TOEFL Basics - Introduction to TOEFL iBT

Hi, I'm Rebecca, and today we'll be answering some questions that students have asked about

the TOEFL exam.

For those of you who've just been told or found out that you need to do the TOEFL, here

are some very basic information so that you have an idea of what the TOEFL is all about.

So Ricardo has asked, "What is the TOEFL?" and "What is IBT?"

So let's start from the beginning.

TOEFL is actually an acronym, an acronym means that each letter of TOEFL stands for a word.

In this case it stands for Test of English as a Foreign Language.

Now it's also called the TOEFL IBT, and that also stands for something, that stands for

Internet Based Test, because the TOEFL IBT is conducted completely and entirely over

the Internet.

You don't actually have to meet an examiner at all, it's just you and the computer throughout

the four hours or so of this exam, alright?

So what is the TOEFL then?

The TOEFL is an English proficiency exam, which is used to test your knowledge of reading,

writing, listening and understanding English in an academic context, alright?

So that's why a lot of the language used in the TOEFL is in fact academic or campus-based

language.

I'll be talking about this in another moment.

Kumiko from Japan asks, "Who takes the TOEFL?"

Well, the TOEFL is obviously taken by people who are non-native speakers of English, right?

And why do they take that?

They take it to get admission to university or college, sometimes they take it for professional

reasons to get certification in their profession in certain countries, and some students take

it simply to demonstrate their fluency in English for a potential employer.

Ok, Kumiko?

I hope that answers your question.

Sven asks us, "What kind of English is tested on the TOEFL?"

As I mentioned, TOEFL is really testing your academic English, the formal and the informal

English.

So formal means academic lectures, and the informal part of it means conversations on

campus between student and student, between student and professor, or student and librarian.

These are the types of listening and reading passages that you find there.

Ok, Prakash from India asks us, "How long is the TOEFL?"

Well, the TOEFL is a pretty long exam, it actually takes about three and a half to four

hours, it varies for certain reasons, I'll explain that in a moment.

The TOEFL has four sections, reading, writing, listening, and speaking, ok?

You start with the reading section, the minimum time of the reading section is 60 minutes.

In that scenario, you would have three sections.

It's possible that the reading section could be a little bit longer, it could actually

be about five sections, in which case, each time they add a section, they give you another

20 minutes.

So it can be anything from about 60 to 100 minutes for the reading section.

Whether you have three sections or five sections, you're always tested on only, you're always

scored on only three sections, but you don't know which three sections.

The reason sometimes you're given extra sections is because ETS, the company that makes the

TOEFL exam, wants to try out and experiment with new questions, and you are, as it happens,

the ones on which, on whom they try out these questions.

So you may have to do a longer reading section, you may get the bare minimum, which is three

sections and one hour long.

In any case, you don't know which sections are going to be scored, so you're going to

try your best to do very well throughout the exam, ok?

That's the 60 minutes reading section.

That's followed by 60 minutes or 100 minutes, again, of a listening section.

Then you have a 10 minute break, alright?

After the break is the speaking section.

This lasts for about 20 minutes or so, you have six different tasks.

And last of all, you have your TOEFL writing section.

TOEFL writing today consists of two sections.

In the first part, it's an integrated task.

You're given something to read, which is a few paragraphs long, then you have something

to listen to, and last, you have to write something, which integrates the information

that you read and that you heard.

You have to sort of summarize it or contrast it, and so on.

And last of all, you have to write an essay.

This essay you have about half an hour to write, and it should be about 300 to 350 words,

which is about five paragraphs long, alright?

Now, most important of all, almost all my students ask me, "How can I get a high score

on the TOEFL iBT?"

Well, there's really four different ways.

The first way is to have knowledge of the test itself.

To understand the structure of the test, to know what to expect in each section, and so

on.

The second part is to have the skills necessary to do well.

The primary skills, reading, writing, listening, speaking; secondary skills, such as grammar

and vocabulary, spelling, and so on; and also academic skills are required to do well on

the TOEFL.

For example, note-taking, summarizing, skimming, scanning, things like this are going to be

necessary while you're doing the TOEFL exam, as they will be necessary when you go to university.

The third point, which matters a lot to do well in the TOEFL, is your attitude.

Of course, you want to minimize your fear and your anxiety, and you want to optimize

your positive feeling that you can do well.

Last of all are the resources that you have access to.

For example, you should refer to good and current TOEFL iBT materials and books, whether

they're online, videos such as these, books made by ETS or Barron's or Delta or various

other companies that produce these books, and also it would be very, very helpful to

attend actual lessons.

There are lessons in your countries.

There are many students who travel around the world to attend TOEFL programs in English-speaking

countries to bolster their score, to strengthen their score, and to improve their score.

So for whatever reason you're doing the TOEFL, I wish you all the best.

Very good website, which I believe can help you a lot, is called www.goodlucktoefl.com.

I'll just write that for you.

Here you'll find a lot of the information which I have mentioned here, as well as much,

much more.

Lots of resources, lots of information, and there's also a TOEFL blog and other questions

and answers that will help you, all right?

So whatever happens, good luck on your TOEFL.

Bye for now.