All of the TOEFL Changes in 2019-2020 (Updated)

All of the TOEFL Changes in 2019-2020 (Updated) TOEFL Changes in 2019-2020 (Updated February 22, 2020)The TOEFL changed on August 1, 2019. Major changes to the reading, listening and speaking sections began on that day. Since then, ETS has announced a series of smaller changes (shorter wait times between tests, instant scoring, etc). Most of these changes have been well-publicized, but some of them are secret changes. Heres what you need to note.Reading Section ChangesYou will still getthree or four passages to read.If you get four passages, one of them will be an experimental passage that is not graded.Each reading passage will have 9 or 10 questions, instead of 12 to 14 questions. You will be given54 minutes (three passages) or 74 minutes (four passages) to finish the reading section.This means you will have about 18 minutes per passage and105 seconds per question(instead of 90 seconds like on the old test). Note that you may be required to achieve increased accuracy, so it is not safe to say that this change makes the reading s ection easier.If the total number of questions for a passage is9, that means a fill in a table question will appear as the last question. According to ETS, each passage will have exactly 10 questions every time, but this is incorrect information.The articles are the same length and difficulty level as before.Thesame typesof questions are used. Note that fill in a table and pronounreference questions havereturned to the test. Expect to get them.Unofficial reading scores are now given at the test center as soon as you finish the test.Listening Section ChangesYou will listen totwo or three sets of listening materials. Each set will consist of either one conversation and two lectures (long set), or one conversation and one lecture (short set).The long set has 17 questions and you will be given 10 minutes to solve them. The short set has 11 questions and you will be given 6.5 minutes to solve them. Note that the clock does not run while you are listening. This means you have about 35 sec ondsto solve each question, which is the same as on the old test. Some students have been given 7 minutes to solve the short set. The reason for this is unknown.If you are given three sets, the third will be an additional short set. In this case one of your lectures and one of your conversations will not be graded. These experimental passages could come from any of the sets.Notethat the length of the passages is unchanged, and the difficulty level is unchanged. All of the same question types are being used.Unofficial listening scores are now given at the test center as soon as you finish the test.Speaking Section ChangesSpeaking Question1(personal preference) andSpeaking Question 5 (campus situation) have been removed from the test. The remaining questions are the same as before. Note, however, that multiple choice and advantages/disadvantages questions are not being used in the new question one.Your score is now determined byone human raterand the SpeechRater software. This is call ed Enhanced Speaking Scoring by ETS. The SpeechRater software is new. Previously, students were graded only by human raters.OverallIt now takes about three hours to finish the TOEFL, instead of 3.5 hours (not counting administrative stuff and your break). The test is still scored out of 120 points, and each section still has equal weight.TOEFL Scoring ChangesMyBest ScoresYourTOEFL score report now contains asection referred to as MyBest Scores.This section combines the best result from each section of the test you have gotten over all of your attempts over the past two years. For example, if you take the test multiple times it will combine the best individual writing, speaking, reading and listening scores you achieved on all of the attempts. Note that some schools may not accept these scores and will continue to only accept single test scores. So far, most schools are not accepting these scores, but you can see my (incomplete) list of schools that accept them over here.Less Specifi c Score ReportsIn the past, students received overall speaking and writing scores, as well as specific level assessments (limited, weak, fair, good) for each of their writing tasks and for pairs of their speaking tasks. This indicated which parts of the test they did well on, and which parts they did poorly on. Those levels have now been removed from the score reports. Students onlyget overall scores now.Faster Score Reports and Score ReviewsIt now takes just six days to get your score (it used to take ten days). It now takes just three days to get a score review. Note that the SpeechRater is not used when a score review is requested.TOEFL Registration ChangesStudents can now take the test once per week. Previously they could only take the test once every two weeks.It is now possible to register for the test justtwo days before it is given.New Official TOEFL Test Prep ResourcesETS has suggested that a new version of the Official Guide to the TOEFL will be published in June, 2020. Th is is not official, however.ETS now provides a new free sample test which uses modified versions of the old TOEFL Quick Prep sets. They have also provided some new question PDFs which you canread about on my blog.OlderTOEFLTrends 2018 and 2019To quickly summarize, there are sixmain trends weve noticed in 2018 and 2019 that are separate from the announced changes described above:Independent writing question prompts are getting longer. They are sometimes as long as six sentences!A warning to not used memorized examples is sometimes displayed at the end of the independent writing question.In multiple-choice independent writing questions, students are sometimes told they can choose more than one option.Independent speaking question promptsare getting longer.It is now possible to get 25 points in the speaking section. Previously this was impossible.Check Out Our Video Series on the ChangesSign up for express essay evaluation today!Submit your practice TOEFL essays for evaluation by the author of this website. Get feedback on grammar, structure, vocabulary and more. Learn how to score better on the TOEFL. Feedback in 48 hours.Sign Up Today