Aim for English
Skills you need in TOEFL iBT
TOEFL iBT at a glance
Back to the TOEFL resource homepage
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- TOEFL iBT overview and general tips
- The language you'll need in TOEFL
- Independent tasks in TOEFL iBT
- Integrated tasks in TOEFL iBT
- The importance of taking notes
- Understanding inferences in TOEFL
- Understanding stated details
- Understanding main ideas
- Summarising
- Know your own English
- Skills you'll need in iBT
- Writing in TOEFL
- Speaking in TOEFL
- Listening in TOEFL
- Reading in TOEFL
TOEFL iBT tip of the month
TOEFL assesses your ability to communicate in an academic environment. There are similarities in reading, listening, speaking and writing questions. While your English has to be very good, the test won’t be impossible if you learn a few skills and do as much practice as possible.
More TOEFL links
Skills you need in TOEFL iBT
All these are tested:
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Making inferences
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Using main ideas and details
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Skimming and scanning
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Using context clues
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Summarising
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Paraphrasing
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Using detailed examples
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Using rhetorical structures
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Comparing and contrasting
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Using cohesive devices
Skills you need in TOEFL
Universities ask students to take the TOEFL test because they want to see how you use English. They need you to communicate in an interesting way: understand what people need from you, select important information and say it in a clear way.
For this reason, there are questions around summarising. Also, you’ll be asked to see the difference between main ideas and details. Sometimes those details will be stated, and at other times they’ll be inferred. When you see this, you should practice note-taking to be prepared for these questions.
These skills are needed for the test because university lecturers want you to be ready for study at a tertiary level.