(C) Very exciting discoveries have finally allowed scientists to reconstruct the most likely origins of cetaceans. (D) In 1979, a team looking for fossils in northern Pakistan found what proved to be the oldest fossil whale. The fossil was officially named Pakicetus in honor of the country where the discovery was made. Pakicetus was found embedded in rocks formed from river deposits that were 52 million years old. The river that formed these deposits was actually not far from an ancient ocean known as the Tethys Sea.

Paragraph 3

The fossil consists of a complete skull of an archaeocyte, an extinct group of ancestors of modern cetaceans. Although limited to a skull, the Pakicetus fossil provides precious details on the origins of cetaceans. The skull is cetacean-like, but its jawbones lack the enlarged space that is filled with fat or oil and used for receiving underwater sound in modern whales. Pakicetus probably detected sound through the ear opening, as in land mammals. The skull also lacks a blowhole, another cetacean adaptation for diving. Other features, however, show experts that Pakicetus is a transitional form between a group of extinct flesh-eating mammals, the mesonychids, and cetaceans. It has been suggested that Pakicetus fed on fish in shallow water and was not yet adapted for life in the open ocean. It probably bred and gave birth on land.

Paragraph 4

Another major discovery was made in Egypt in 1989. Several skeletons of another early whale, Basilosaurus, were found in sediments left by the Tethys Sea and now exposed in the Sahara desert. This whale lived around 40 million years ago, 12 million years after Pakicetus. Many incomplete skeletons were found, but they included, for the first time in an archaeo-cyte, a complete hind leg that features a foot with three tiny toes. Such legs would have been far too small to have supported the 50-foot-long Basilosaurus on land. Basilosaurus was undoubtedly a fully marine whale with possibly nonfunctional, or vestigial, hind legs.

Paragraph 5

An even more exciting find was reported in 1994, also from Pakistan. The now extinct whale Ambulocetus natans (“the walking whale that swam”) lived in the Tethys Sea 49 million years ago. It lived around 3 million years after Pakicetus, but 9 million years before Basilosau-rus. The fossil luckily includes a good portion of the hind legs. The legs were strong and ended in long feet, very much like those of a modern pinniped. The legs were certainly functional both on land and at sea. The whale retained a tail and lacked a fluke, the major means of locomotion in modern cetaceans. The structure of the backbone shows, however, that Ambu-locetus swam like modern whales by moving the rear portion of its body up and down, even though a fluke was missing. The large hind legs were used for propulsion in water. On land, where it probably bred and gave birth, Ambulocetus may have moved around very much like a modern sea lion. It was undoubtedly a whale that linked life on land with life at sea.

1. Fluke: The two parts that constitute the large triangular tail of a whale
2. Blowhole: A hole in the top of the head used for breathing

Listening Section

The TOEFL ® Listening section is designed to measure your ability to understand conversations and lectures in English. It includes listening for:

  • Basic comprehension
  • Understanding the speaker’s attitude and degree of certainty
  • Connecting information

Listening questions

You’ll hear lectures and conversations in this section. Both use campus-based language.

  • 3–4 lectures, some with classroom discussion, each 3–5 minutes; 6 questions per lecture
  • 2–3 conversations, each 3 minutes; 5 questions per conversation

You can take notes on any audio item throughout the test to help you answer questions.

Test time: You have 41 to 57 minutes to complete the section.

Study

Basic Comprehension Questions
Basic comprehension of the lecture or conversation is tested in three ways: with Gist-Content, Gist-Purpose, and Detail questions.

Tips for Gist-Purpose Questions

  • Students visit professors during office hours for various reasons, including cases in which a professor invites a student in to discuss the student’s performance on an assignment. To answer a Gist-Purpose question, look in your notes for information that identifies the reason that the student visited the professor in the first place.
  • The purpose of a conversation is not always related to the conversation’s main topic. For example, a student might visit her professor to ask a question about the professor’s grading policy. After answering her question, the professor might spontaneously ask how the student is progressing on a research project, and the rest of the conversation is about that project.
  • In service encounter conversations, the student is often trying to solve a problem. Understanding what the student’s problem is and how it will be solved will help you answer the Gist-Purpose question

Tips for Detail Questions

  • Refer to your notes as you answer. You will not be asked about minor points. Your notes should contain the major details from the conversation or lecture.
  • Do not choose an answer only because it contains some of the words that were used in the conversation or lecture. Incorrect responses will often contain words and phrases from the lecture or conversation.
  • If you are unsure of the correct response, decide which one of the choices is most consistent with the main idea of the conversation or lecture.

Tip for Questions Related to Understanding the Function of What Is Said

Remember that the function of what is said may not match what the speaker directly states. In the following example, an administrative assistant asks a student if he knows where the housing office is. She is not, however, doing this to get information about the housing office’s location.

Tips for Understanding Organization Questions

  • Questions that ask about overall organization are more likely to be found after lectures than after conversations. Refer to your notes to answer these questions. It may not have been apparent from the start that the professor organized the information (for example) chronologically, or from least to most complex, or in some other way.
  • Pay attention to comparisons made by the professor. In the following example, the professor is discussing the structure of plants. He uses steel and the steel girders in a new building to make a point. A professor may mention something that is seemingly off-topic to explain a concept. The professor will mention something familiar to the students as a way of introducing a new idea.

Tip for Connecting Content Questions

Questions that require you to fill in a chart or table or put events in order fall into this category. As you listen to the lectures accompanying this study guide, pay attention to the way you format your notes. Clearly identifying terms and their definitions as well as steps in a process will help you answer questions of this type.

Practice

Student

Uh, excuse me, Professor Thompson. I know your office hours are tomorrow, but I was wondering if you had a few minutes free now to discuss something.

Professor

Sure, John. What did you wanna talk about?

Student

Well, I have some quick questions about how to write up the research project I did this semester about climate variations.

Professor

Oh, yes. You were looking at variations in climate in the Grant City area, right? How far along have you gotten?

Student

I’ve got all my data, so I’m starting to summarize it now, preparing graphs and stuff. But I’m just… I’m looking at it, and I’m afraid that it’s not enough, but I’m not sure what else to put in the report.

Professor

I hear the same thing from every student. You know, you have to remember now that you’re the expert on what you’ve done. So think about what you’d need to include if you were going to explain your research project to someone with general or casual knowledge about the subject, like… Like your parents. That’s usually my rule of thumb: would my parents understand this?

Student

OK. I get it.

Professor

I hope you can recognize by my saying that how much you do know about the subject.

Student

Right. I understand. I was wondering if I should also include the notes from the research journal you suggested I keep?

Professor

Yes, definitely. You should use them to indicate what your evolution in thought was through time. So just set up, you know, what was the purpose of what you were doing to try to understand the climate variability of this area and what you did, and what your approach was.

Student

OK. So, for example, I studied meteorological records; I looked at climate charts; I used different methods for analyzing the data, like certain statistical tests; and then I discuss the results. Is that what you mean?

Professor

Yes, that’s right. You should include all of that. The statistical tests are especially important. And also be sure you include a good reference section where all your published and unpublished data came from, ’cause you have a lot of unpublished climate data.

Student

Hmm… Something just came into my mind and went out the other side.

Professor

That happens to me a lot, so I’ve come up with a pretty good memory management tool. I carry a little pad with me all the time and jot down questions or ideas that I don’t wanna forget. For example, I went to the doctor with my daughter and her baby son last week, and we knew we wouldn’t remember everything we wanted to ask the doctor, so we actually made a list of five things we wanted answers to.

Student

A notepad is a good idea. Since I’m so busy now at the end of the semester, I’m getting pretty forgetful these days. OK. I just remembered what I was trying to say before.

Professor

Good. I was hoping you’d come up with it.

Student

Yes. It ends up that I have data on more than just the immediate Grant City area, so I also included some regional data in the report. With everything else it should be a pretty good indicator of the climate in this part of the state.

Professor

Sounds good. I’d be happy to look over a draft version before you hand in the final copy, if you wish.

Student

Great. I’ll plan to get you a draft of the paper by next Friday. Thanks very much. Well, see ya.

Professor

OK.

Speaking Section

The TOEFL® Speaking section measures your ability to speak English effectively in academic settings. The four questions/tasks resemble real-life situations you might encounter, both in and outside a classroom.

Question 1: Independent Speaking Task — requires you to draw entirely on your own ideas, opinions and experiences when you respond.

Questions 2–4: Integrated Speaking Tasks — require you to combine your English-language skills — listening and speaking, or listening, reading and speaking — just as you would in or out of a classroom.

Prep time: You’ll get 15–30 seconds of preparation time before each response, and your response will be 45 or 60 seconds long.

Speaking response: To respond, you’ll speak into the microphone and your responses will be recorded.

Test time: You have 17 minutes to complete the Speaking section.

Study

Raters will score your responses holistically. This means that the rater will listen for various features in your response and assign a single score based on the overall skill you display in your answer. Although scoring criteria vary somewhat depending on the question, the raters will generally be listening for the following features in your answer:

  • Delivery: How clear your speech is. Good responses are those in which the speech is fluid and clear, with good pronunciation, natural pacing, and natural-sounding intonation patterns.
  • Language Use: How effectively you use grammar and vocabulary to convey your ideas. Raters will be listening to how well you can control both basic and more complex language structures and use appropriate vocabulary.
  • Topic Development: How fully you answer the question and how coherently you present your ideas. Good responses generally use all or most of the time allotted, and the relationship between ideas and the progression from one idea to the next is clear and easy to follow.

It is important to note that raters do not expect your response to be perfect, and high-scoring responses may contain occasional errors and minor lapses in any of the three areas described above.

Tips for Speaking Section

Study and practice words and expressions commonly used to express opinions, such as:

  • I believe…
  • In my opinion…

Do not memorize responses before the test, especially ones that you get from the Internet, or from test preparation instructors who say this is a good idea. It is not a good idea, and it will lower your score. Raters will recognize a memorized response because the rhythm, intonation, and even the content of the response will be very different from a spontaneous response. Memorized responses are easy to identify.

Remember that taking notes on the reading and listening material in the Integrated Speaking tasks on the TOEFL® test is allowed. But don’t try to write out a full response because you won’t have time, and the raters scoring your response want to hear you speaking, not reading aloud.

Try to recognize the attitude of the speaker by listening for intonation, stress, and word choice. This helps you understand his or her point of view and plan an appropriate response.

Find listening and reading material on a topic that you like. The reading material and the listening material can provide similar or different views. Take notes on what you listen to and read, and create outlines. Use your notes and outlines to orally summarize the information and ideas from the listening and reading materials. Try to paraphrase what you have heard and read by using different words and grammatical structures.

Read a short article. Make an outline that includes only the major points of the article. Use the outline to orally summarize the information. Then add detail to the outline and orally summarize it again.

Find a textbook that includes questions about the material at the end of chapters. Practice answering the questions orally.

Writing Section

The TOEFL® test Writing section measures your ability to write in English in an academic setting, and to present your ideas in a clear, well-organized way.

There are two writing tasks.

  • Integrated writing task (20 minutes) — read a short passage and listen to a short lecture, then write in response to what you read and listened to.
  • Independent writing task (30 minutes) — write an essay based on personal experience or opinion in response to a writing topic.

Test time: You have 50 minutes to complete the Writing section.

Study

You will read a passage about an academic topic for three minutes, and then you will hear a short lecture related to the topic. Then you will be asked to summarize the points in the lecture and explain how they relate to specific points in the reading passage. This task gives you the opportunity to show that you can communicate in writing about academic information you have read and listened to.

Strategies for Taking the Integrated Writing Task

As you write your response:

  • You may take off your headset if you wish. You will not need your headset
    for the remainder of the test.
  • Before you start writing, briefly reread the passage, consult your notes, and make a very brief outline of the points you wish to make. You can write this outline on your scratch paper, or draw lines between the notes you took on the reading passage and the notes you took on the lecture. You can even type your outline and notes right into the answer area and
    then replace these with sentences and paragraphs as you compose your
    response.
  • Remember that you are not being asked for your opinion. You are being asked to explain how the points in the lecture relate to points in the reading passage.
  • Write in full English sentences. You can write either one long paragraph or a series of short paragraphs listing the points of opposition between the reading passage and the lecture. Occasional language errors will not count against you as long as they do not cause you to misrepresent the meaning of points from the reading passage and the lecture.
  • Remember that your job is to select the important information from the lecture and coherently and accurately present this information in relation to the relevant information from the reading passage. Your response should contain the following:
    • The specific ideas, explanations, and arguments in the lecture that oppose or challenge points in the reading passage.
    • Coherent and accurate presentation of each point that you make; that is, the language you use should make sense and should accurately reflect the ideas presented in the lecture and the reading passage.
    • A clear, coherent structure that enables the reader to understand what points in the lecture relate to what points in the reading passage.


The suggested length is between 150 and 225 words. You will not be penalized if you write more, so long as what you write answers the question.

CAUTION: You will receive a score of 0 if all you do is copy words from the reading passage. You will receive a score of 1 if you write only about the reading passage. To respond successfully, you must do your best to write about the ways the points in the lecture are related to specific points in the reading passage.

Strategies

Preparing for the TOEFL® can be a daunting task, but with the right approach, you can improve your English proficiency and perform well on the exam. Here are some general skill-building tips that can help you prepare for the TOEFL:

Reading Tips

English language learners can strengthen their English reading skills by reading regularly, especially university textbooks or other materials that cover a variety of subject areas (for example, sciences, social sciences, arts, business, and others) and are written in an academic style. A wide variety of academic texts can be found on the Internet as well as in magazines and journals.

Reading to Find Information

  • Skim passages to find and highlight key facts (dates, numbers, terms) and information.
  • Practice frequently to increase reading rate and fluency.

Reading for Basic Comprehension

  • Practice skimming a passage quickly to get a general impression of the main idea.
  • After skimming a passage, read it again more carefully and write down the main idea(s), major points, and important facts.
  • Choose some unfamiliar words in the passage and look them up in a dictionary to determine their meaning.

Reading to Learn

  • Identify the passage type (for example, cause/effect, compare/contrast, classification, problem/solution, description, narration) and its organization.
  • Organize the information in the passage:
    • Create an outline of the passage to distinguish between major and minor points.
    • If the passage categorizes information, create a chart and place the information in appropriate categories.

Listening Tips

English language learners can strengthen their listening skills by listening regularly to spoken English. Watching movies, television, and videos, and listening to podcasts and radio broadcasts provide excellent opportunities to build general listening skills.

Listening for Basic Comprehension

  • Increase vocabulary.
  • For an unfamiliar word, try to guess the general sense of the word’s meaning based on the context in which it is used.
  • Focus on the content and flow of spoken material. Do not be distracted by the speaker’s style and delivery.
  • Anticipate what a person is going to say as a way to stay focused.
  • Stay active by asking yourself questions (for example, What main idea is the professor communicating?).
  • Listen for words or phrases that indicate a change in topic or a digression.

Listening for Pragmatic Understanding

  • Think about what each speaker hopes to accomplish when making an assertion or asking a question. Is the speaker apologizing, complaining, or providing a suggestion? For example, if a speaker says, “It’s cold in this room,” is the speaker doing more than making a remark about room temperature? Is that speaker suggesting that someone do something to adjust the room temperature? If a speaker makes an assertion such as “I’m sure you must have thoughts about that,” is the speaker indirectly asking people to share their thoughts?
  • Notice the speaker’s degree of certainty. How sure is the speaker about the information? Does the speaker’s tone of voice indicate something about his or her degree of certainty?
  • Listen for aside statements.
  • Watch a recorded TV or movie comedy. Pay careful attention to the way stress and intonation patterns are used to convey meaning.

Listening to Connect and Synthesize Ideas

  • Think about how the lecture you’re hearing is organized. Listen for the signal words that indicate the introduction, major steps or ideas, examples, and the conclusion or summary.
  • Identify the relationships between ideas. Possible relationships include: cause/effect, compare/contrast, and steps in a process.
  • Listen for words that show connections and relationships between ideas.
  • Listen to recorded material and stop the recording at various points. Predict what information or idea will be expressed next.
  • Create an outline of the information discussed while listening or after listening.

Speaking Tips

The best way to practice speaking is with native speakers of English. If you do not live in an English-speaking country, finding native speakers of English might be quite challenging. In some countries, there are English-speaking tutors or assistants who help students with conversation skills and overall communication skills. You may also be able to find online tutors or conversation partners with whom you can practice speaking English. Another way to practice speaking is by joining an English club whose members converse in English about movies, music, and travel. If a club does not exist in your area, start one and invite native speakers to help you get started.

Independent-Speaking Task

  • Make a list of topics that are familiar, and practice speaking about them.
  • Describe a preference and your reason for the preference.
  • Express an opinion by clearly stating your point of view and providing clear and detailed reasons for your opinion.
  • Make a recommendation and explain why it is the best way to proceed.
  • Practice giving one-minute responses to topics.

Integrated Speaking Tasks

  • Find a textbook that includes questions about the material at the end of chapters, and practice answering the questions orally.
  • Read a short article (100–200 words). Make an outline that includes only the major points of the article. Use the outline to orally summarize the information.
  • Find listening and reading material on the same topic covered by the article. The material can contain similar or different views. (The Internet and the library are good places to find information.) Take notes or create outlines on the listening and reading material:
    • Orally summarize the information in both the written and spoken materials. Be sure to paraphrase using different words and grammatical structures.
    • Orally synthesize the material by combining the information from the reading and listening materials and explaining how they relate.
    • State an opinion about the ideas and information presented in the reading and listening material and explain how they relate.

Writing Tips

Integrated Writing Tasks

  • Find a textbook that includes questions about the material at the end of chapters, and practice writing answers to the questions.
  • Read an article that is about 300–400 words long. Make an outline that includes the major points and important details of the article. Use the outline to write a summary of the information and ideas. Summaries should be brief and clearly communicate only the major points and important details. Be sure to paraphrase using different words and grammatical structures.
  • Find listening and reading material on a single topic on the Internet or in the library. The material can provide similar or different views. Take notes on the written and spoken portions, and do the following:
    • Summarize the information and ideas in both the written and spoken portions.
    • Synthesize the information and discuss how the reading and listening materials relate. Explain how the ideas expressed are similar, how one idea expands upon another, or how the ideas are different or contradict each other.

Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing involves restating something from the source material in one’s own words. On the TOEFL® test, test takers receive a score of zero if all they do is copy words from the reading passage.

  • Practice paraphrasing words, phrases, sentences, and entire paragraphs frequently using the following tips:
    • Learn to find synonyms with ease. Pick 10 to 15 words or phrases in a reading passage and quickly think of synonyms without looking them up in a dictionary or thesaurus.
    • Write a paraphrase of a reading passage using only your notes. If you have not taken notes, write the paraphrase without looking at the original text. Then check the paraphrase with the original passage to make sure that it is factually accurate and that you have used different words and grammatical structures.

Independent Writing Tasks

  • Make a list of familiar topics and practice writing about them.
  • For each topic, state an opinion or a preference and then support it with evidence.
  • Practice planning and writing at least one essay for each topic. Be sure to take 30 minutes to plan, write, and revise each essay.
  • Think about and list all ideas related to a topic or task before writing. This is also called “prewriting.”
  • Identify one main idea and some major points to support that idea, and plan how to communicate them (by creating, for example, an outline to organize ideas).
  • Create a focused thesis statement and use it to develop the ideas presented in the essay.
  • Develop the essay by using appropriate explanation and detail. However, remember that reasons or examples expressed in completely memorized language will not be considered to represent your own writing.

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