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About
the Exam
TOEFL is to be taken for seeking admission in any course in
USA and Canada. The score is also used for admission in many other
countries where the medium of instruction is English. The test aims
at evaluating proficiency in English of candidates whose mother
tongue is not English. It is important to note that 'American
English' is not quite like the language we are used to in India.
Their accent in particular, is quite different. Scores in TOEFL
help the colleges to judge whether the applicant, seeking admission,
would be able to comprehend the lectures etc.
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Exam
Structure
OEFL has been introduced as a computer based test in most of
the countries. The computer-based test has four sections
The first two sections- Listening and Structure are computer
adaptive, meaning, each time a question is answered, the computer
scores that question and adjusts to the response. It determines the
next question to be presented to the candidate by using this
information. Both of these are multiple-choice sections and the
candidate is presented with a question of moderate difficulty at
first. If answered correctly, the second question will be tougher
and if the response is incorrect the second question would be
easier. The computer will continue presenting questions based on the
responses, with the goal of determining the ability level of the
candidate and at the same time meeting the requirement of the test
for which it is designed.
Listening Section evaluates the ability of the candidate to
understand English as spoken in US and Canada. Candidates are given
headphones to hear recorded sessions. The questions based on the
recording appear on the screen and thereafter the answer choices
appear. The time spent in hearing the test material is not counted,
however the material and the questions are presented only once.
Structure Section contains incomplete and incorrect sentences. These
are required to be completed or corrected by using words/phrases
from the given choice
The other two sections are Reading and Writing respectively. These
sections are not 'computer adaptive' since the selection of passages
and topics in them are not based on the performance of the
candidate. The section on Reading contains short passages and
questions on them. It measures the ability of the candidate to
comprehend short passages, similar to those, which he may actually
encounter while pursuing the actual course. The section on Writing
comprises of essay writing on a given topic, within 30 minutes. The
candidate has the option to type out his essay on the computer or
write it on a sheet
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