TOEFL is conducted for the candidates who are from the non native english speaking locations and want to pursue the education from the english speaking universities. It is a 4 hour test comprising of 4 sections- Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking.
It consists of four sections as follows :
- Reading: It consists of 3–4 passages, each of around 700 words. Every passage consists of 13–14 questions. Questions are easy. But time is money in this section. Catching up with clock requires a bit of practice.
- Listening :In this section, you will be made to listen to short audios (4–6 minutes). The audios are of three types: a conversation, a classroom lecture and a classroom discussion. Based on the audio you will have to answer the questions. In this section, understanding the Native English accent is tested.
- Speaking: In this section, you are asked to speak. Either you will be given a topic to speak or you will made to listen to an audio. Based on the directions, you will have to speak for 1 minute. The most important thing in this part is to structure your summary clearly. Haphazard presentation of ideas leads to deduction of marks.
- Writing: In this part, you have to write two essays. This part is quite easy because most of us have been writing in English in one way or the other. In one question, you have to simply write an essay on one topic. In another question, you will made to read a passage and listen to a lecture. Based on them, you will have to compare the two.
Each section is scored on the scale of 0–30. Therefore your total score is out of 120. Results of TOEFL are directly sent to your ETS account.
Section | Time Limit | Questions | Tasks |
Reading | 60–80 minutes | 36–56 questions | Read 3 or 4 passages from academic texts and answer questions. |
Listening | 60–90 minutes | 34–51 questions | Listen to lectures, classroom discussions and conversations, then answer questions. |
Break | 10 minutes | — | — |
Speaking | 20 minutes | 6 tasks | Express an opinion on a familiar topic; speak based on reading and listening tasks. |
Writing | 50 minutes | 2 tasks | Write essay responses based on reading and listening tasks; support an opinion in writing. |