If you want to undertake an undergraduate or postgraduate course in English, you will be asked to take an English proficiency test to make sure you have the required English language skills necessary for the course. TOEFL is one of the most relevant standardized tests in English Language. Hotcourses editor, Umar, is here to tell us more about this test.

The TOEFL exam is administered by ETS and can be offered paper-based (PBT) or internet-based (iBT). Its main purpose is to measure your ability to understand spoken and written English and to recognize appropriate written English structure at the university level.

The TOEFL test is recognized in over 130 countries by more than 7,500 colleges and other institutions around the world. Scores from the TOEFL are used for admission to English language learning programmes, for scholarship allocation, and for immigration purposes.

It was initially developed to measure the English proficiency of international students wishing to study at US and Canadian colleges and universities. Therefore, its testing format is heavily weighted to multiple choices, suiting the American University examining system, although nowadays most UK universities also accept it.

Test Structure

The structure does not vary much in the PBT or iBT forms. It consists of four sections:

Reading:
You will be asked to read a few passages of university-level articles and answer some questions presented in Multiple Choice format (MCQ). The questions are design to assess your reading comprehension, key facts, vocabulary and style.

Listening:
In this section you are given few extracts of conversations or conferences. All these refer to university life like a conversation between a student and a teacher or a lecture in a class. The questions are MCQs and enquire you about details, suggestions and vocabulary. These are very natural and informal as you can hear interrupting words like “uh” or “uhm” while they are talking.

Speaking:
This involves speaking into a microphone while being recorded. Later, examiner listens to your answers and marks you accordingly. Two questions will be more of a personal type like asking about your town or your favourite teacher. In another two questions, you have to condense information from a text/conversation while offering opinions. Further questions will just ask you to summarize information from a short conversation.

Writing:
Finally, there will be two short essays to write for the TOEFL exam. For the first exam, you are given broad topics such as how has internet changed our lives or if you change one thing in your country, what that would be. In the second one, you will need to analyse material from a text/lecture given to you and you will have to produce an argumentative essay, analysing the information given.

What is the difference between IELTS and TOEFL exam?

First of all, the score structure is different for IELTS as they are displayed in score-band system where you are marked from 1 to 9 while TOEFL gives a more numerical SAT-type grade, totalling your scores from all the areas. For IELTS you are required to take the speaking test with an IELTS examiner face to face whereas in TOEFL the speaking test consists of six questions which you answer into a microphone.

IELTS is more popular in UK and Europe compared to TOEFL which is more accepted in America, Canada and Australia. However, nowadays most universities accept both. The purpose is the same for both and depends mainly on the student’s choice of study destination. TOEFL gives the option to take the test on internet (computer-based test) which could be desirable for some students living in locations abroad.

Are you planning to prepare for your TOEFL exam?

Check the TOEFL official website for more information and exam dates in your country. However, many institutions and universities offer international students various courses that help them to prepare for the exam. These are a few institutions where you can go:

Monash University (Australia)

University of Otago (New Zealand)

University of South Carolina (US)

 

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TOEFL courses in London and the UK

The IELTS exam and how to get ready for it.

Learn more about postgraduate courses in the US and other admission tests.