Getting Familiar with the Shorter TOEFL Test

The TOEFL exam is the world’s leading test of academic English proficiency, accepted at more than 11,500 universities and other institutions in over 160 countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, the U.K., across Europe and Asia. It is the preferred academic English assessment by many university admissions officers around the world. The TOEFL test measures academic English skills in the way they are used in the classroom, therefore students are equipped with the skills they need to be successful in academic environments and beyond.

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Breaking down the TOEFL iBT test structure and question types

As of Aug. 1, 2019, the TOEFL test is being shortened by 30 minutes to just three hours, helping to provide a better testing experience for students by reducing test-taker fatigue, which could potentially improve focus and performance. While the test is now shorter, the overall test format, question types, scoring scale and preparation materials will remain the same — the only difference is fewer questions in most sections.

The TOEFL exam has four test sections: Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing. Below is a snapshot of the four sections, comparing the current test to the new, shorter version.

Highlights of the shorter TOEFL test include:

• Fewer questions per passage in the Reading section
• Fewer lectures in the Listening section
• Fewer tasks in the Speaking section
• No change to the Writing section  

TOEFL Exam Pattern Snapshot 2022

Section	TOEFL Exam Pattern  (Since Aug. 1, 2019)
TOEFL Reading Section	3–4 reading passages 10 questions each  54–72 minutes
TOEFL Listening Section	Lectures 3–4 lectures 6 questions each Conversations 2–3 conversations 5 questions each  41–57 minutes
TOEFL Speaking Section	4 tasks 1 independent 3 integrated  17 minutes
TOEFL Writing Section	2 tasks 1 independent 1 integrated  50 minutes

Exam Pattern of TOEFL  in Detail

1. TOEFL Reading Section (54–72 minutes long) assesses a student’s ability to understand and analyze written passages from academic texts on a variety of topics such as science and history. This section allows students to showcase their ability to understand pieces of text that they will likely encounter in a university classroom. Students will read three to four passages, each approximately 700 words long. Each passage will be followed by 10 questions, which may ask students to perform tasks such as:

• define a word (testing your vocabulary)
• make an inference about a statement (testing your understanding)
• identify a false statement (testing overall comprehension)

Expert Advice: Familiarize yourself with a variety of reading material! Reading books, magazines, newspapers, online articles and other materials on varying topics from different sources can help you prepare for test day by boosting your vocabulary skills and building your confidence.

2. TOEFL Listening Section (41–57 minutes long) ensures that students can understand the information given to them verbally – for example, when they listen to a lecture or have a conversation with a professor at university. This section contains questions that test a student’s understanding of the content itself, as well as the motivations and emotions of speakers. During the Listening section, students will hear two different types of audio:

• recordings of lectures
• recordings of conversations

Students can expect to listen to three to four lectures that deal with academic topics, followed by six questions per lecture. Additionally, students will listen to two to three conversations; each conversation will be followed by five questions. Audio recordings will run approximately three to five minutes long. Questions in this section may relate to the actual content of the recording or may ask students to make inferences from what they have heard. Students can expect to hear a variety of native-speaker English accents in this section.

Expert Advice: Take notes! Jotting down ideas while listening to a recording can serve as a helpful reference while you are answering questions. 

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3. TOEFL Speaking Section (17 minutes) aims to measure how well students can express their thoughts and ideas in English. This section contains four speaking tasks in total, in which students will be asked to respond to a question by speaking into a microphone, where they will have up to 30 seconds to prepare and up to one minute to record their response dependent on the task type.

Of these tasks, one of them will ask students to express and defend an opinion on an everyday topic, referred to as an independent speaking task. The three remaining tasks will require students to discuss something that they have read and/or heard, referred to as integrated speaking tasks. For these tasks, students will read a short passage and/or hear an audio recording followed by a question.

The TOEFL test is the only English-language test that has integrated speaking tasks that combine reading and listening skills to answer the speaking question, as this is how English-language communication takes place in an academic classroom. Having these skills is an important foundation for students to be successful at university.

Expert Advice: Practice! There are many tools available to students to practice for the TOEFL test; students can time themselves via sample questions on practice tests to become comfortable with the amount of time they will have to record their responses on test day.

4. TOEFL Writing Section (50 minutes) is all about demonstrating how students can use their English skills in writing. This section allows students to showcase their knowledge of grammar and vocabulary in forming clear thoughts about a particular topic. The Writing section consists of two tasks: one integrated writing task and one independent writing task. For the integrated writing task, students will have 20 minutes to write a response based on reading and listening material. Just as in the Speaking section, this integrated question is designed to test how reading and listening skills are reflected in the responses.

For the independent writing task, students will have 30 minutes to write an essay supporting their opinion on a provided topic. Students should focus on the quality of their responses rather than length, paying close attention to sentence structure and overall essay construction (i.e., proper introduction, main body, and closing paragraphs).

Expert Advice: Make an outline! Writing down ideas on what you want to include in your responses and how to structure them will be helpful in guiding the flow of your essay as you write. 

In addition to the shorter test, MyBest scores sometimes referred to as super scores, will be available for administrations after Aug. 1, 2019, which highlight a student’s best scores for each section from all valid TOEFL iBT test dates in the past two years. These changes are beneficial for students and admissions officers around the globe.

About the Author

 

Srikant Gopal is the Executive Director of the TOEFL Program at Educational Testing Service. He is a graduate of the Birla Institute for Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India, and earned his MBA from Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA. He has lived and worked in six countries, and has experience across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America, combining marketing and business experience from companies like Procter & Gamble and Nestle with a passion for education and student development. Srikant is also a part-time educator and teaches a course on Economics and Ethics at the Philadelphia Ethical Society.