TOEFL Exam Syllabus 2025:Reading, Listening, Speaking & Writing
TOEFL Contains Four Sections: Speaking, Writing, Reading, and Listening.
The TOEFL Exam Lasts for Around 2 Hours
Introduction to TOEFL Exam Syllabus 2025
The TOEFL exam is one of the most popular English language assessment tests where candidates need to prove their proficiency in the English language. It is conducted by ETS. However, the TOEFL exam syllabus includes four sections that are as follows: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. Now this much information is not enough for students to know. Thus, in this blog, we have mentioned the TOEFL exam syllabus 2025 section-wise in detail along with the preparation tips.
TOEFL Syllabus 2025: Quick Glance
TOEFL syllabus includes the topics and other aspects of the exam that help the students prepare for all four sections. Thus, in the table below we have mentioned a glance at TOEFL exam syllabus 2025 for students.
| Sections | Number of Questions | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| TOEFL Reading | 20 questions | 35 minutes | Read passages and respond to questions |
| TOEFL Listening | 28 questions | 36 minutes | Answer the questions about brief lectures or classroom discussions |
| TOEFL Speaking | 4 tasks | 16 minutes | Talk about a familiar topic and what you have heard and read |
| TOEFL Writing | 2 tasks | 29 minutes | Read a passage, listen to a recording, and type your response |
TOEFL Exam Syllabus: Reading Section
The TOEFL reading section evaluates your understanding of long texts. It generally focuses on how the candidate reacts to the complex sentence patterns, vocabulary, intent and tone. It covers two reading passages, each approximately 700 words long, with 10 questions per passage. Now understand the TOEFL syllabus of the reading section below along with the question types.
Types of Questions in TOEFL Reading Section
- Reading Factual Information: These questions focus on recognizing the major ideas, supporting details, and definitions.
- Inference & Rhetorical: These questions demand you to identify the information or understand an idea that is not specifically mentioned in the passage. It involves answering the questions that why the author presented the specific information.
- Reading Vocabulary: In these questions, you need to discover or figure out the meaning of the words and phrases used in the passage.
- Sentence Simplification: These questions require you to identify those sentence that has the same meaning as in the original passage.
- Insert Text Question: In these questions, you need to evaluate the logical order of ideas in the passage. Every reading passage have one type of this question.
TOEFL Exam Syllabus: Listening Section
The TOEFL listening section checks your ability to understand English lectures and conversations. It includes three lectures, some with classroom discussions, each 3-5 minutes; 6 questions per lecture and 2 conversations, each 3 minutes; 5 questions per conversation. You can take notes while listening to the audio which will help you answer the questions. Below is the detailed syllabus of TOEFL listening section for a better understanding.
Types of Questions in TOEFL Listening Section
- Gist-content and Gist-purpose: Gist-content questions ask you to find the main topic or idea for the listening conversation or lecture. However, in the gist purpose you will be asked to figure out the main purpose of the lecture.
- Detail Questions: To answer these questions, you need to remember the specific details or facts about the lecture you have listened to. So this question is about conceptual details not basic details.
- Function Questions: These type of questions asks you to locate the specific meaning of the statement in a given context, as the meaning of each statement differs from situation to situation.
- Attitude Questions: It is one of the types of questions that test your ability to understand the speaker’s feelings or attitudes towards something.
- Organization Questions: These questions are asked to show your understanding of the structure of the lecture.
- Connecting Content Questions: In these questions, you need to identify the relationships among the ideas in the lecture.
- Inference Questions: These questions evaluate your understanding of the ideas that are not specifically mentioned in the passage.
TOEFL Exam Syllabus: Speaking Section
The TOEFL speaking section includes four types of questions or tasks, that test your ability to speak English in academic settings. You must be aware of the real-life situations that you could encounter in and outside of the classroom. The duration of this section is around 16 to 17 minutes. Now have a brief look at the TOEFL exam syllabus 2025 for the speaking section.
Types of Questions in TOEFL Speaking Section
- Independent Speaking: In task 1, you need to present your ideas, views or opinions, and experiences. You will get 15 seconds to prepare the answer and 45 seconds to speak on it.
- Integrated Speaking: This task deals with campus-related situations. In this task, you will read a passage and will listen to the conversation about the topic. Then, you will get 30 seconds to make your response ready and 60 seconds to speak out.
- Integrated Speaking Tasks 3 & 4: These questions will be related to the academic courses. You will read a passage and you will listen to the audio too on the same subject. You can use the 30-second time to prepare your response and 60 seconds to speak.
TOEFL Exam Syllabus: Writing Section
The TOEFL writing section is designed to test your English writing in academic settings and your ability to communicate ideas clearly and logically. The writing section is of around 29 minutes. Now have a look at the TOEFL exam syllabus for the writing section in detail.
Types of Questions in TOEFL Writing Section
- Integrated Writing Task: You need to read a short passage and a short lecture. And, then you need to write your response based on what you have read and heard. It must contain 150-225 words.
- Independent Writing Task: You will be given a question or topic and asked to write an essay based on an issue. You must plan your response in at least 300 words.
TOEFL Preparation Tips
Understanding the TOEFL exam syllabus is not enough if you are willing to take the exam in the upcoming months. Thus, this section will let you know some tips and tricks that will help you in preparing the TOEFL test.
- Create a study routine or plan that includes all four communication skills.
- Know the TOEFL syllabus or format before appearing for the exam.
- Work on your vocabulary for all the sections of the TOEFL exam.
- Appear for the TOEFL practice test to familiarize yourself with the format or to prepare for the TOEFL exam.
- Manage your time wisely on the test day and complete each section within the given time limit.
- Practice speaking to yourself to avoid language barriers and so that you can build confidence.
- To cover all the TOEFL exam syllabus pick up a study guide and get your hands on it.
- Become a good note taker when you are listening to the audio in the TOEFL listening section.
TOEFL Sample Paper
Why taking a TOEFL sample paper is important? The TOEFL exam requires the candidates to have a good command of the English language. Like the other tests, the TOEFL exam is also divided into four sections. Thus, understanding TOEFL exam syllabus for each section is vital as they play an importance in the overall exam so it needs to be prepared accordingly. Thus, you must test your abilities through TOEFL sample paper 2025 to see how you are performing in the TOEFL exam.
Conclusion
To conclude, we discussed the TOEFL exam syllabus 2025 for students. We believe that you have understood it all in detail. However, there can be many challenges that you can face while attempting the TOEFL test. That’s where Gradding.com stands out as your support. Connect with us and understand everything about the TOEFL exam 2025. Further, you can get access to our TOEFL exam syllabus PDF for better exposure.
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Frequently Asked Questions
The syllabus of TOEFL exam consists of four sections: listening, writing, speaking, and reading. Furthermore, the total duration of the TOEFL exam is 2 hours.
The TOEFL test is generally considered a difficult exam, for non-native speakers. However, by understanding the exam format or pattern you can achieve good scores.
The TOEFL scores are valid for two years from the test date.
The level of difficulty varies from person to person, but the speaking section is frequently mentioned as the most difficult part of the test.
A good TOEFL score is generally 100 or higher through which you can be considered in most of the colleges.
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