TOEFL

TOEFL stands for Test of English as a Foreign Language. It is a standardized international exam, and what it measures is your English, not your subject knowledge. You sit it if English is not your first language and you want to study at a university in a country where teaching and daily communication happen in English. What it is really asking is whether you can cope in English once you get there.

More than 13,000 educational institutions in over 160 countries accept it, which puts TOEFL in the same group as IELTS and Cambridge Assessment English. So the thing to check is usually not whether TOEFL is recognized. It is which of those exams the universities on your list ask for. Behind the exam sits ETS, the Educational Testing Service, a non-profit organization that writes it and runs it. It goes back further than you might expect. A national council of representatives from government and private organizations set it up in 1962, and they had a specific problem in mind. Students who had not grown up speaking English were applying to universities in the United States, and those universities needed a way to check their English.

The first test was held in 1964, and it spread from there. Educational institutions and organizations in many different countries now accept it, so your score is not tied to a single destination. There are two versions you should know apart. You take TOEFL iBT on a computer, and TOEFL PBT is the written exam on paper. The iBT is the more popular of the two today, so it is probably the one you will sit. The paper version still runs in countries where computer technology is not sufficient. If that sounds like where you live, check what your nearest center actually offers.

If you are applying to the United States, France or Germany, or to a graduate program in Canada, TOEFL is the usual choice there. Universities in the United States, Canada, Germany and France receive more TOEFL score reports than reports from other English proficiency exams, so in those four countries a TOEFL score is the one admissions offices see most often. Weigh that when you choose between exams, especially if those countries are on your list. You would also be in large company. More than 35 million students around the world have taken TOEFL to show what their English can do, and one study of the exam found that 90% of them can get into their first or second choice university. Read that as a sign that a good score travels, not as a promise about your own application.

TOEFL iBT looks at four English skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing. You can sit it in three different ways.

• TOEFL iBT Test: You go to an authorized TOEFL iBT test center and take it on a computer there.
• TOEFL iBT Home Edition: You take it at home with a proctor, the person who supervises you and checks that nobody is cheating.
• TOEFL iBT Paper Edition: Split across two sessions. Reading, Listening and Writing at an authorized testing center, and the Speaking test at home on a computer.

Structure of the TOEFL iBT

TOEFL iBT measures four skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing. You sit all four in one go. The questions themselves take about 90 minutes. Block out roughly two hours in total, because instructions and check-in take the rest.

Section	Questions	Time
Reading	50	About 30 minutes
Listening	47	About 29 minutes
Writing	12	About 23 minutes
Speaking	11	About 8 minutes
Total	120	About 90 minutes

If you have seen TOEFL described somewhere as a three-hour test with 700-word reading passages and a seventeen-minute speaking section, that was an older version. Both the tasks and the scoring have changed. Check the date on any book, video or practice test before you trust it.

Reading Section

Reading is 50 questions in about 30 minutes. It now comes in three task types: Complete the Words, Read in Daily Life, and Read an Academic Passage.

Look at what that mix is telling you. Only one of the three is the long academic passage most people picture when they think of TOEFL. Read in Daily Life puts you in front of the kind of text you actually meet day to day. Complete the Words goes straight at your vocabulary and how you build words. So reading widely, not only academic articles, genuinely helps you here.

With 50 questions in half an hour, you have well under a minute each on average. Getting stuck on one question costs you more than getting it wrong. If something is not coming, move on.

Listening Section

Listening is 47 questions in about 29 minutes, across four task types: Listen and Choose a Response, Listen to a Conversation, Listen to an Announcement, and Listen to an Academic Talk.

The range here is wider than it used to be. An announcement is short and practical, and you need the key detail straight away. An academic talk asks you to follow an argument over a longer stretch and hold it in your head. Those are two different skills. Practice both, rather than only listening to lectures.

Speaking Section

Speaking is now the shortest section of the test: 11 questions in about 8 minutes, built from two task types, Listen and Repeat, and Take an Interview.

This is the biggest change in the whole test. The old Speaking section gave you a topic, a short window to prepare, and up to a minute of talking, four times over. You could memorize a template answer and fit your ideas into it. That no longer works.

What helps you now is responding quickly and naturally, in the moment. Speak English out loud on a regular basis, with a teacher, with a friend, or on your own in your room. It will do more for this section than any script you could learn.

Writing Section

Writing is 12 questions in about 23 minutes, across three task types: Build a Sentence, Write an Email, and Write for an Academic Discussion.

The long independent essay is gone. Build a Sentence tests your control of structure directly. Write an Email is a practical task of the kind you will genuinely need at university. Write for an Academic Discussion asks you to add something of your own to a discussion, so a clear point beats a long one.

None of these tasks is long, so accuracy counts for more than volume. A short, correct, well-organized answer beats a longer one with mistakes in it.

The new 1 to 6 score scale

This is the part most likely to confuse you. That goes double if you are measuring yourself against a university requirement written a few years ago.

Since January 2026, TOEFL iBT is scored from 1 to 6 in half-point steps, instead of the old 0 to 120. Each section gets its own score from 1 to 6. Your overall score is the average of the four, rounded to the nearest half band.

The change means the number tells you something on its own. It lines up with CEFR, the A1 to C2 scale your school almost certainly already uses to describe language levels. So a 5 is C1 in every section, instead of a number you have to look up in a conversion chart.

Your score	CEFR level	Equivalent on the old 0 to 120 scale
6	C2	114 and above
5.5	C1	107 and above
5	C1	95 and above
4.5	B2	86 and above
4	B2	72 and above
3.5	B1	58 and above
3	B1	44 and above
2.5	A2	34 and above
2	A2	24 and above
1.5	A1	12 and above
1	A1	0 and above

So if a university page still asks for 90, you are aiming for roughly a 4.5. If it asks for 100, that is around a 5.

What if the university still lists an old score?

You are covered. Between January 2026 and January 2028, every score report shows all three: your CEFR level, your 1 to 6 scores, and a comparable total on the old 0 to 120 scale. In that period you can meet a requirement written either way without doing anything extra.

If you are applying after that window, use the table above to translate. And if a requirement is unclear, email the admissions office and ask which scale their published number refers to. They answer this question constantly.

Score reports and how long they last

Your scores are valid for two years from the test date, and ETS will not send them after that. So plan the test around your application deadlines rather than sitting it as early as you possibly can.

Your report also shows MyBest scores, sometimes called superscores. That is your best result in each section across every valid TOEFL you have taken in the last two years, pulled into one set. If you had a strong reading day on one sitting and a strong speaking day on another, that works in your favor. Acceptance varies between institutions, so check whether the universities on your list actually take MyBest scores before you count on them.

What changed in 2026

	Older format	Now
Reading	3 or 4 passages of about 700 words, 10 questions each	50 questions across three task types, including everyday texts
Speaking	4 tasks, about 17 minutes	11 questions, about 8 minutes
Writing	An integrated task plus a 30-minute independent essay	12 questions across three task types, about 23 minutes
Score scale	0 to 120	1 to 6, aligned to CEFR

What that means for you is simple. Preparation material made before 2026 will have you rehearsing tasks that are no longer on the test, and measuring yourself against a scale that is being retired. Check the date on everything you study from.

Frequently asked questions

What happened to the 0 to 120 TOEFL score?

It retired in January 2026. In its place you get a scale of 1 to 6, in half-point steps, aligned to CEFR levels. Between January 2026 and January 2028 every score report still shows a comparable total on the old 0 to 120 scale next to the new one, so you are not stuck if a university has not updated its page.

My university asks for TOEFL 90. What do I need now?

Roughly a 4.5, since 4.5 corresponds to 86 and above on the old scale. A requirement of 100 works out at around a 5. Until January 2028 your report shows both scales, so a requirement written either way is covered.

How does the 1 to 6 scale map to CEFR?

A score of 6 is C2. 5 and 5.5 are C1, 4 and 4.5 are B2, 3 and 3.5 are B1, 2 and 2.5 are A2, and 1 and 1.5 are A1. The same band means the same CEFR level in every section and in your overall score.

How is the overall TOEFL score calculated?

Each of the four sections gets its own score from 1 to 6. Your overall score is the average of those four, rounded to the nearest half band.

How long is the TOEFL iBT test?

The questions take about 90 minutes in total: roughly 30 minutes of Reading, 29 of Listening, 23 of Writing and 8 of Speaking. Allow around two hours once instructions and check-in are counted.

How long are TOEFL scores valid?

Two years from the test date. ETS will not send them after that, so time the test around your application deadlines rather than sitting it as early as possible.

What are MyBest scores?

MyBest scores, sometimes called superscores, combine your best result in each section across every valid TOEFL you have taken in the last two years. Your report shows them alongside your test date scores, but acceptance varies between institutions, so check before relying on them.

Is the independent writing essay still on the test?

No. Writing is now 12 questions in about 23 minutes across three task types: Build a Sentence, Write an Email, and Write for an Academic Discussion. The long independent essay is gone.