Format

The TOEFL iBT is about 3 1/2 to 4 hours long, and is divided into four sections:

And now we can discuss each of them SEPARATELY :-

1. Reading Section 

• This section measures your ability to read and understand passages in English. 

In fact, the exam is testing the ability to read about various types of subjects, still gain a basic understanding of what has been written, And 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 possible versions of the TOEFL Reading Section:

               -The short version

               -The long version

• The reason up to the makers of the TOEFL "ETS" experiment with certain passages for future tests and students are the ones they experiment on. that's why!,So 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.

• There are 10 types of queries which you could get after each reading passage on the TOEFL. you should become familiar with and master each type of question and to learn how to answer those types of questions correctly. The question types include identifying and recognizing:

                 - Referents
                 - Inferences
                 - Coherence
                 - Main ideas
                 - Paraphrases
                 - Negative facts
                 - Facts and details
                 - Vocabulary in context
                 - Logic of the information

2. Listening Section

• This section measures your ability to understand conversations and lectures in English.

In this part of the TOEFL iBT, you will face two types of language:

• Formal and Academic – like lectures from various fields of study such as natural sciences, social sciences, the arts and business. Note, you don't need any special knowledge to do well in this section.

• Informal, Non-academic, and Conversational - in the form of campus conversations – like between two students, a student and professor, etc.

The entire listening section consists of 2-3 conversational passages and 4-6 lectures. This takes about 40–60 minutes to complete because you could get some extra experimental listening passages. You hear the conversations and lectures only once but you are allowed to take notes. You will see the questions on the screen in addition to hearing them.

In general, the questions in the TOEFL iBT Listening section fall into three categories:

• Basic comprehension questions
• Pragmatic understanding questions
• Connecting and synthesizing questions

3. Speaking Section

• This Section is about 20 minutes long and measures your ability to express yourself orally in English about a variety of topics. There are six tasks in this section, of two different kinds: independent and integrated.

The first two are independent tasks in which you are asked questions based on your personal knowledge and experience. An example of an independent task is "What event in your life made you very depressed !?" 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 in the following way:

1. In the first two, you have a short reading passage, then a listening, and then you have to speak. You are given 30 seconds to prepare and 60 seconds to speak.

2. In the last two, you listen to a conversation or lecture and then speak in 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 you don't have much time to write. The 30 seconds given during the Listening section of the TOEFL is just to organize your thoughts, not to actually think.  please remember that!

4. Writing Section

• The Last part is about 50 minutes long, measures your ability to communicate clearly in writing and compose well-organized essays using correct grammar, spelling, sentence structure and vocabulary

You are given two types of writing tasks:

• Integrated

                -You read a passage - 3 minutes

                -You listen to a related lecture - 2 minutes
                -You write an essay - 20 minutes

In the integrated TOEFL writing section, you will be given a short reading passage and 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 160-225 words, explaining how the listening passage either supports the reading passage or Contrasts the reading.

• Independent

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 essay of about 4-5 paragraphs, or 310-350 words.