One app for all your study abroad needs
TOEFL Exam Syllabus: Individuals who wish to take the TOEFL iBT Exam in 2024 should carefully examine the TOEFL Syllabus to create an effective study plan. The TOEFL iBT exam is designed for those seeking admission to undergraduate or graduate programs at English-medium universities. Unlike the IELTS which offers separate tests for academic and general purposes, the TOEFL iBT assesses all four language skills through integrated tasks that reflect academic situations.
The TOEFL iBT 2024 syllabus, similar to previous years, comprises four sections: Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing. Each section poses unique challenges, so familiarizing yourself with the syllabus is essential for success on the TOEFL iBT.
This Blog Includes:
TOEFL Syllabus 2024
TOEFL Exam Syllabus: The TOEFL, or Test of English as a Foreign Language, measures your English proficiency for academic success. It evaluates your abilities in four key areas: reading, listening, speaking, and writing.
Each section focuses on university-level materials, mimicking the communication you’ll encounter in your studies. By understanding the specific skills tested in each section (outlined in the table below), you can effectively prepare and demonstrate your readiness for thriving in an English-speaking academic environment.
| Section | Description | Focus Skills |
| Reading | Passages from academic sources | Comprehension, analysis, and vocabulary in an academic context |
| Listening | Lectures and conversations on academic topics | Understanding details, main ideas, and speaker’s purpose |
| Speaking | Independent and integrated tasks | Expressing ideas clearly, supporting arguments, summarising information |
| Writing | Independent and integrated tasks | Summarising information, expressing opinions, using evidence |
What are the Types of Questions Asked in the TOEFL iBT Exam?
TOEFL Exam Syllabus: The TOEFL iBT assesses your English proficiency in academic settings through four distinct sections: Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing. Each section employs a variety of question types designed to gauge your ability to comprehend, analyse, and synthesise information presented in academic contexts. Understanding these question types is crucial for effective TOEFL preparation, allowing you to develop targeted strategies and demonstrate your academic English skills effectively.
Here’s a breakdown of the question types encountered in each TOEFL iBT section:
| Section | Question Type | Description |
| Reading | Comprehension | These questions assess your ability to grasp the main ideas, supporting details, and factual information presented in academic passages. |
| Vocabulary in Context | These questions test your understanding of the vocabulary used within the academic context. | |
| Analysis and Inference | These questions go beyond basic comprehension, requiring you to analyze the author’s purpose, identify cause-and-effect relationships, and draw inferences based on the information presented. | |
| Rhetorical Purpose: | These questions assess your ability to recognize the author’s intended effect on the audience. | |
| Listening | Comprehension | Similar to the Reading section, these questions test your ability to understand the main ideas, supporting details, and factual information presented in lectures and conversations. |
| Function and Purpose | These questions go beyond just understanding the content of the lecture or conversation. | |
| Details and Inference | These questions require you to identify specific details mentioned in the lecture or conversation and draw inferences based on the information presented. | |
| Speaking | Independent Speaking | This task assesses your ability to speak clearly and concisely on a familiar topic. |
| Integrated Speaking | These tasks require you to synthesize information from both a reading passage and a listening passage. | |
| Writing | Integrated Writing | This task requires you to summarize the main points of a reading passage and a listening passage, as well as express your own opinion or analysis based on the information presented. |
| Independent Writing | This task assesses your ability to take a stance on a specific issue and support your arguments with evidence and examples. |
By familiarizing yourself with these question types, you can develop targeted strategies for approaching each section of the TOEFL iBT. Practice exercises and official sample questions from ETS will further enhance your understanding of these formats and equip you to confidently demonstrate your academic English proficiency.
TOEFL Exam Pattern 2024
TOEFL iBT Exam Pattern: Individuals who wish to take the online TOEFL2024 exam, i.e., TOEFL iBT, must keep abreast of the standardised exam format. ETS, the conducting body of the TOEFL iBT test, made certain alterations to the TOEFL iBT exam format in 2023. Going by the revised TOEFL ibT exam pattern, students will now see the following changes in the TOEFL exam format (iBT):
- Students are now given less than two hours to complete the TOEFL iBT exam.
- Test takers can now take the help of the dedicated instructions to give their test.
- Certain portions of the TOEFL iBT Reading section pattern have been omitted.
- The unscored TOEFL iBT question segment has been removed from the online test.
| Section | Description | Number of Questions | Duration |
| Reading | Two academic reading passages with comprehension questions | 20 | 35 minutes |
| Listening | Lectures and conversations from academic settings with comprehension questions | 28 | 36 minutes |
| Speaking | Four integrated speaking tasks requiring responses to prompts and questions | 4 Tasks | 17 minutes |
| Writing | Two writing tasks: one integrated writing task and one independent writing task | 2 Tasks | 50 minutes |
So that was all about TOEFL Syllabus. Hope the blog has answered your queries regarding the topic.
FAQs
Ans. The TOEFL iBT syllabus focuses on academic English so that you won’t encounter specific subject areas like science or history. Instead, the reading passages and listening lectures will cover a broad range of topics typically found in university coursework. These might include social sciences, humanities, or natural sciences.
The core structure of the TOEFL iBT syllabus, including the four sections (Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing) and the tested skills, remains relatively stable year-to-year. However, the specific topics covered in the reading passages and listening lectures may vary.
Ans. While ETS doesn’t publish a traditional syllabus document, they offer a wealth of resources to understand the test format and what skills are assessed. You can find official practice questions, test descriptions, and other helpful materials on the Educational Testing Service’s TOEFL website: https://www.ets.org/toefl.html.
Visit the Leverage Live page of Leverage edu or contact our study abroad experts at 1800-57-2000 to strengthen your scores and application to secure your spot in your dream college.
45,000+ students realised their study abroad dream with us. Take the first step today.