Types of Tests

The Reading test consists of 3 to 5 passages, each approximately 700 words in length with questions about the passages. The passages are generally academic, the kind of material that might be found in undergraduate university textbooks and their purpose is to improve the student’s understanding of academic topics. They require understanding of rhetoric functions such as compare-contrast, cause-effect, advantages-disadvantages and argumentation. The Internet-Based test (iBT) also requires students to answer questions about main ideas, details, inferences, essential information, sentence insertion, vocabulary, rhetorical purpose and overall ideas. Some questions require the students to fill out tables or complete summaries. Prior knowledge of the topic is not a requisite to answer the questions correctly.

The Listening test consists of 6 passages, 3-5 minutes in length and questions about the same. These passages include 2 student conversations and 4academic lectures or discussions. A conversation involves 2 speakers, a student and either a professor or a campus service provider. A lecture is a self_ conned portion of an academic lecture which may involve student participation and does not assume specialized background knowledge in the subject area Each conversation is heard once. Test takers might take notes while they listen and they may refer to their notes when they answer the questions. Each conversation is associated with 5 questions and each lecture is associated with 6 questions. The questions are meant to measure the ability of the student to understand the gist of the lecture, the central theme, the main ideas, the important details, the correlation of data, the organization of information, speaker purpose and speaker attitude.

The Speaking test consists of 6 tasks, 2 independent tasks and 4 integrated tasks. In the 2 independent tasks the test takers answer opinion questions on familiar topics. Test takers are evaluated on their ability to speak spontaneously and convey their ideas clearly and coherently. In 2 of the integrated tasks, test takers read a short passage, listen to an academic course lecture or a conversation about campus life and answer a question by combining appropriate formation from the text and the talk. In the 2 remaining integrated tasks, test takers listen to an academic course lecture or a conversation about campus life and then respond to a question about what they heard. In the integrated tasks, test takers are evaluated on their ability to appropriately synthesize and effectively convey information from the reading and listening material. Test takers may take notes as they read and listen and may use their notes to help prepare their responses. Test takers are given a short preparation time before they have to begin speaking.

The Writing test measures a test taker’s ability to write in an academic setting and consists of 2 tasks, 1 integrated task and 1 independent task. In the integrated task, test takers read a passage on an academic topic and then listen to a speaker discuss the same topic. The test taker will then write a summary about the important points in the listening passage and explain how these relate to the key points of the reading passage. In the independent task, test takers must write an essay that states, explains and supports their opinion on an issue, supporting their opinions or choices, rather than simply listing personal preferences or choices.

The Reading tests takes approximately 60-100 minutes while the listening test takes about 60-90 minutes. After a break of 10 minutes the balance tests are taken which involve reading test that takes 20 minutes and Writing test that takes 55 minutes.

Written tests are still taken. They are 3 hours long and the test takers must register in advance either onlineor by using the registration form provided in the Supplemental Paper TOEFL Bulletin. Test Centers have limited seating hence there is a chance they might fill up so test takers must register in time to ensure a place.

The Listening section consists of 3 parts. The first one contains 30 questions about short conversations. The second part has 8 questions about longer conversations. The last part has 12 questions about lectures or talks.

The Structure and Written Expression (25 minutes) section has 15 exercises of completing sentences correctly and 25 exercises of identifying errors.

The Reading Comprehension is a 55 minutes test and has 50 questions about the reading passages.

The Writing section takes 30 minutes and is usually one essay with 250 to 300 words.