Know It All About TOEFL Test
TOEFL
Toefl is Test of English as a Foreign Language. This test is accepted in universities across 150 countries including the US, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany and Canada. This test is required for university admission process. Earlier, in India, TOEFL was administered as PBT i.e. a Paper Based Test but now it is IBT that is Internet Based Test, albeit there are places in the world where it is still a PBT or there is a choice. This test has 4 sections which are Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking but here the difference is that the skills are integreted and not isolated. In this test you have to perform tasks combining these skills. E.g. you need to Read, Listen and subsequently speak an answer to a question; Read, or Listen and then Write in response to a question. The total test is of 3 hours with a 10 minutes’ optional break in between.
Talking about details, the reading section of the test includes 3 to 4 passages. The length of each passage is around 7oo words and the student has to answer 10 questions on each passage, completing all 4 within the time range of 54 to 72 minutes depending upon the number of passages given. The passages given are excerpts from university level books and include a variety of different subjects. The student does not have to be familiar with the passages as the information required to answer the questions is given in the passage only. The purpose here is to assess how well a person can read and understand the material in print in an academic environment.
The listening section is designed to assess your ability of comprehending the discourse and instructions in English. This section includes dialogues by native speakers from North America, the UK, new Zealand or Australia. This test involves testing the capacity to understand basic comprehension, understanding speaker’s attitude and degree of certainty and also ability to connect and synthesise information. In speaking section there are 2 types of listening items which are lectures and conversations. There are 3-4 lectures (3-5 minutes long with 6 questions per lecture) and 2-3 conversations between two speakers (each 3 minutes long with 5 questions per conversation). Student can take notes on any audio item for aid in answering questions.
The speaking section is composed of 4 tasks resembling real life situations. Task 1; ‘Independent speaking task’ is based on your own ideas, opinions etc. and tasks 2-4 are ‘Integrated Speaking Tasks’ as they include combination of different skills that is Listening and then Speaking or Listening, Reading and then Speaking. The candidate gets some 15-30 seconds for preparation for a 45-60 seconds long response. Overall, a student has 17 minutes for completing this section.
And the last skill that is writing has two tasks for the student to accomplish. First, integrated writing task which involves reading a short passage, then listening to a short lecture on that and then writing a response to the stimulus , and the second, an independent writing task comprising of an essay based on personal experience and opinion of the student. This section has to be completed in 50 minutes.