Students can achieve their dreams of university study, immigration and more with the TOEFL iBT® and TOEFL® Essentials™ tests. Each test is uniquely designed so they can choose the TOEFL test that's best for them.

TOEFL iBT Test

The TOEFL iBT® test is conveniently offered 3 ways: the traditional test at a test center, the TOEFL iBT® Home Edition and the TOEFL iBT® Paper Edition. It's accepted and preferred by institutions worldwide, so you will stand out to admissions officers.

The test has 4 sections — Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing — that measure academic English skills the way they're actually used in the classroom.

During the test, you'll perform tasks that combine these 4 English communication skills, such as :

Read, listen and then speak in response to a question
Listen and then speak in response to a question
Read, listen and then write in response to a question
The total test takes about 3 hours to complete.

Test Structure

Section Time Limit Questions Tasks
Reading 54–72 minutes 30–40 questions Read passages and respond to questions
Listening 41–57 minutes 28–39 questions Answer questions about brief lectures or classroom discussions
Break 10 minutes - -
Speaking 17 minutes 4 tasks Talk about a familiar topic and discuss material you read and listened to
Writing 50 minutes 2 tasks Read a passage, listen to a recording, type your response

Reading Section

The TOEFL iBT® Reading section is designed to assess how well you can read and understand the kind of materials used in an academic environment. It includes 3 or 4 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 discipline or topic. The passages cover a variety of different 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.

Listening Section

The TOEFL iBT® 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 the Speaking 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 2 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. You have 41 to 57 minutes to complete the section.

Speaking Section

The TOEFL iBT® Speaking section is designed to measure your ability to speak English effectively in academic settings. 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 and speaking, or 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 will be 45 or 60 seconds long.

To respond, you'll speak into the microphone. Your responses are recorded and sent to ETS, where they will be scored by a combination of AI scoring and certified human raters to ensure fairness and quality. You have 17 minutes to complete the Speaking section.

Writing Section

The TOEFL iBT® test Writing section is designed to measure your ability to write in English in an academic setting, and you're expected to be able to present your ideas in a clear, well-organized manner.

There are 2 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.

You'll type your responses on a computer keyboard (or hand write them for the TOEFL iBT® Paper Edition). Responses are sent to ETS, where they are scored by a combination of AI scoring and certified human raters to ensure fairness and quality.

You'll have 50 minutes to complete the Writing section.