The Test Of English as a Foreign Language (or TOEFL, pronounced
"toe-full", or sometimes just "toffle") evaluates the potential success of
an individual to use and understand Standard American English at a college
level. It is required for non-native applicants at many English-speaking
colleges and universities. A TOEFL score is valid for 2 years, and then is
deleted from the official database.
The TOEFL is administered worldwide by Educational Testing Service (ETS).
The test was first administered 1964 and has since been taken by nearly 20
million students. Internet-based
Since its introduction in late 2005, the Internet-based test (iBT) has
progressively replaced both the computer-based (CBT) and paper-based (PBT)
tests. The iBT has been introduced in phases, with the United States,
Canada, France, Germany, and Italy in 2005 and the rest of the world in
2006, with test centers added regularly. The demand for test seats remains
very high even after almost a year after the introduction of the test,
candidates have to wait for months since shortterm test dates are fully
booked. The four-hour test consists of four sections, each measuring mainly
one of the basic language skills (although some tasks may require multiple
skills) and focusing on language used in an academic, higher-education
environment. Note-taking is allowed in the iBT.
1. Reading
After each academic reading passage (out of 3-5), questions are posed about
content, intent of the author, and ideas inferred from the passage. New
types of questions in the iBT require paraphrasing, filling out tables or
completing summaries. Generally prior knowledge of the subject under
discussion is not necessary to come to the correct answer, though a priori
knowledge may help.
2. Listening
Questions refer to the content and intent of the phrases, as well as to the
speakers' attitude and meaning, either in short conversations or in
lectures.
3. Speaking
New to the iBT, this section contains questions relating to personal
experiences or preferences, as well as tasks that also involve reading
passages and listening to short conversations and lectures. Test takers are
expected to convey information, explain ideas and defend opinions clearly,
coherently and accurately.
4. Writing
One task requires test takers to defend a position relative to a specified
general topic. In the other task, a reading passage and a lecture are
presented, and test takers must answer a question relating the main points
of both the passage and the lecture.
(Detailed descriptions and samples are available at the official website.) More about
TOEFL Test:
Computer-based
The computer-based test (CBT) was abolished on September 30th 2006. It is
divided into four sections, measuring language proficiency in listening,
structure (grammar), reading and writing. Note-taking is not allowed.
1. Listening Comprehension (45-70 minutes)
* Type of Questions: Conversations between two or more people in academic
environments. Short conversations between students, and lectures may be
possible conversations. Questions are basically of the who said what type.
2. Structure (grammar) (15-20 minutes)
* Type of Questions: Identify the erroneous word(s) in the sentence. Fill in
the blanks using the appropriate word.
3. Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary (70-90 minutes)
* Type of Question: Questions are posed about content, intent of the author,
and ideas inferred from each of the 3-4 passages given.
4. Essay Writing (30 minutes)
* Type of Question: To write an essay on a given general topic, and take a
position towards it. eg: "Is stem cell research necessary? Explain your
stance?"
The Listening and Structure sections are computer-adaptive, meaning that the
difficulty level of each question depends on the correctness of previous
responses.
Three subscores are obtained, each of which is given on a 0-30 scale:
Listening, Structure/Writing (combined), and Reading. These subscores are
averaged to obtain the final score, which is in a 0-300 scale. The Writing
score is also reported separately, on a 0-6 scale.
Paper-based
In areas where the iBT and CBT are not available, a paper-based test (PBT)
is given. The PBT tests essentially the same skills as the CBT, albeit with
some differences, noticeably the number of questions (which is higher in the
PBT) and the score scales. The final PBT score ranges between 310 and 677,
and is based on three subscores: Listening (31-68), Structure (31-68) and
Reading (31-67). Unlike the CBT, the score of the Writing section (referred
to as the Test of Written English, TWE) is not part of the final score;
instead, it is reported separately on a scale from 0 to 6.
ETS has released tables to convert between CBT and PBT scores
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