TOEFL iBT
English proficiency test accepted for university admission in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK and Europe, with particular weight in American graduate admissions. Scores are valid for two years.
Eligibility
ETS sets no educational or age criteria. Indian candidates must present a valid passport as identification. There is no cap on total attempts, but you may take the test only once in any 3-day period. The same registration and rules apply to the Home Edition.
Age limit: None
Exam pattern
Completely redesigned from 21 Jan 2026: the test now runs about 90 minutes with no break, and the Reading and Listening sections are adaptive — your performance on the first module decides the difficulty (and score ceiling) of the second. All four skills are still tested, with new real-world task types in Speaking and Writing, including interactive and integrated tasks. Scoring has moved from 0-120 to a 1-6 band per section in half-band steps, aligned to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR); the overall band is the average of the four sections. Until early 2028 every report also shows a comparable 0-120 figure for institutions still using the old scale.
Syllabus at a glance
No fixed syllabus — it measures academic and everyday English. Reading uses academic and practical passages with adaptive difficulty; Listening uses lectures and conversations; Speaking mixes independent opinion tasks with interactive, scenario-based tasks; Writing includes an integrated task and the 'Writing for an Academic Discussion' post-style task. New 2026 item types include sentence-building and fill-in-the-gap questions.
Upcoming dates
| Event | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Redesigned 90-minute, band-scored test in effect | Since 21 Jan 2026 | confirmed |
| Registration | Open year-round via your ETS account | confirmed |
| Test dates | Multiple sessions weekly at centres and on the Home Edition | confirmed |
| Score release | Within 72 hours of the test | confirmed |
| Dual reporting (1-6 band plus 0-120 equivalent) continues | Through the two-year transition to early 2028 | confirmed |
Expected dates follow the usual calendar; confirm on the official notification before planning.
Free prep material
Standard books
- The Official Guide to the TOEFL iBT — ETS (check for the post-2026 edition)
- Official TOEFL iBT Tests, Volumes 1 & 2 — ETS (useful for Reading/Listening skills, pre-2026 format)
- Barron's TOEFL iBT — Pamela J. Sharpe
- Cambridge Preparation for the TOEFL Test — Jolene Gear and Robert Gear
How toppers play it
- The adaptive Reading and Listening sections cap your band based on the first module — treat the opening questions as the highest-stakes part of the test.
- Most books and courses still teach the pre-2026 format; verify every resource against ETS TestReady, and practise the new sentence-building, gap-fill and interactive speaking tasks there.
- At 90 minutes with no break, stamina matters less but transitions are abrupt — rehearse full mocks so switching skills every 20-odd minutes feels normal.
- Check whether your target universities want the 1-6 band or the 0-120 equivalent, and quote the right one; both appear on your report during the transition.
- Typing speed directly limits Writing scores — practise composing 10-minute academic-discussion responses at 30+ words per minute.