In case you haven’t heard yet, the TOEFL test is changing starting August 1st 2019.
The test is being shortened from 3.5 hours to 3 hours, and my guess is that this is being done to be seen as comparable to IELTS in terms of test length. I know that if I had the choice of taking two tests to qualify for a program and all other things were equal, I would definitely choose the shorter of the two tests.
So, what exactly is changing?
The reading section will still have three or four passages, but each one will only have 10 questions each. The current version has 12 to 14 questions per passage. This reduces the time required from 60 to 80 minutes (depending if there are three or four passages) to 54 to 72 minutes (again depending on the number of passages). The type of questions asked will all remain the same.
The listening part of the test is also being shortened. It will maintain two to three campus situations with five questions each, but there is a reduction from four to six academic lectures/classroom discussions to three to four. The revised test will still have six questions for each academic lecture/classroom discussion. Instead of being 60 to 90 minutes, the revised listening section will be between 41 to 57 minutes. Like the reading section, all question types will remain unchanged.
The speaking section is the last section that is being modified. The two independent tasks (personal choice and personal experience) are being reduced to one task, with the personal preference task being eliminated. The integrated tasks that address both campus situations and summarizing academic lectures in conjunction with a short reading are going down from four in total to three. According to ETS, the integrated speaking which is a campus situation that poses a problem and solution will no longer appear on the test. In the end, this only reduces the speaking section of the test from 20 to 17 minutes.
The writing part of the test remains the same: 20 minutes to complete an integrated response synthesizing information from an academic reading and a professor’s lecture and 30 minutes to write an independent essay on a topic.
There is another considerable change that is happening with score reporting. TOEFL will now look at ALL your scores over the past two years and combine the best score in each area to show your BEST OVERALL PERFORMANCE. This is a great feature, as we all have days that we don’t perform as well as others. Add in the fact that you are taking a lengthy test and trying to do your best in all four skill areas, making it more difficult. This is a welcome addition that many test-takers can appreciate and benefit from.
What does this mean for test-takers?
I have some thoughts about this:
1.This makes TOEFL comparable to IELTS in terms of time required. In addition, the TOEFL speaking section does not require a separate testing time or day. That can be a benefit for people that have difficulty taking time off work or school in order to take the IELTS speaking test, but it is quite unnatural to be speaking into a microphone to record an answer.
2. Shortening the reading and listening sections are fine, but with fewer speaking prompts, candidates are at a disadvantage if they suffer from test anxiety or if they choke on one of their answers. Since there are fewer opportunities to speak, those opportunities will carry more weight when determining scores than before.
3. The My Best Score feature will be a huge benefit to test-takers as well as university admission staff. It will give a more accurate picture of a person’s abilities, and best of all it is reported automatically. This is something that IELTS doesn’t offer, so it is quite appealing for people that have the option to take either TOEFL or IELTS.
4. These changes do not significantly affect preparation in any way. All question types are remaining in the listening, reading, and writing sections, and the speaking section is only going to see the elimination of the personal preference question and the integrated problem/solution question.
In order to see the details of the changes you can visit the following link to the ETS TOEFL website: https://www.ets.org/toefl/better_test_experience.
If you have any questions about taking TOEFL or IELTS or which test is right for you, leave a comment below or send an email to contact@danielguim.com.
4 Responses
Hi Daniel, good article with suitable information for who want to pass the test. I am not sure about the new rule My Best Score. They mention that the score could be mix with other previous tests until two year ago and all since August. But all tests should be donde since August? I mean I did the test in January 2019 and I am retaking in September, so I want to know if my January score could be considered for my new score. I wrote Toefl but their answer was the same information that appears in the page. Thanks!!
Hi Raul, thanks for your kind words! That’s a really good question. My guess is that the Me Best Score feature will start working with tests taken starting in August and will include scores up to 2 years earlier (but not earlier than August 2019). I don’t think it will be retroactive with test taken before then, but I could be wrong.
I can relate to the challenge of getting a clear answer from ETS. I taught an online TOEFL workshop, and some students had a question about how exactly multi-part questions in the reading and listening sections are scored. When I called them on the phone they didn’t know the answer and encouraged me to write an email and assured me they would be able to tell me. The email response I got explained that each skill is scored between 0 and 30. Basically it didn’t answer my question at all.
If I find any information about your situation I’ll be sure to share it. Take care and I hope your TOEFL preparation is going well!
Hi Raul,
I checked the official wording of the My Best Score feature on the ETS website, and it reads as follows:
This new feature combines your best scores for each section from all of your valid TOEFL iBT scores in the last 2 years. Everyone has a bad day once in a while, and MyBest™ scores give you a way to show your best overall test performance. The best news? You don’t have to do anything to take advantage of this feature. All TOEFL iBT score reports sent after August 1, 2019, regardless of the test administration date, will automatically include MyBest scores along with the traditional scores from your selected test date.
Based on this, it sounds like starting August 1st it will include previous test scores from up to 2 years ago. I will call ETS to see if I can get an official answer and let you know.
Hi Daniel, many many thanks for your answers!!! I had not seen it before, sorry. Yes perfect if you can do that it would be fantastic. Thanks!