Reading Section

The 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. All the information you need to answer the questions will be included in the passage.

Listening Section

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 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 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.

Writing Section

The 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.