1. Reading

• Time Limit: 54–72 minutes

• Questions: 30–40

• Tasks: Read passages and answer questions

This assesses your ability to read and answer questions at an academic level. Task design measures:

Basic Comprehension

• Vocabulary

  • Sentence simplification

  • Factual (negative fact, reference question)

Reading to Learn

• Prose summary

  • Classify, categorize, organize

Inference

• Inference

  • Rhetorical purpose

  • Insert text

The TOEFL reading difficulty level is equivalent to an introductory undergraduate level.

2. Listening

• Time Allotted: 41–57 minutes

• Questions: 28–39

• Tasks: Answer questions about brief lectures or classroom discussions

• BREAK : 10 MINUTES

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

• Basic Comprehension

• Pragmatic understanding (speaker’s attitude and degree of certainty) and connecting and synthesizing information

There are 2 types of listening items in this section — lectures and conversations. Both use campus-based language.

• 3–4 lectures, each 3–5 minutes long, with 6 questions per lecture

• 2–3 conversations with two speakers, each 3 minutes long, with 5 questions per conversation

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

Accents – The Listening section includes native-speaker English accents from North America, the U.K., New Zealand and/or Australia to better reflect the variety of accents you might encounter while studying abroad.

3. Speaking

• Time Allotted: 17 minutes

• Number of Tasks: 4

• Tasks: Talk about a familiar topic and discuss the content you read and listened to

Details:

This measures your ability to speak English effectively in academic settings, during class time as well as outside the classroom. It is composed of 4 tasks that resemble real-life situations you might encounter both in and outside of a classroom.

• Question 1 is called an “independent speaking task” because it requires you to draw entirely on your own ideas, opinions and experiences when you respond.

• Questions 2–4 are called “integrated speaking tasks” because they require you to combine your English-language skills — listening, reading and speaking — just as you would in or out of a classroom.

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

4. Writing

• Time Allotted: 50 minutes

• Number of Tasks: 2

• Tasks: Read a passage, listen to a recording, type your response

This measures your ability to write in English in an academic setting. In all academic situations where writing in English is required, you must be able to present your ideas in a clear, well-organized manner.

This section contains two tasks:

• Integrated Writing Task: Read a short passage and listen to a short lecture, then write in response to what you read and heard.

  • Independent Writing Task: Write an essay based on personal experience or opinion in response to a writing prompt.

Time: 50 minutes

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