Introduction
Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is a comprehensive analysis of an individual’s ability to express thoughts and understand others with English as a mode of communication. If an individual is a non-native English speaker in the USA or the United Kingdom or aspires to go there to propel his/her career by enrolling in a good university, then achieving a good score in TOEFL can certainly boost the chance of acceptance into a good university.
The TOEFL Test measures the students’ reading, writing, listening and speaking skills.
TOEFL Test is given in English and administered via the internet. There are four segments in TOEFL, namely, listening, reading, speaking and writing.
The TOEFL iBT test measures your ability to utilize and comprehend English at the university level. What's more, it evaluates how well you combine your reading, listening, talking and writing skills to perform academic tasks.
More than 30 million candidates from everywhere throughout the world have taken the TOEFL® test to exhibit their English-language proficiency. The normal English ability level ranges amongst Intermediate and Advanced.
Test Day
TOEFL Reading Section is done first in The TOEFL iBT®. It is designed to test the capacity to understand academic texts. Academic indicates the passages that are found in a textbook at the university level. The average length of the passage is nearly 700 words.
TOEFL Reading Section will have 3-4 reading passages which will have 10 questions that have to be answered for each passage.
TOEFL Reading Section has a time limit of 54 - 72 minutes with 54 minutes as standard time.
TOEFL Reading Section will have a total of 30 - 40 questions with 3 - 4 passages from academic texts
TOEFL Reading Section - Features
Reading is the first section of The TOEFL iBT®. In the reading section, reading passages appear on the right side of the divided computer screen, and questions appear on the left side. Because passages are long it is necessary to scroll down to read an entire passage.
The first question for a passage appears with the passage. In the reading section, test-taker can move forward through questions by clicking the Next button at the top of the screen and move back to previous questions by clicking the Back button at the top of the screen.
The TOEFL iBT reading section includes a review function. Clicking the Review button at the top of the Screen takes test-taker to a review screen where he can see all the questions in the section and their status- answered, not answered, not yet seen.
The reading section also has a glossary feature. A word in blue in a passage indicates that a definition is available for the word. Clicking on the word brings up this definition.
A Help button in all the sections takes test-taker to a list of topics for which helpful explanations are available.
TOEFL Speaking Section is done after the Reading and Listening sections in The TOEFL iBT®. It is designed to test the exam-taking strategies and appropriate grammar usage.
- TOEFL Speaking Section will have 1 independent task (prep time: 15 sec; response time: 45 sec)
- TOEFL Speaking Section will have 3 integrated tasks – Read/Listen/Speak (prep time: 30 sec; response time: 60 sec)
- TOEFL Speaking Section will have a total of 4 questions with a duration of 17 minutes
- TOEFL Speaking Section is done after the Reading and Listening sections in The TOEFL iBT®.
- For speaking questions that include listening, the test takers will hear short lectures or conversations on headphones.
- For speaking questions that include understanding, the test taker will read short written passages on their PC screen.
- Test takers can take notes all through the speaking section and utilize their notes when responding to the speaking questions. For each of the six questions. Test takers will be given a brief time to set up a response and then should answer each of the questions by talking into a microphone.
- The test taker's response will be recorded and sent to a scoring center, and they will be scored by experienced raters. The following are the question types. Independent question, integrated reading /listening/speaking questions, integrated listening and speaking
TOEFL Listening Section includes listening to lectures, classroom discussions and conversations, then answering questions about the audio.
TOEFL Writing section consists of two tasks:
- Integrated writing task
- independent writing task.
Note: The main way to get scores of 4 or 5 is to practice your writing skills. Be that as it may, you aren't required to compose a perfect essay for these 2 tasks as the measure of time given just doesn't allow it. Don't think that writing lots of information will get you a better grade than a shorter essay. If the essay has many spelling mistakes, has bad sentence formation, has poor grammar, goes out of topic, doesn't express your thoughts clearly or doesn't give examples that support your reasons for these reasons your score will below.