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General Information

• It is made up of Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing sections.
• It will take you about four hours in total from start to finish.
•  For the Speaking section, you speak into a microphone and your responses are digitally recorded and sent to the ETS Online Scoring Network.
• For the Writing section, you will type your responses, which are sent to the ETS Online Scoring Network.
• Human raters, trained and certified by ETS, rate the Speaking and Writing responses.
• The test is not is not computer adaptive.
•  You can take notes throughout the whole test.

Grammar

•  There is no stand-alone Grammar section.
• Grammar is tested wholly within the four skill areas.
• In comparison to previous versions of the TOEFL, the addition of a speaking section and expansion of the writing section requires students to communicate in original English.
• New integrated-skills questions test ability to learn, to integrate information across multiple tests.
• They are more difficult and more reflective of actual academic English.

Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing

• The Reading section consists of about 3–5 passages (About 700 words each), with 12–14 questions each section.
• There are about fifty questions in the whole section, and it will take you about 60-100 minutes to complete.
• The Listening section consists of 4–6 lectures with about 6 questions per lecture, as well as 2–3 conversations with 5 questions per conversation.
• The Speaking section sees you doing two independent tasks and four integrated tasks, two of which are reading/listening/speaking while the other two are just listening/speaking.
• The Writing section requires you to do one integrated writing task and one independent writing task.

Scoring

•   TOEFL iBT provides five scores: four sections scores for Reading, Listening, Writing, and Speaking and a total score.
• Each section is on a 0-30 scale.
•  The total score is the sum of the four section scores.
• The range of total scores could be anywhere from 0-120.
• It is valid for two years.
• You may take the TOEFL iBT test only once in any seven-day period, even if you took the test and canceled your scores.
• The normal fee to take the TOEFL test is US$110. However, it varies based on country.
• To register for your test, please visit www.ets.org/toefl.

As with all tips for the TOEFL writing section, it’s important to keep in mind that while minor errors are acceptable, the frequency of minor errors, particularly combined with larger grammatical problems will undoubtedly detract from your overall score.

In particular, ESL students generally have problems with count and noncount nouns, primarily because such nouns vary from one language to the next.  A primary way of getting this grammar down is memorizing most common noncount nouns.  Here is a quick 101 on count and noncount nouns to refresh your memory for test day

COUNT NOUNS:

Basically count nouns are nouns you can count, meaning they can be singular or plural.  “A” or “an” can often come before count nouns.  Count nouns can be multiplied by simply adding an “s.”

NONCOUNT NOUNS:

Noncount nouns are things you can’t count separately, meaning we usually do not use “a” or “an” before them.  These nouns also have no plural form and the words “some” or “the” often precede them.  Here are some common noncount nouns:

·       advice, air, accounting, behavior, coffee, heat, salt, copper, civics, calcium, clothing, film, equipment, bread, helium, singing, peace, pollution, violence, gasoline, water, responsibility, time

Sometimes, to make a noncount non-countable we use a phrase that gives them a countable form.  Here are some examples of such phrases:

·       a piece of meat

·       a game of tennis

·       a cup of water

·       a clap of thunder

Keep in mind: When we use “some” before a noncount noun, it often is referring to nouns that don’t have specific boundaries.  (Example: I drank some orange juice.)  Also, the word “people” often confuses ESL learners.  Typically, “people” is plural and does not have s singular form.  (Example: North American people value education.)  However, sometimes the word “people” can mean a specific group of human beings, meaning it can have both a plural and singular form.

Example:

The Chinese are a people of Asia.

Various peoples have settled in Vancouver.

Remember: Knowing the proper usage of noncount nouns is not only valuable on the writing section, but also the speaking section, too.  Keep a list handy of the most common noncount nouns by category so you won’t forget them.

The adjective clause is an important aspect of grammar to keep in mind on the TOEFL writing portion.  Unlike the adverbial clause, which is mostly used on the integrated essay for compare/contrast, the adjective clause can be found in both the integrated and independent writing sections.  What do adjective clauses do and when is it important to use them?  (Please note: Adjective clauses can also be referred to as adjectival or relative clauses.)

An adjective clause will contain the following:

·       a subject and a verb

·       a relative pronoun: who, whom, whose, that or which OR

·       a relative adverb: when, where or why

·       also, the adjective clause will ultimately function as an adjective

Adjective clauses are divided into two main categories: identifying and nonidentifying.

Identifying Adjective Clauses give information that is essential to the overall meaning of the sentence.

For example: Men who are willing to work will undoubtedly find a job.

In this sentence, the adjective clause is who are willing to work.  In other words, if we extracted who are willing to work from the sentence it would alter its meaning entirely, making it identifying.

Nonidentifying Adjective Clauses give nonessential information – they serve the purpose of adding extra bits of information that aren’t crucial to the overall meaning of the sentence.

For example: The movie lasted about three and a half hours, which at times felt somewhat longer, so I made sure to have plenty of soda and popcorn.

The adjective clause which at times felt somewhat longer isn’t exactly necessary in terms of the overall meaning of the sentence.  The main ideas expressed in the sentence are in the beginning and the end, making the middle somewhat additional and nonidentifying.  (Also, with nonidentifying adjective clauses “that” is not used.)

Overall, adjective clauses will pepper your writing and allow your ideas to come across smoother and clearer.  Just make sure when you use them to acknowledge whether you are using identifying or nonidentfying so you have mastery of your own TOEFL writing.

ETS, the maker of the TOEFL exam, has generously released some highly coveted tips for those of you looking to take the TOEFL sometime soon.

Listen to English-language videos and music. When you rent a DVD or VHS from your local video store, challenge yourself by turning off the English subtitles or captions.  Try your best to understand each person speak by watching his or her mouth move; sometimes, you might want to close your eyes and attempt to decipher whatever you can.  It never hurts to challenge yourself.

Listen to a book on tape in English. There are many books on tape of various subjects nowadays.  In fact, you can rent books on tape from your local library for free.  This is a great way to practice your listening abilities by listening to a topic of your interest.  Also, podcasts are a great way (and often times free) to test your listening skills.  Podcasts are available online and can easily be transferred from your computer to your mp3 player or i-pod.

Listen to English-language recordings that come with transcripts. ETS recommends you listen to each recording three times.  The first time, take notes about the main ideas you hear.  Then, the second time, read the transcript and listen for the ideas you might have written down the first time.  Then, on the third, listen specifically for any words or phrases you don’t know and look them up.  Transcripts are often available online of popular recordings or even come with the recording itself.

It should be noted that ETS also recommends you attend educational lectures in English whenever possible.  Now, this might not be easy to do, but many colleges or universities might allow you to sit in on a class, if you can arrange it well in advance.  Also, if you have a friend enrolled in an English-speaking class you might be able to tag along and listen to the professor, should there be a lecture given that day.  Regardless, when you do go, it might be a good idea to bring a tape recorder with you so you can play the recording over and over again later on for further practice.

Remember: when you listen to lectures, pay close attention to facts, details, opinions and overall structure.  Challenge yourself, even – if science lectures are difficult for you, try your best to attend a lecture in a science class.

Want more TOEFL test tips from ETS?  Go to www.ets.org.

ETS has thankfully released some very valuable tips for the writing section on the TOEFL exam.  It seems to be that most of the tips are for the integrated writing section, so for these purposes we will save independent writing suggestions for another time.

In terms of writing practice for the integrated writing section, ETS recommends you practice combining information you have read or watched into a written summary.  This is comparable to the TOEFL in that for the integrated writing section, you are asked to write a 150-225-word essay, combining information from both a reading and a listening passage.  How do you go about practicing?  Here are the following tips from the makers of the TOEFL:

-                   Read an article in the news and then listen to an article online or on TV on the same topic. Perhaps you are able to find an article written about the recent summit concerning global warming.  Take that article, make any necessary notes in relation to all its important information and then listen to a radio or TV show on the same topic.  Listen carefully to the similarities and differences in how both articles were presented.  Were there different supporting details?  Was there a different opinion reflected in the articles?  Listen carefully with an ear for comparison and contrasting.

-                   Watch a speech on TV or listen to it online. A lot of times, important speeches, particularly political, are often aired again and again on TV.  Try your best to only listen to the speech once and take notes on all the important points.  Then, write a summary of what you heard, listing all of the major points.  (Feel free to then check yourself by listening to the speech one more time with your notes in front of you.) A lot of times, famous political speeches are available as podcasts, so check online to see what might be available.  While there aren’t “political” speeches, per say, on the TOEFL, there are certainly lectures that deal with socio-political issues, so the vocabulary and syntax is bound to come in handy.

-            Read a newspaper article on a controversial topic. Make any necessary notes about the topic and the newspaper article as you see fit.  Then, interview your friends and ask them about this controversial topic.  More than likely, you will see a difference of opinion throughout your various interviews.  Make note of these in your notes and later on, sit down at your computer and type up a summary of all the different views accumulated.  Make sure to note who said what, making it clear when there is either a similarity or a difference of opinion.

Want more TOEFL test tips from ETS?  Go to www.ets.org.