TOEFL :Test of English as a Foreign Language

Importance of TOEFL Examination

TOEFL :TEST OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

  Started in 1964

TOEFL scores are accepted in universities spread across 150 countries including the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, and widely accepted in Canada.

INTRODUCTION : TOEFL as one of the principal tools of measurement that evaluates the ability of a person to use and understand English as an academic language. TOEFL stands for Test of English as a Foreign Language. It pertains to the scheme of evaluation meant for testing the capability of non English speaking candidates. Candidates desirous of pursuing higher education in the English speaking nations are tested by means of TOEFL.

WHY TOEFL EXAM IS REQUIRED?

 Studying in an English speaking University will prove advantageous in the job market. The TOEFL is largely known for its Internet based English language assessment test that measures the candidates’ ability to integrate and use all four skills: Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing.

TOEFL vs IELTS:

 Which Exam is Better?

Both the TOEFL (AMERIACAN ACCENT) and IELTS (UK) are English language tests for students wanting to study abroad. However, both these tests have their own benefits and drawbacks. Both tests are accepted for college admissions, however, students are advised to check with their university admission guidelines before applying for the exam. Here is a guide to making the decision.

 

FEES:

The registration fee for TOEFL in India is 13500 Rs , need to pay extra for other services like late registration, rescheduling the exam or score review

TOEFL Centres:

In India, TOEFL iBT is conducted in 39 cities

 Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Delhi, East Godavari District, Gurgaon, Gwalior, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kochi, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Madurai, Mumbai, Mussoorie, Nagpur, Nashik, Nizamabad, Patna, Pondicherry, Pune, Raipur, Surat, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Tirupati, Trichy, Vadodara, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, and Warangal

Skill/ Score Range	Level*
Reading Score Range 0–30	Advanced (24–30) High-Intermediate (18–23) Low-Intermediate (4–17) Below Low-Intermediate (0–3)
Listening Score Range 0–30	Advanced (22–30) High-Intermediate (17–21) Low-Intermediate (9–16) Below Low-Intermediate (0–8)
Speaking Score Range 0–30	Advanced (25–30) High-Intermediate (20–24) Low-Intermediate (16–19) Basic (10–15) Below Basic (0–9
Writing Score Range 0–30	Advanced (24–30) High-Intermediate (17–23) Low-Intermediate (13–16) Basic (7–12) Below Basic (0–6)
Total Score	These are added together for a total score of 0–120.

 

 

Brief information about TOEFL

• Essentially an evaluating yardstick
• Can also be looked upon as one of the standardized criteria for admission
• An essential part of 'ETS'- operational worldwide
• Officially, the score obtained by means of the mentioned evaluation; retains effective for a period of two years.
• It is administered by an advisory board consisting of sixteen members
• Committee guiding its evaluation process consists of linguistic experts, the ones dealing with linguistic research.
• A committee of twelve linguistic experts not only helps formulate test content; but also ensures that the evaluating scheme is a proper blend of proficiently developed methodologies.

Origin of TOEFL

• Came into being as one of the concerted efforts of as many as thirty nations & privately based organizations
• It was a combined endeavor to put into effect so that lingual proficiency of non English speakers is duly assessed
• Joint endeavor initiated in 1962, developed as an assessment technique during 1963 & 1964.

Importance of TOEFL in Overseas Education

• As you embark upon your dream of pursuing higher studies from one of the overseas universities- essentially English speaking in nature- TOEFL becomes one of its inseparable constituents.
• Whether you want to make it to the IT training school or pursue further studies in English language course, you have to cross the bounds of TOEFL
• It throws light on your capability to use and comprehend English.
• The purview of use & comprehensibility pertains to the areas of reading, hearing, speaking, listening and writing
• Besides Australia, Great Britain and United States of America as many as 130 nations rely on this yardstick of evaluation.
• The fact, that the measuring pattern guides the admission scheme of as many as eight thousand universities speaks volumes about its globalised importance

Online TOEFL Test

• An internet centric test- also referred to as 'iBT' serves to assess the essential cognitive ability of foreign speakers. It is basically a free online grammar test.
• In the absence of internet accessibility; one can opt for its paper based alternative
• In fact, the various cognitive aspects are integrated to make for a complete assessment of your proficiency
• Essentially, the candidate's power of integration in respect of the four fold skills of reading, speaking, listening and reading are brought into test

Registration preceding TOEFL

• In order to be duly eligible for TOEFL a prior registration is required
• You ought to register at least three to four months prior to the test
• It is important that you separately earmark a handful of college/university or institutions whose test scores you want to bank upon

Scores of TOEFL

• There isn't any common cut of marks
• Scores vary from place to place as much as they vary from course to course
• Nobody secures pass or failed status
• Minimum requirement is determined by respective universities/colleges/institutions
• Generally speaking, it is important that minimum of one question is attempted from each of the four sections.
• Delivery, enunciation, relevant use of grammatical norms and synchronized styles of presentation are dwelt upon

Scales of TOEFL scores

• Internet centric test is based on total score of 0 - 120
• Computer centric test is based on total score of 0 - 300
• Paper oriented test is based on the total score of 310 - 677

Scores specific to different courses/universities/categories

• Arizona University necessitates the bare minimum score of 83
• Auburn University necessitates minimum of 80 in the Test of English as Foreign Language
• University of Western Reserve for its school of 'Graduate Studies' necessitates the bare minimum score of 79
• In order to avail visa for United Kingdom category specific TOEFL score is necessitated
• To cite a few instances, students are required to have minimum score of 87
• But moderately skilled workers are required to reach the bare minimum limit of 57
• Skilled workers belonging to the highly efficient categories are required to score 110
• Do bear in mind that each institution making use of TOEFL has bare minimum requisites for each and every cognitive skill (skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking )

How to prepare for free online grammar test

• In order to give your best try, it is important that you make the best use of test preparation classes. There are online guides to interact with. The purpose of such guides is to help you reach out to interactive examples.
• Besides making use of preparation classes, it makes sense going for free online test preparation

·         those who take the TOEFL want to attend university or graduate school abroad. But anyone who needs to demonstrate a mastery of English for an academic purpose can take the TOEFL. This includes anyone applying to a foreign high school, exchange program, community college, or for a student visa.

·         The TOEFL focuses on how English is used in an academic setting, which is why schools and universities use TOEFL scores for admissions purposes. The reading passages in the TOEFL use formal, academic language and high-level vocabulary rather than casual or conversational English

TOEFL Exam Structure

The test has four sections and will typically take a total of 4.5 hours to complete. These four sections are: reading, listening, speaking, writing

Each section is scored out of 30. These section scores are then added together for a final, total score of 120 points. 

 Section 1: Reading

The TOEFL reading section is completely multiple choice. Each reading section will have three or four written passages with 12-14 questions for each passage. (Typically, tests with three written passages will have more questions per passage than tests with four written passages.) Reading passages can be on any academic topic, including science, history, or literature. 

 Section 2: Listening

The TOEFL listening section is also completely multiple choice. Each listening section will include four to six lectures with six questions each and two or three conversations with five questions each.

 

Section 3: Speaking

The TOEFL speaking section is a little more complicated than the reading or listening section. But, luckily, each speaking section will always follow the same pattern, so you can prepare yourself for it.

In the speaking section, you will get six speaking prompts, or “tasks.” The first two tasks will be independent and ask you to talk about your own thoughts and experiences. The final four tasks will be integrated tasks, where you must answer questions based on a given conversation or piece of text.

Let’s break down each speaking task one-by-one.

 

 Independent Speaking Tasks:

• Task 1 will ask about your interests or your thoughts on a particular topic.

• Task 2 will ask you to give your opinion and choose between two given options. 

 

 Integrated Speaking Tasks:

• Task 3 asks you to read a short text and then listen to a dialogue between two speakers discussing that same topic (usually, them agreeing or disagreeing about parts of the article). You’ll then summarize what the speaker’s opinions are and compare that to the text.

• Task 4 gives you two lectures on the same topic–one spoken and one written. You’ll then summarize the information from each lecture or answer a more specific question. 

• Task 5 has you listen to a conversation between two people who are discussing a problem with two possible solutions. You’ll then summarize the content and give your opinion (no text to read). (Note that Task 5 is often the most difficult listening task because you must discuss three things: what the student said, the student’s suggested solutions to a problem, and what solution you prefer and why.)

• Task 6 asks you to listen to a monologue and then summarize or answer a more specific question about the information (no text to read).

 

Section 4: Writing

There are two parts to the TOEFL writing section: one integrated task and one independent task.

 

1 Integrated Writing Task (20 minutes)

• For this section, you must both read a short passage and listen to a lecture. You will then respond to/summarize the discussion. 

 

1 Independent Writing Task (30 minutes)

• For this section, you’ll usually be asked to choose between two options and give your reasons and examples why you chose the way you did. For example, “Do you agree or disagree that most parents are too controlling of their children?” or “Do you believe that people are inherently ‘good’ or ‘bad?'”

What are the TOEFL Requirements for Top Universities? 

Now that we have talked about the importance of high TOEFL scores, let us take a look at the minimum TOEFL criteria set by the top universities of the world. You can check the minimum criteria of your target university in the following table. If your dream university is not in the list below, then you can go to their official website and look for its minimum TOEFL cut-off in the admission requirements section.  
 

Top Universities and their Minimum TOEFL Score 

 

Ranks	Colleges	Minimum TOEFL IBT Scores
1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	90
2	Stanford University (School of Engineering)	89
3	Harvard University (MS Courses)	80
6	ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)	100
8	UCL (University College London)	92-109
9	Imperial College London	92-100
10	University of Chicago	104
14	Cornell University	87
18	Columbia University	100
25	Duke University	90

TOEFL Syllabus

 

• Reading - Candidates should practice reading to find information and learn basic comprehension skills. The passages will be excerpts from textbooks at the university level covering sciences, arts, social sciences, business which will be written in the academic style. 
•  
• Listening - This part of TOEFL exam aims at testing the ability to understand spoken English. It includes Listening for Basic Comprehension, Listening for Pragmatic Understanding, and Connecting and Synthesizing Information. 
•  
• Speaking - It aims at testing spoken skills within an academic setting as well as outside. There is one Independent Speaking Task and other Integrated Speaking Tasks. The questions will be related to campus-based situations, personal experiences, and academic content.
•  
• Writing - It tests the student’s ability to write in English in an academic setting. The candidate must know how to write grammatically correct English of an academic level. There will be two tasks - Integrated Writing and Independent Writing. The former will require you to summarize the written and listening passages on academic content. The

Visit websites for more info.

www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/register

www.toeflgoanywhere.org