TOEFL

Test of English as a Foreign Language, more commonly known as the TOEFL is a standardized test that is required for Indians wanting to study abroad, particularly in English speaking countries. This test primarily gauges one’s ability to comprehend the language and is an important pre-requisite for applicants who have either been offered a scholarship or a job from a first world country. The test is fairly easy for those who are fluent in English but for those who are not, coaching is highly recommended. It basically tests the ability to comprehend North American English. It is administered by Education Testing Service (ETS). It is a single format test known as TOEFL IBT (Internet Based Test). Most of the institutes in the United States and Canada require TOEFL scores. For more info visit https://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/

Internet Based Test in TOEFL takes 4 hours approximately. Here all sessions of tests take place on the same day itself. That is, speaking also takes place on the same day as other sections.

Section	Time Limit	Questions	Tasks
Reading	60–80 minutes	36–56 questions	Reading 3 or 4 passages from academic texts and answering questions.
Listening	60–90 minutes	34–51 questions	Listening to lectures, classroom discussions and conversations, answering questions.
Speaking	20 minutes	6 tasks	Expressing an opinion on a familiar topic; speaking based on reading and listening tasks.
Writing	50 minutes	2 tasks	Writing essay responses based on reading and listening tasks; supporting an opinion in writing.

The marking pattern of the TOEFL test pattern is as follows:

• Reading Section (Score of 0–30)
• Listening Section (Score of 0–30)
• Speaking Section (Score of 0–30)
• Writing Section (Score of 0–30)
• Total TOEFL result (0–120)

TOEFL READING

Reading is the first section on the TOEFL, and it is designed to test your ability to understand university-level academic texts and passages. You’ll have 60-80 minutes to answer questions based on three to four passages. The variation in time and length is due to the fact that some test takers will have un-scored experimental questions in their TOEFL Reading section, making it extra long, while others will have experimental questions during their Listening section instead. You won’t know which questions are experimental and which are graded, so try not to worry about it too much.

Each of the TOEFL Reading passages will be about 700 words long, and they’ll be followed by about 12-14 questions. The passages are from university-level textbooks that introduce a topic or discipline.

TOEFL LISTENING

Listening is an important part of the TOEFL, and if you want to get into your top schools, you’ll need a solid score on this section. He TOEFL Listening score calculation is straightforward: you’ll receive one point for each question you answer correctly, and the sum of those points is your raw score. Your raw score will then be converted to a scale from 0-30 to get your final TOEFL Listening score. So your TOEFL Listening score can be anywhere from 0 to 30.An excellent Listening score is 29. Each Listening question is worth one point (and you don’t lose any points for incorrect answers on the TOEFL).

The TOEFL Listening score table below shows about how many raw points you need to reach your target score.

Raw Score	Scaled Score
34	30
33	29
32	27
31	26
30	25
29	24
28	22
27	20
26	19
25	18
24	17
23	16
22	15
21	14
20	13
19	12
18	10
17	9
16	8
15	7
14	6
13	5
12	4
11	3
10	2
9	1
8	0
7	0
6	0
5	0
4	0
3	0
2	0
1	0
0	0

TOEFL WRITING

Writing English essays can be difficult for non-native speakers—especially on TOEFL Integrated Writing. For this task, you must compose a short essay comparing a lecture with a reading passage.

There are two Writing tasks on the TOEFL: an Integrated Writing task and an Independent Writing task. The Integrated Writing task, which comes first, requires you to combine multiple skills. You must not only be able to write in English but also be able to read and listen to it. By contrast, the Independent Writing task only requires you to read a brief prompt and then write an essay explaining your opinion on the topic.

So what exactly does the Integrated Writing task entail? You’ll start by reading an academic passage. This passage is about 300 words long, and you’ll have three minutes to read it.

Next, you’ll listen to an audio clip of a professor giving a lecture on the same topic as that of the passage. This lecture will usually be about two minutes long and will either agree or disagree with points made in the passage.

Finally, you’ll have 20 minutes to plan and compose a short essay of about 150-225 words. This essay must summarize the points made in the lecture and explain how they support or challenge what’s written in the passage. You will not write about your own opinion for this task (though you will for the Independent Writing task).

As you write, you’ll be able to look at the reading passage again if you need to. (You can also finish reading it during this time if you didn’t get to do so before.) However, you may not listen to the audio clip again. This is why it’s best to take notes while you listen to the audio clip .

TOEFL SPEAKING

The TOEFL Speaking section can be a challenge for many test takers, especially when it comes to the Integrated Speaking TOEFL questions. These complex tasks test not only your English-speaking skills but also your reading and listening skills.

On the TOEFL Speaking section, there are six questions, or tasks, you must complete. Tasks 1 and 2 make up the Independent Speaking section, while tasks 3-6 make up the Integrated Speaking section. These four Integrated Speaking tasks require you to combine other skills—namely, reading and listening—with your ability to speak English. (By contrast, the Independent Speaking tasks only require you to read a brief prompt and then explain your opinion.)

Multiple human raters grade each Integrated task using a scale of 0-4 in whole points. For each task, the raters’ scores are then averaged together to get a single raw score (also on a scale of 0-4, though decimals are possible). The sum of your four Integrated scores is later averaged with your Independent scores and converted to a final Speaking score on a scale of 0-30.

According to the official TOEFL Integrated Speaking rubric, a 4 response “is highly intelligible and exhibits sustained, coherent discourse,” whereas a 1 response “is very limited in content or coherence or is only minimally connected to the task.” (A 0 response means that you did not respond or did not answer the prompt appropriately.)