TOEFL iBT Test Content
The TOEFL iBT test has four sections: Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing.
Test time
The total test takes just under 2 hours to complete, but you should plan for 2.5 hours, allowing 30 minutes for check in.
Test sections overview
Use the table below to view the breakdown of each TOEFL iBT test section.
| Section | Estimated Timing | Questions/Tasks | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | 35 minutes | 20 questions | Read passages and respond to questions. |
| Listening | 36 minutes | 28 questions | Answer questions about brief lectures or classroom discussions. |
| Speaking | 16 minutes | 4 tasks | Talk about a familiar topic and discuss material you read and heard. |
| Writing | 29 minutes | 2 tasks |
Read a passage, listen to a recording, type your response. |
To receive official scores, you must answer at least one question each in the Reading and Listening sections, and complete at least one Speaking task and one Writing task
VOCABULARY
| Vocabulary | Translation | Synonyms | Meaning |
| Factual | واقعي |
Real, genuine, true, actual, authentic, realistic |
Concerned with what is actually the case rather than interpretations of or reactions to it |
| Inference | استدلال , استنتاج ما يستدل عليه | deduction, conclusion, reasoning | A conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning |
| Rhetorical | بلاغي | Relating to or concerned with the art of rhetoric | |
| Excerpt | مقتطفات |
part, section, portion, selection |
A passage or quotation taken or selected from a book, document, film, or the like; extract |
| Glossary | قاموس مصطلحات | Such a list at the back of a book, explaining or defining difficult or unusual words and expressions used in the text. | |
| Cretaceous | العصر الطباشيري | Resembling or containing chalk. | |
| Meteorite | نيزك | A stony or metallic mass of matter that has fallen to the earth’s surface from outer space | |
| Crater | فوهة البركان | A bowl-shaped depression in a surface made by an explosion or the impact of a body, such as a meteoroid | |
| Sediment | الرواسب | Material that settles to the bottom of a liquid | |
| Crust | قشرة | ||
| Excavated | محفور | To make (a hole, tunnel, etc.) by removing material | |
| Archeologists | علماء الآثار | ||
| Meteorologist | عالم الأرصاد الجوية | One who reports and forecasts weather conditions | |
| Lunar | قمري | Of, involving, caused by, or affecting the moon | |
| Terrestrial | أرضي | Of or relating to the earth or its inhabitants | |
| Contradict | يتعارض | Conflict, contradict, disagree, clash, interfere, collide | To assert to be untrue, often by saying the opposite |
| Assertive | تأكيدي | Confident and direct in claiming one’s rights or putting forward one’s views | |
| Gist | جوهر | Essence, core, substance, gist, quintessence, root | The point or substance of an argument, speech, etc |
| Implied | ضمني | Implicit, implied, tacit, underlying | To express or state indirectly |
| Detective | المحقق , رجل المباحث | ||
| Novel | Noun: قصة Adjective: جديد , غير مألوف |
Noun: story, tale, narrative, novel, account, fiction Adjective: unfamiliar, uncommon, uncouth, novel, uninhabitable |
|
| Smear | Noun: لطخة, بقعة Verb: دهن , لوث |
Noun: spot, stain, patch, splash, speck, smear Verb: oil, paint, butter, rub in, plaster, smear |
Noun: There was an oil smear on his jacket |
| Seargent | رقيب | ||
| Character | شخصية | Personality, figure, character, persona, personage, individuality | She had character as well as beauty |
| Feature | ميزة | feature, advantage, merit, characteristic, quality, trait | A feature on Detroit’s downtown fishery |
| Obsessive | مهووس | ||
| Eccentric | غريب الأطوار, لامتراكز | ||
| Hobby | هواية | An activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure. | |
| Fanatic | متعصب, متحمس | A person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal, especially for an extreme religious or political cause | |
| Breeding | تربية | The breeding of rats and mice for experiments | |
| Incredibly | بشكل لا يصدق | To a great degree; extremely or unusually | |
| Existential | وجودي | The climate crisis is an existential threat to the world | |
| Spoil | يفسد | Diminish or destroy the value or quality of | |
| Deduce | استنتج | Conclude, infer, deduce, understand, derive, draw | |
| Exemplify | مثال | Represent, appear, act, symbolize, perform, exemplify | Be a typical example of |
| Chronology | التسلسل الزمني | The arrangement of events or dates in the order of their occurrence | |
| Prediction | تنبؤ | Prognosis, foretelling, augury, harbinger | A prediction that the Greeks would destroy the Persian empire |
| Unanimously | بالإجماع | without opposition; with the agreement of all people involved | |
| Take over | تولى المسؤولية | An act of assuming control of something, especially the buying out of one company by another | |
| Genre | النوع | A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter | |
| Convention | مؤتمر | Conference, congress, convention, seminar, consultation, parley | a large meeting or conference, especially of members of a political party or a particular profession |
| Plot | حبكة , مؤامرة | Conspiracy, collusion, huddle, confederacy, machination | A plan made in secret by a group of people to do something illegal or harmful |
| Well-meaning | حسن النية | Well-disposed, | Well-intentioned |
| Officious and bumblingly inept | متكبر وغير كفء بشكل محرج | ||
| Superintendent | المشرف | director, manager, administrator, chief, executive, superintendent | |
| Brilliant | باهِر | intelligent, smart, clever, bright, brilliant, astute | A brilliant young mathematician |
| Bumble | تلعثم | speak in a confused or indistinct way move or act in an awkward or confused manner |
|
| Bumbling inept | أخرق غير كفء | ||
| Holistically | بشكل شامل | in a way that is characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole | |
| Intonation | التجويد , إرتفاع طبقات الصوت | accuracy of pitch in playing or singing, or on a stringed instrument such as a guitar | |
| Imprecise |
غير دقيق |
lacking exactness and accuracy of expression or detail | |
| Unwarranted Assumption | افتراض غير مبرر | ||
| Minion | تابع | Follower or underling of a powerful person, especially a servile or unimportant one | |
| Elaborate | يشرح | involving many carefully arranged parts or details; detailed and complicated in design and planning | |
| Rumpled | مجعد | a rumpled bed | |
| Cast | يقذف | cause (light or shadow) to appear on a surface throw (something) forcefully in a specified direction register (a vote) |
He cast the book down onto the chair angrily the moon cast a pale light over the cottages residents turned out in record numbers to cast their votes |
| Ballots | بطاقات الاقتراع | a process of voting, in writing and typically in secret | |
| Count Up | an act of determining the total number of something | determine the total number of (a collection of items) | |
| Redundancy | زيادة عن الحاجة | the state of being not or no longer needed or useful | |
| Transitions | انتقالات | The process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another | |
| Counter | معاكس | speak or act in opposition to in the opposite direction to or in conflict with |
|
| Distorted | مشوه | giving a misleading or false account or impression; misrepresented | |