A comprehensive guide on the TOEFL exam syllabus (updated 2022)

The TOEFL exam was created to test the reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills according to a native university. It portrays their competency in the English language and covers all four major aspects of the English language. Universities worldwide accept the TOEFL exam score for giving admission to overseas students, and it is also used to screen job and immigration applicants to English-speaking countries. 

The Educational Testing Service conducts the TOEFL exam to assess the examinee’s ability to communicate in English.

Section-wise TOEFL exam syllabus 

Each section of the TOEFL exam holds significance to getting a good score. While some integrated questions test most or all of the skills in one question, there are some focussed questions for each section. Let us now look at the TOEFL exam syllabus for each section.

Section #1 Listening 

The listening section of the TOEFL exam focuses on your ability to listen to and comprehend lectures spoken in English. Here, you have to listen to basic comprehensions or conversations. The listening items in the section include- 

• 3 to 4 lectures, each not more than 5 minutes and 800 words long. There are six questions in each lecture. This makes up a total of 30 questions. 
• 2 to 3 conversations that are around 3 minutes long with not more than 25 exchanges. The examinee will be asked five questions in each conversation which makes the total number of questions around 40. The approximate time to complete this will be 41 to 57 minutes. 

The audio clips are played along with the speaker of the clips visible on the screen. You can take notes of the audio in any language of your preference. You can also use shorthand to jot down quick notes. You will see certain terms written on the screen, which are taken from the audio clip. You will be able to listen to multiple accents of English in the audio clips, which you will have to comprehend. 

Section #2 Writing

The TOEFL exam pattern of the writing section contains two tasks, which take around 50 minutes to complete. 

• Essay writing task- In the first one, you will be required to write an essay that effectively mentions all the key points relating to the topic. You should formulate a well-organized and structured essay highlighting important facts and your views. You should have adequate knowledge of the subject, and your essay should be positive and progressive. You need to make use of the most appropriate vocabulary and accurate grammar. 

• Question-answer task- In the second task, you will face questions for which you will have to provide answers. It will include-
  
  1. A task for a total of 20 minutes, in which you will need to read a passage, listen to a lecture about the same topic, and write an essay. In this, the reading will be of 3 mins, listening of 2 mins and writing of 15 mins. 
  2. A task in which there will be two questions for which you will have to write your viewpoints or response in the form of answers. 

Section #3 Reading

This section is meant to assess the capability of the examinee to understand English and then provide the correct answer or response to the question. The reading section includes the following points- 

• Consists of academic study materials.
• It includes 3-4 passages of not more than 800 words.
• Examinee has to answer ten questions from each passage. 
• The passages are taken from university-level textbooks and cover an array of topics. 
• The total number of questions is about 40 while the maximum marks are 30. 
• This section takes 55 to 72 minutes to be completed. 

Section #4 Speaking 

The speaking section is quite important and difficult at the same time. To get the best score in this section, you need to give the most appropriate responses to the questions asked. The test graders want to have an intelligent conversation with the examinees, and the most sustained conversation gets the best marks. The types of speaking questions covered in the TOEFL exam pattern and syllabus for the speaking section can be seen below-

• Personal preference- Questions in which you have to choose an option, prepare for a few seconds, and then speak on the same. 
• Campus conversations- In this type of question, you will be required to read a passage on a specific topic, listen to the conversation on the same topic and then speak on the same. 
• Academic lecture- You will have to read a passage, listen to a lecture pertaining to the same topic and then summarize and speak about what you heard. 
• Listening and speaking- In this, you will be required to listen to a conversation and then speak your views and opinion on the discussed problem. 
• Academic lecture- You will have to listen to and summarize an academic lecture. 

The total number of questions will be four, and a total of 17 minutes will be given to the examinee to give the exam. Apart from minor mistakes or lapses, major mistakes and problems in the gist of the answer will not give you good marks. 

Types of questions in different sections

Let us now look at the types of questions in the different sections to understand the TOEFL exam syllabus better. 

Reading question types

• Factual information

In this question, you will have to identify the negative factual information from the four options. You have to mark out the single wrong answer out of the options. You will have to focus on the “not” and “except” words to identify a type of question in the section. 

• Rhetorical question

This type of question is asked for the examinee to infer the ambiguous statement of the passage. The questions of such type will include words like “implies”, “inferred”, “suggests,” etc. Here, you will have to write down what the passage or conversation implies. 

• Vocabulary questions

In these questions, the examinee will have to discover the meaning of the highlighted words and answer accordingly. 

• Sentence explanation

In this question type, a candidate will need to detect differences between two similarly written sentences and select the one which is written in a simpler manner. 

• Insert text

Here, the examinee will need to insert ideas in the form of words or sentences in the blanks of a reading passage. 

• Summary of prose

This question type demands the examinee to write down the summary of prose of a paragraph in the given word limit. 

Listening question types

• Gist content or purpose

The sole motive of the question is for you to be able to conclude the gist purpose of the conversation. You will need to identify the center point and the conclusion derived from the conversation. Questions will include things such as – “What is the conversation about”, “What does the student imply”, “What is the main purpose”, et al. 

• Detail questions

This question type asks the examinee to provide factual details on various perspectives or viewpoints and includes terms like “what is” and “according to”. 

• Function

This question asks the examinee to comprehend the difference between the surface and actual meaning. 

• Connections in the content

The exam might ask the candidate to focus on the connection between two or more ideas from the lecture and can appear in the form of a “fill in the blanks” type of question. 

Speaking question types 

• Independent task

In this task, only the speaking ability of the examinee is measured. This task might include a spoken essay or a conversation on the topic you choose from the list of topics given to you. 

• Integrated task

With this task, all four skills of the examinee are assessed. It asks you to read a conversation, listen to a conversation, and write your views on the same. 

Writing question types

• Integrated writing task

Here, the examinee will have to read and listen to a topic and then write on the same. It focuses on the examinee’s reading, listening, and writing abilities. 

• Independent task

The candidate has to present their ideas by writing on a topic. It solely tests the writing abilities, including the efficiency in English writing, the presence of significant ideas, and a well-organized structure. 

Key takeaways

We can conclude from the above that the TOEFL exam syllabus includes-

• Essay and answer writing.
• Listening and creating the gist of an essay or conversation.
• Reading a passage and giving relevant answers to the questions.
• Speaking on a topic. 

Therefore, you should prepare accordingly. If you prepare for the exam according to the syllabus of the TOEFL exam and the TOEFL exam pattern, you can achieve a good score easily. 

FAQs

1. What are the different types of questions in the TOEFL exam?

The TOEFL exam has multiple question types, such as gist-purpose answers, integrated tasks, rhetorical questions, etc. 

2. What are the maximum marks for the TOEFL exam?

You can get a maximum mark of 120 in the TOEFL exam. 

3.  After how much time can one get the result of the exam?

The online results of the test are given to the test-takers between 6 to 10 days after the exam.