Overview of the Current TOEFL iBT

 OVERVIEW OF THE NEW TOEFL iBT 

            as of July 2023

Reading Section

You will get two passages to read.  there will not be any "experimental" passage. The two reading passages are graded.

Each reading passage has only 10 questions. You will be given 36 minutes to finish the reading section. This means you will have about 18 minutes per passage.

The articles are the same length and difficult level as before. The same types of questions are used.

 

Listening Section

You will listen to two sets of listening materials.  Each set consists of either one conversation and two lectures (long set), or one conversation and one lecture (short set).

The long set includes 17 questions and you will be given 10 minutes to solve them. The short set includes 11 questions and you will be given 6.5 minutes to solve them.  Note that the clock does not run while you are listening.  This means you have about 35 seconds to solve each question.

 

Speaking Section

Speaking Question 1 is an independent task. Speaking Questions 2 and 3 are integrated Reading, Listening and Speaking. Speaking Question 4 is an integrated task listening and Speaking.  

It now takes 17 minutes to finish the speaking section.

Your score is now determined by one human rater and the SpeechRater software.  This is called "Enhanced Speaking Scoring" by ETS.  Previously, your score was determined by two human raters.  Now, the human grader will check your language use and topic development while the SpeechRater software will check your delivery.

 

 

Writing Section

2 Writing tasks: 

One Integrated task Reading, Listening and Writing :                           20 min

And one Writing for an academic discussion task :                              10 min 

 

Overall

It now takes two hours to finish the test, instead of  3.5  hours (not counting administrative tasks and your break).  The test is still scored out of 120 points, and each section still has equal weight.

Some of this information comes from the  ETS website . Some details have not been publicly acknowledged by ETS, but have been confirmed privately.

Changes to the Score Report 

Good: MyBest Scores

Your TOEFL score report now contains a separate section referred to as "MyBest Scores."  This line combines the best result from each section of the test you have gotten over all of your attempts over the past two years . For example, if you take the test three times it will combine the best individual writing, speaking, reading and listening scores you achieved on all three attempts. Note that some schools may not accept these scores and will continue to accept single test scores as usual. 




 

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