TOEFL iBT cheat sheet

Format: 2 passages with about 10 questions each, 35 minutes total, so roughly 17 minutes per passage.

Question order follows passage order, except prose summary, fill-in-table, and insert-text items.

Prose summary: 6 choices, select 3, worth up to 2 points; wrong options are minor details or distortions of the passage.

Negative factual (NOT/EXCEPT): three options are verifiable in the text; the answer is contradicted or never mentioned.

Vocabulary items test the word as used in that sentence; the correct synonym preserves sentence meaning, not the most common dictionary sense.

Inference answers follow necessarily from stated facts; any option requiring outside knowledge or opinion is a distractor.

Sentence simplification: keep the original's core meaning and logical connector (cause, contrast, concession) and drop examples and minor details.

No penalty for wrong answers; every question counts equally toward the 0-30 section score.

Format: 2 conversations (5 questions each) plus 3 lectures (6 questions each) = 28 questions, about 36 minutes.

Each recording plays exactly once; note-taking is permitted and expected.

Questions are answered in order and cannot be revised once confirmed, unlike Reading questions.

Function items ask what the speaker is doing (agreeing, correcting, clarifying); answer the action, not the literal words.

The gist-purpose item usually comes first and asks why the speaker is there or the main topic.

Wrong options often quote the audio verbatim while inverting or distorting the relationship between ideas.

Vocal stress, repetition, and self-correction by the professor mark content likely to be tested; digressions usually are not.

Each question is worth one point; the raw score converts to a 0-30 section score.

Two tasks: Integrated (20 minutes, 150-225 words) and Academic Discussion (10 minutes, 100+ words), about 29 minutes total.

Integrated: the lecture typically challenges the reading's three points one by one, so mirror that structure in three paragraphs.

Text copied from the reading passage is excluded from the word count; paraphrase the points.

In Integrated scoring, accurate and complete coverage of the lecture points outweighs grammatical polish.

Academic Discussion: answer the professor's question, state a clear position, and explicitly engage at least one student's post.

Target 150-200 words for the discussion post, reserving about 2 minutes to proofread.

Each task is scored holistically 0-5; the average is converted to a 0-30 section score.

Off-topic or memorized-template responses are capped regardless of grammar quality.

Four tasks, about 17 minutes total; each is scored 0-4 on delivery, language use, and topic development.

Task 1 (independent): 15 seconds preparation, 45 seconds response, defending a personal preference.

Tasks 2 and 3: 45-second reading plus audio, 30 seconds preparation, 60 seconds response.

Task 4: listening only, 20 seconds preparation, 60 seconds response.

Task 2 answer must state the student's opinion plus the two reasons given.

Task 3 answer must define the term from the reading and then apply it to the lecture's example.

Task 4 answer must explain one concept using the two examples from the lecture; no reading support exists.

The four task scores are averaged and converted to a 0-30 section score.