What is TOEFL IBT Test?

TOEFL IBT test is a standardized test designed for English language proficiency. The test score is recognized and highly regarded worldwide by more than 8,500 universities, agencies and other institutions in more than 130 countries (including USA and Canada).

Undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate programs around the world require international students to demonstrate their ability to communicate proficiently in English as an entrance requirement. TOEFL IBT test is able to measure how well students use and understand English, not just their knowledge of English but to reach the university level. It simulates university classroom and student life setting and use real-life English language in university lectures, classes and libraries etc. It creates valid and reliable tests with unbiased and objective grading system to confirm that international students can communicate ideas effectively and combine their listening, reading, speaking and writing together to perform academic tasks – therefore have the necessary English language skills to succeed in academic settings. It is administered via computer from a secure internet-based network and is a crucial start for international students to study in an English-speaking country.　

Who takes TOEFL IBT Test?

Since TOEFL IBT Test was created in 1967 by ETS (Educational Testing Service) – which is the nonprofit educational organization in charge of developing and administering the TOEFL test – more than 230million people from all over the world have taken the TOEFL Test to demonstrate their English-language proficiency. Test takers whose first or native language is not English and who wish to apply for admission of universities or colleges, agencies or institutions are required to take TOEFL IBT Test. Specifically, test takers can be divided into five categories:

·         Students who plan to study at a higher education institution;

·         English-language learning program admissions and exit;

·         Scholarship and certification candidates;

·         English-language learners who want to track their progress;

·         Students and workers applying for visas.

Who accepts TOEFL IBT test scores?

More than 9,000 colleges and universities, agencies and other institutions in over 130 countries accept TOEFL scores. Other organizations such as Immigration departments, medical and licensing agencies and individual test takers require TOEFL IBT Test scores. Immigration departments use them to issue residential and work visas, medical and licensing agencies use them for professional certification purposes, and individuals use them to measure their progress in learning English. Each university and institutions set their own minimum level of acceptable performance. Many factors will be considered when setting the minimums such as the applicants’ field of study, the level of study whether it is undergraduate program, graduate program or postgraduate program, whether the applicant will be a teaching assistant and where universities and institutions offer English as a second language support for their students.

What does TOEFL IBT test consist of?

TOEFL IBT Test consists of four sections: reading, listening, speaking and writing. It will take four hours to finish the whole test and all four sections are taken on the same day. The total score is 120 points. Each section worth 30 points. Students are expected to understand academic materials written in English. The reading section usually lasts from 60 to 100 minutes and consists of 3 to 5 texts. The purposes for academic reading are to effectively scan text for key facts and information and increase reading fluency, understand general topic or main idea and make inferences about what is implied in the passage. You need to understand relationships between ideas and infer how thoughts in the text are connected. The listening section usually lasts 60 to 90 minutes and consists of 6 texts generally.

Academic listening is typically done for the purposes of comprehending main idea of the passage, recognizing speaker’s attitude, degree of certainty or function of purpose, making connections among pieces of information and recognizing topic changes in lectures and conversations. The speaking section usually lasts about 20 minutes and consists of 6 exercises. It is used to measure students’ ability to speak effectively and convey their ideas well in academic settings. The last past is writing section which usually lasts 50 minutes and is composed of 2 writing exercises.  It is to make sure that students are able to present their ideas in a clear and well organized manner and summarize, paraphrase and cite information from the source material accurately.