acerca del examen toefl ibt

Obtenga la ventaja que necesita para alcanzar el éxito

El examen TOEFL iBT® lo ayuda a destacarse con total seguridad en el idioma inglés, y tiene una clara ventaja: las universidades saben que está preparado para el éxito.

Por eso, es aceptado por más de 11,500 universidades y otras instituciones en más de 160 países, entre los que se incluyen Australia, Canadá, Nueva Zelanda, Estados Unidos y Reino Unido, además de Europa y Asia.

Es el único examen que mide las cuatro las habilidades académicas en inglés –reading, listening, speaking y writing– de la forma en que se utilizan realmente en el aula. Por lo tanto, su calificación TOEFL® proporciona un fiel reflejo de sus habilidades y demuestra a los funcionarios de admisiones que usted tiene lo que se necesita para alcanzar el éxito. Vea la lista completa de países donde el examen TOEFL iBT está disponible.

¿Por qué elegir el examen TOEFL iBT?

El examen TOEFL iBT®, aceptado y preferido por las universidades de todo el mundo, es un examen de alta calidad y de alto nivel que les garantiza a los funcionarios de admisiones que usted está preparado para el aula y para mucho más. Más de 35 millones de personas a nivel mundial han elegido el examen TOEFL para demostrar su dominio del idioma inglés. A continuación, explicamos el motivo.

Aceptado y preferido en todo el mundo

Alcance más universidades. El TOEFL iBT® es el examen de inglés más aceptado del mundo para estudio, trabajo e inmigración. Es preferido por más universidades e instituciones, por lo que puede sentirse seguro de que se destacará ante los funcionarios de admisiones donde más importa.

El examen TOEFL iBT® consiste en 4 secciones: Reading, Listening, Speaking y Writing. Durante el examen, deberá realizar tareas que combinan estas 4 habilidades de comunicación en inglés, por ejemplo:

  • Leer, escuchar y después hablar para responder a una pregunta.

  • Escuchar y después hablar para responder a una pregunta.

  • Leer, escuchar y después escribir para responder a una pregunta.

El examen completo se rinde en aproximadamente 3 horas, pero debería planificar 3 horas y media, y permitir 30 minutos para el proceso de registro.

Este video rápido sobre la estructura del examen TOEFL iBT® le permitirá entender qué puede esperar durante el examen.

Información general

Table HeaderTable HeaderPreguntasTareas
ReadingDe 54 a 72 minutosDe 30 a 40 preguntasLeer párrafos y responder preguntas
ListeningDe 41 a 57 minutosDe 28 a 39 preguntasResponder preguntas sobre lecturas cortas o debate en clase
Receso10 minutos______________________________________
Speaking17 minutos4 tareasHablar sobre un tema familiar y debatir sobre el material que usted
leyó y escuchó
Writing50 minutos2 tareasLeer un párrafo, luego escuchar una grabación y escribir su respuesta

TOEFL iBT Reading Section

What Is In The Reading Section?

The TOEFL iBT® Reading section is designed to assess how well you can read and understand the kind of materials used in an academic environment. It includes 3 or 4 reading passages, each approximately 700 words long, with 10 questions per passage. You have 54 to 72 minutes to answer all the questions in the section.

Reading passages are excerpts from university-level textbooks that would be used in introductions to a discipline or topic. The passages cover a variety of different subjects. Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with the topic of a passage. All the information you need to answer the questions will be included in the passage. There is a glossary feature available to define words not commonly used, if you need it.

Inside the TOEFL Test

These Inside the TOEFL® Test videos describe the types of questions you will find in the Reading section, plus helpful tips.

Reading Factual Information

Inference and Rhetorical

Sentence Simplification

Reading Vocabulary

Insert Text

Prose Summary

Extra Questions

The test you take may include extra questions in the Reading or Listening sections that don’t count toward your score. These questions help ETS to:

  • make test scores comparable across administrations

  • determine how such questions function under actual testing conditions

TOEFL iBT Listening Section

What Is In The Listening Section?

The TOEFL iBT® Listening section is designed to measure your ability to understand conversations and lectures in English. It includes listening for:

  • basic comprehension

  • pragmatic understanding (speaker’s attitude and degree of certainty) and connecting and synthesizing information

There are 2 types of listening items in the Speaking section — lectures and conversations. Both use campus-based language.

  • 3–4 lectures, each 3–5 minutes long, with 6 questions per lecture

  • 2–3 conversations with 2 speakers, each 3 minutes long, with 5 questions per conversation

You can take notes on any audio item throughout the test to help you answer questions. You have 41 to 57 minutes to complete the section.

Inside the TOEFL Test

These Inside the TOEFL® Test videos describe the types of questions you will find in the Listening section, plus helpful tips.

Gist Content

Detail

Function

Attitude

Organization

Connecting Content

Inference

Extra Questions

The test you take may include extra questions in the Reading or Listening sections that don’t count toward your score. These questions help ETS to:

  • make test scores comparable across administrations

  • determine how such questions function under actual testing conditions

Accents

The Listening section includes native-speaker English accents from North America, the U.K., New Zealand or Australia to better reflect the variety of accents you might encounter while studying abroad. For example, listen to this talk about the greenhouse effect (MP3). The lecturer is from the U.K.

TOEFL iBT Speaking Section

What Is In The Speaking Section?

The TOEFL iBT® Speaking section is designed to measure your ability to speak English effectively in academic settings. It is composed of 4 tasks that resemble real-life situations you might encounter both in and outside of a classroom.

  • Question 1 is called an «independent speaking task» because it requires you to draw entirely on your own ideas, opinions and experiences when you respond.

  • Questions 2–4 are called «integrated speaking tasks» because they require you to combine your English-language skills — listening and speaking, or listening, reading and speaking — just as you would in or out of a classroom.

You’ll get 15–30 seconds of preparation time before each response, and your response will be 45 or 60 seconds long.

To respond, you’ll speak into the microphone. Your responses are recorded and sent to ETS, where they will be scored by a combination of AI scoring and certified human raters to ensure fairness and quality. See the Speaking Scoring Guides (Rubrics) (PDF) for more information about how your responses are scored.

 

You have 17 minutes to complete the Speaking section.

Inside the TOEFL Test

These Inside the TOEFL® Test videos describe the types of questions you will find in the Speaking section, plus helpful tips.

Speaking Q1 Independent

Speaking Q2 Integrated

Speaking Q3 Q4 Integrated

Acccents

The Speaking section includes native-speaker English accents from North America, the U.K., New Zealand or Australia to better reflect the variety of accents you might encounter while studying abroad. Only the first of the 4 items may have accented speech.

Below are 2 examples, both of which use accents from the U.K. In each instance, the example is 15 seconds long, and you would have 45 seconds to respond.

Audio FIleTranscript
Item 1 (MP3)If friends from another country were going to spend time in your country, what city or place would
you suggest they visit? Using details and examples, explain why.
Item 2 (MP3)Some people enjoy taking risks and trying new things. Others are not adventurous; they are cautious and prefer to avoid danger.
Which behavior do you think is better? Explain why.

TOEFL iBT Writing Section

What Is In The Writing Section?

The TOEFL iBT® test Writing section is designed to measure your ability to write in English in an academic setting, and you’re expected to be able to present your ideas in a clear, well-organized manner.

There are 2 writing tasks.

  • Integrated writing task (20 minutes) — read a short passage and listen to a short lecture, then write in response to what you read and listened to.

  • Independent writing task (30 minutes) — write an essay based on personal experience or opinion in response to a writing topic.

You’ll type your responses on a computer keyboard (or hand write them for the TOEFL iBT® Paper Edition). Responses are sent to ETS, where they are scored by a combination of AI scoring and certified human raters to ensure fairness and quality.

You’ll have 50 minutes to complete the Writing section.

Inside the TOEFL Test

These Inside the TOEFL® Test videos describe the types of questions you will find in the Listening section, plus helpful tips.

Q1-Integrated

Q2-Independent

Do You Need To Be An Expert?

The writing tasks are designed to measure your English proficiency, so you don’t need deep knowledge of specialized topics to get a high score. Raters recognize that each essay is a first draft, and you can receive a high score with an essay that contains some errors. See the Writing Scoring Guides (Rubrics) (PDF) for more information about how the essays are scored.