Loading your exam home
TOEFL iBT · Learn
7 guides beyond the syllabus: strategy, test day, scoring and section guide.
Strategy7 min read
Where the bands are won and lost on the 2026 test. Make the routing modules count, bank near-perfect Complete the Words and Listen and Choose a Response, make Listen and Repeat word-perfect (35 of the 55 Speaking points), and apply the specific upgrades that move email, discussion and interview responses from 4 to 5.
Test day7 min read
ID and check-in rules, the Home Edition room, equipment and whiteboard requirements, note-taking materials, headset and microphone checks, the 90-minute section order with no scheduled break, the unofficial Reading and Listening scores, and the choice to report or cancel scores.
Scoring7 min read
How adaptive Reading and Listening are scored, the raw points behind Writing (20) and Speaking (55), how the overall band is averaged and rounded (5.125 → 5, 5.25 → 5.5), the CEFR mapping, the 0–120 and IELTS concordances, MyBest scores, and how Courselo mock scores map to bands.
Section guide7 min read
A 30-minute pacing plan (about 2–2.5 minutes per Complete the Words paragraph, about 1 minute per Daily Life question, 5–6 minutes per academic passage), a gap-by-gap method for Complete the Words, scanning routines for non-linear texts, and a method for each academic question type.
Section guide8 min read
How to predict the right reply in Listen and Choose a Response, the distractor patterns to reject, what to note in conversations, announcements and academic talks, how to handle ‘Why does the speaker mention…?’ questions, and accent training for North American, British and Australian speakers.
Section guide8 min read
The subject-and-verb-first method for Build a Sentence with its distractor checks, a 7-minute email routine covering all three points with the right register, a 10-minute Academic Discussion routine (plan, position, reason–example chain, proofread), and the error checklist that separates 4 from 5.
Section guide6 min read
Chunking and shadowing drills for exact repetition, how the score changes with each dropped word, answer frameworks for experience and opinion interview questions with no preparation time, and the pronunciation and fluency fixes that most affect AI scoring.