The TOEFL is not an IELTS with different questions. It is academic, integrated and unforgiving of guesswork. Here is what each section really tests, and how to work it.
How it is scored
Three structural facts that should shape how you prepare, whatever your level.
Six of the eight Speaking and Writing tasks make you read and listen before producing anything. Practising the four skills separately leaves you unprepared for most of the exam.
Every text and recording comes from university life: lectures, seminars, office hours, campus notices. The register never varies, which makes it something you can train for directly.
Speaking is recorded on a timer with no second attempt, and Listening plays once. There is no reading back or rerecording, so pacing has to be automatic before test day.
35 minutes • 20 questions • 2 passages
Unlike IELTS, the passage stays on screen and you can scroll back at any time. Spend three or four minutes getting the argument of the text before touching the questions — the last question of each set asks about the passage as a whole, and you cannot answer it from fragments.
TOEFL questions run in the order the information appears in the text, with the summary question last. If you are hunting all over the passage for question 4, you have almost certainly misread it.
Seventeen minutes per passage, including its ten questions. The prose-summary question is worth two points instead of one, so it deserves more than a tenth of that time.
Factual and negative factual
Negative questions ask which option is NOT stated. Verify the three that are, rather than searching for the one that is not.
Vocabulary in context
The tested word often has a common meaning that is wrong here. Substitute each option back into the sentence.
Rhetorical purpose
Asks why the author mentioned something, not what it means. The answer is almost always in the sentence before or after.
Prose summary
Three correct answers, two points. Correct options are main ideas; the distractors are true details that are too minor.
The mistake that costs most
Treating it like IELTS and skipping the passage to save time. TOEFL reading is inference-heavy and rewards understanding the argument, not keyword matching.
36 minutes • 28 questions • 2 conversations, 3 lectures
You cannot go back, and the questions only appear after the recording ends. Notes are not optional here; they are the whole exercise. Capture structure and signposts, not sentences.
Phrases like "but here is the problem", "now, the interesting part" or a sudden shift in tone almost always precede a question. Mark them.
Several questions ask what the speaker means or how they feel, replaying a short clip. Hesitation, sarcasm and emphasis carry the answer, so write down how something was said when it stands out.
Gist-content and gist-purpose
Why is the student in this office? What is the lecture mainly about? Decide this in the first thirty seconds and confirm at the end.
Detail
Tied to something explicitly said. Your notes should answer it directly.
Function and attitude
A clip is replayed. The literal words are rarely the answer — the intent behind them is.
Organisation and connecting content
How the lecture is structured, or how two ideas relate. Note the order in which topics arrive.
The mistake that costs most
Writing too much. Students who transcribe stop listening. Aim for a skeleton of the talk — five or six landmarks per lecture — not a record of it.
16 minutes • 4 tasks • recorded responses
Fifteen to thirty seconds is not enough to write a script, and trying to produces a flat read-aloud. Write three or four keywords that fix your structure, then speak from them.
Responses cut off mid-sentence are penalised, and so are answers that end at thirty seconds of a sixty-second task. Practise with a timer until the length is automatic.
Tasks 2 to 4 ask what the speaker said and why. Your own view is not being marked and spending time on it costs you the points that are.
Task 1 — Independent
A preference or opinion question. 15s prep, 45s speaking. State the position immediately, then two reasons.
Task 2 — Campus integrated
Read an announcement, hear a student react. 30s prep, 60s. Give their opinion and both reasons.
Task 3 — Academic integrated
Read a concept, hear a professor illustrate it. Define briefly, then spend most of the time on the example.
Task 4 — Lecture summary
Listen only, then summarise. 20s prep, 60s. Usually two points or two examples — cover both.
The mistake that costs most
Speaking slowly to sound careful. Delivery is graded on being intelligible and natural, not on being slow. Hesitation and long pauses cost more than an imperfect accent ever will.
29 minutes • 2 tasks
The lecture always challenges the reading, point by point. Your job is to pair each lecture point with the reading point it undercuts. An essay that summarises both separately scores badly however well written.
The integrated task asks what the sources say. Your view is off-topic, and off-topic material is the fastest way to lose marks in a task this short.
The academic discussion asks you to contribute to a conversation. Referring to what a classmate argued, and extending or disagreeing with it, is what distinguishes a strong response from a generic opinion paragraph.
Task 1 — Integrated
Read 3 min, listen, write 20 min. 150 to 225 words. Three paired contrasts is the reliable structure.
Task 2 — Academic discussion
10 minutes, at least 100 words. A professor asks a question and two students have already answered.
Notes are allowed
You keep the reading passage on screen during Task 1 but hear the lecture once. Note the lecture, not the passage.
Length is not the grade
A precise 180-word integrated response beats a padded 300-word one. Accuracy of reporting is what is scored.
The mistake that costs most
Writing a memorised template. Graders see thousands of them, and a template that does not fit the specific prompt reads worse than plain prose that does.
Our practice sets follow the official format exactly, so every technique on this page applies without translation.
