 Hello, my people. My name is Mijim. Welcome to the Score Channel. Today you're gonna get a TOEFL. Get a TOEFL. Last week I covered the IELTS in depth and this week we're gonna take a look at the TOEFL so that you can decide which exam is best for you. The TOEFL IBT, which stands for Internet-Based Test, has become one of the most common English tests for international students around the world, especially for people applying to the United States. You can take the TOEFL IBT in test centers located near you or you can take it at home and we're gonna talk today about whether or not you should do that. But before we do, let's talk about the basics. The TOEFL scores each section of its test out of 30 points and then it adds those numbers up to get a final score out of 120. Most universities will ask you for a score between 90 and 100, but you may find some programs that let you get in with a score in the mid to high 80s. You might also see mandatory minimums for specific subjects, for example, they might tell you to get at least a 20 in writing so pay attention to those before you start preparing. Like we did last week, we're gonna go in order, section by section, as they appear on the test. This test starts off with reading. Now TOEFL likes to play coy about how much time you'll get on the test and how much content is on it, but in our experience, typically three readings is common and they give you about an hour to finish. We always recommend planning to do each text in 18 minutes. If you do that, you should be good. Pretty much all the questions on the TOEFL reading portion are multiple choice. The only exceptions to this are questions where they ask you to insert a sentence into a paragraph or the final question for each reading that asks you to choose the three main ideas from the text out of six options. Make sure you leave yourself enough time for that last one because it is worth two points if you get them all right. Now the first questions for each text will be tied to a specific paragraph so they will show you the paragraph with its respective questions as you go through the test. This means you don't constantly have to go back and forth looking at the whole text to find your answers. This makes the reading portion on the TOEFL a little bit easier than it is on the IELTS given the simplicity of the questions and the relatively simple nature of the text themselves. But that's about where the easiness ends because the listening portion of the TOEFL really takes things to the next level. You'll get six exercises with a total of about five or six questions each for a total of about an hour of listening time. The listening exercises on the TOEFL are a mixture of lectures and conversations. In both cases, you will not be able to see the questions before you start listening. This means note taking is extremely important. If you don't take notes, you're not going to remember all the things you heard and odds are they're gonna ask you about some things and you're not gonna remember the details and you're gonna miss the questions. I did some note taking on the TOEFL when I did the live stream for the speaking part of the test since it has some similar exercises. You might wanna check those out to get an idea of what it's like. Fortunately, the listening part doesn't ask for too many specific details in its questions. When it does, it will let you re-listen to a certain portion of the audio so that you can answer that question more specifically. There are also some questions that have multiple answers. You'll have to mark two choices and make sure you do that because if you miss even one of them, you don't get the points. From there, you're gonna move on to speaking. That's right, speaking is in the middle of the test and it's always the same day as your test. On the TOEFL, instead of conversing with a live person like a normal human being, you're going to do a set of pre-designed tasks. One of these tasks will be the independent task where they simply ask you a question for your opinion and you explain your answer in 45 seconds. But the other three are what we call integrated tasks. These will include reading and listening and then you will speak. That makes the speaking part of the TOEFL much more difficult than it would be on the IELTS. The readings are generally there to help set the context and sort of get you ready for the listening. Once you listen to the audio, you'll then be asked questions about the content in the audio. A good answer will last a full minute. You wanna make sure you practice your timing because one minute is not very long. If you get cut off before you finish explaining your answer, that's gonna take points away. Likewise, if you run out of things to say after just 30 or 40 seconds, that's also a bad look. Overall, the speaking portion of the TOEFL test is rather difficult. It requires a lot of practice. As long as you can speak pretty naturally and even if you don't use a ton of big words or perfect grammatical structures, as long as the idea is clear and they can tell that you understood the content, you'll get a pretty good grade. The writing portion of the test is also much more complex than the one we see on the IELTS. Part one will give you a reading followed by a lecture and then ask you to write about the differences between each. Typically, the lecture is the right answer while the reading presents a wrong interpretation of a theory or some older understanding that has been replaced by what the teacher in the lecture explains. You're going to have to explain how the lecture refutes the reading. So not only is this challenging because you have two different information sources and you only get to listen to it once, so you have to take notes, but you also have to think about how you structure your text. It's really easy to get sidetracked talking about ideas from the reading when they want you to focus on the lecture or vice versa. The second writing task is the most similar to the one that we see on the IELTS. It's your standard either or essay question. Just like we always say, take a side, pick one side or the other, go hard and make sure that your answer clearly is supported with reasons, arguments, examples, and the like. A lot of times we recommend people take the IELTS instead of the TOEFL because we have seen that people typically get better scores on the IELTS than they do on the TOEFL. So why would anybody want to take the TOEFL anyway? Well, there is one thing the IELTS does not have that the TOEFL does, and that is the ability to take the test from home. We're not gonna lie, that is a big advantage. If you are tight on time and you need a test result now, the TOEFL at home looks like a pretty good option. It's accepted in almost everywhere. All you need is a computer and a microphone and it gets a little more complicated than that. See, for one thing, you can't use a headset because nothing can be covering your ears. If all you have is a mic like this, you're not gonna be able to take the test. Other microphones on your computer might not pick you up clearly and if they don't, you can lose your test. We've seen people get their results canceled because of bad microphones, spotty internet connections, even something as simple as somebody walking into your room while you're taking the test is enough to nullify your results. The TOEFL at home is a good choice if you need something soon and you can control your test environment and you trust your technology. But if you don't have those things straightened out, you probably shouldn't do it. Honestly, I would recommend you take the Duolingo English test online before you take the TOEFL online. The Duolingo English test is much cheaper, plays by the same rules, and gets you your results faster. If you're really in a pinch for results and you need to send something now, the Duolingo English test is the way to go. But still, you might have programs that don't take the Duolingo and insist on a TOEFL or maybe you can't find test dates for an IELTS right now and it's your only chance. Go for it. Just make sure you follow all of the rules and that you prepare your computer well in advance. Do not fire it up the morning of the test, thinking, oh, I'm just gonna go and do my exam. No. Download their software day in advance, connect your computer, test it out, make sure everything's compliant so that on test day, you can knock your test out of the park. If you need additional help preparing for the TOEFL, you should check out the live stream that I did last week where I explained how to do the TOEFL writing portion complete with an example of a task one and task two. If you're still not sure which test you should take, maybe go check out the video we did last week about the IELTS or go back in time and check out the video on TOEFL versus IELTS to see you the pros and cons of each one. And of course, if you do decide to take the TOEFL and you want some help preparing for your English test, hit us up with prepwithscore.com. We've been helping people with the TOEFL and the IELTS and have had great results this year so far. So hit us up and let us know how we can help you. And that, my people, is everything you need to know about the TOEFL. I will see you next week.