TOEFL iBT Exam Details
By: Donald Appel

The TOEFL iBT differs from previous TOEFL

The new TOEFL includes integrated as well as independent questions.

The exam covers all of the four language skills – reading, listening, speaking and writing.

In the past, these four sections were each tested independently. The new TOEFL test combines the skill areas to include integrated questions. For example, in the writing section, test takers will have to read, listen, and then write a short essay in response to a question.

In the speaking section, you must read, listen, and give a 60-second oral response to a question. These integrated tasks are new features of the TOEFL iBT. The new ibit is based on how English speakers really use the language.

You cannot study for the TOEFL iBT using the old TOEFL textbooks. Ideally, you should purchase at least one of the new TOEFL iBT textbooks -- Delta, Barron's , Longman , ETS , or Cambridge -- and have access to the others.
In the ibit, test takers now have to complete two writing responses, one of which is an integrated task. This demands additional academic skills such as note taking, outlining, and summarizing in English.
Students of the ibit are allowed to take notes at any time during the test.
TOEFL iBT has no separate grammar section. However, grammar is tested not by defining it but by using it in the writing and speaking. These are just a few of the critical points you need to be aware of to do well on the TOEFL iBT.
The Reading section of the TOEFL measures your ability to read and understand passages in English. This is an important skill because in North American universities you do a lot of reading. You will be expected to understand, discuss, write about, paraphrase, and summarize the ideas you read.
The reading passages in the TOEFL iBT, will be in natural sciences, social sciences, business, and the arts. The language used in the reading passages will be in formal and academic form on subjects that students normally study in the first and second years of university.
You do not need any specific subject knowledge to do well in the Reading section. If your subject is economics, and there is a passage about economics; you will feel more comfortable but you don't need to have specific knowledge about economics to answer the questions. The exam is testing your ability to read about different types of subject areas and still gain a basic, intelligent understanding of what has been written. The purpose of the passages may be to describe something, to make an argument, to provide historical information or to give a biography of someone's life.
There are TWO VERSIONS of the reading section

The reason for this difference is that ETS – the makers of the TOEFL – experiment with certain passages on the students that take the test for possible future use
You may get three passages to read on your exam, or you might get five. Also, you don't know which passages will be graded and which ones are experimental, so you have to do all of them as well as you can.
In the short format, you have three passages of 20 minutes each and 12–14 questions each. That means this whole section will be 60 minutes long. In long format, you might get two additional passages; this means that this section will be 100 minutes.

TOEFL iBT Listening
The Listening section of the TOEFL iBT measures your ability to understand conversations and lectures in English.
In this part of the TOEFL iBT, you will encounter two types of language:
Informal, Non-academic, and Conversational –this is the typical language commonly spoken by most people and by the professors, in conversation and in lectures. If you did not study with a native teacher of English, it is a good chance that this wills the most difficult for you. It will contain; phrasal verbs, idioms, slag and colloquialisms. It is important that you know well the informal form.
Formal and Academic – will occasionally used by the professor, more for effect than usefulness, or the subject requires it. You will have less trouble with this since in most countries the formal form is taught.
The entire listening section consists of 2-3 conversational passages and 4-6 lectures. This will require about 40–60 minutes. You could receive extra experimental listening passages which will require more time.. You hear the conversations and lectures only once but you are permitted to take notes. Questions will be displayed on the screen in addition to hearing them.
In general, the questions in the TOEFL iBT Listening section are in three categories:
(1) Basic comprehension questions
(2) Pragmatic understanding questions
(3) Connecting and synthesizing questions

TOEFL iBT Speaking
The Speaking section of the ibit TOEFL test requires 20 minutes and is designed to measure your ability to express yourself in English orally on a variety of topics.
There are six things you must do, consisting of two different of speaking task: independent and integrated.
There will be two independent tasks in which you are asked questions based on your personal knowledge and experience. An example independent is: "What event in your life made you very happy?", are you are given the topic. You have 30 seconds to prepare, and 45 seconds to speak.
The next four are integrated speaking tasks, which are divided as follows:
(1) In two you have a short reading passage, then a listening, and then you speak about what you heard.. You are given 30 seconds to prepare and 60 seconds to speak.
(2) In the two other, you listen to a conversation or lecture and then response to a question about it. You are given 20 seconds to prepare, and 60 seconds to speak.
You can take notes on paper, but rapidly, for you do not have much time for notes You are given 30 seconds to organize your thoughts, not to actually think. Your preparation time is all the time you have to this point.
TOEFL iBT Writing
The final section on the ibit TOEFL test is Writing, for which you have a total of 50 minutes. This part measures your ability to write clearly and compose well-organized essays using correct grammar, spelling, vocabulary, and sentence structure. In some countries writing essays is not well taught, as in North American countries and this could be a troublesome task for you.. Make sure that you can write good essays in the style that is expected in the universities. Though you might think you are well prepared, you probably are not. In the university writing is a major part of what is required from all your professors. This could be the most difficult part of the test.
You are given two types of writing tasks:
(1) Integrated
(2) Independent
In the integrated TOEFL writing section, you will be required to read a short reading passage and then a listening passage on the same topic. You can take notes during this time. Then you will be given 20 minutes to write an essay of about 150-225 words, explaining how the listening passage either supports the reading passage or contradicts the reading.
The second part of the TOEFL writing section is the independent essay. You are given one topic, and you have 30 minutes to write an original essay of about 300 to 350 words.