The TOEFL® exam is undergoing some important changes. In order to meet the challenge of providing a more comprehensive assessment of an applicant’s ability to understand and use the English language in an academic environment, a “next generation” TOEFL® test has been developed to assess all four language skills - listening, reading, writing, and speaking. While some questions in each of the sections will be similar to questions found on the current computer-based test (CBT), others will be new. Thus, the scoring system will change as well. Each of the four language skills will now be reported on a scale of 0 to 30. There will also be a total score. In addition, the next generation TOEFL® exam will no longer have any computer-adaptive sections; it will be a linear assessment test covering a full range of levels of question difficulty. Note taking will be allowed on the new TOEFL® exam in order to better reflect real-life academic situations. The new test will take approximately four hours to finish. As of September 2005, the next generation TOEFL® iBT exam has begun to be administered via the Internet at secure, ETS®-approved test centers.
