Reading and Listening are multistage adaptive. Writing and Speaking are linear. The January 2026 redesign replaced the old integrated Speaking tasks entirely. Most preparation material still describes the previous test, so the section order below and the task names in it are worth checking against whatever book you are working from.
| Section | Typical time | Adaptive? |
|---|---|---|
| Reading | ~28 min | Yes — two modules |
| Listening | ~27 min | Yes — two modules |
| Writing | ~23 min | No — linear |
| Speaking | ~8 min | No — linear |
Speaking runs 11 items and has its own guide, because the redesign replaced it entirely rather than adjusting it.
Three task types across two adaptive modules. Complete the Words tests vocabulary and spelling by removing letters from a passage; Read in Daily Life covers the practical registers — notices, adverts, messages — and Read an Academic Passage is the closest to the old test. The adaptivity sits between the modules, not between items.
Complete the Words
Read in Daily Life
Read an Academic Passage
Candidates who pace themselves against the old linear Reading section run out of time here, because the second module can be substantially longer to work through than the first.
Four task types, also across two adaptive modules, and broader in register than the old test. Listen and Choose a Response is conversational and quick; Conversations and Announcements are campus-situational; the Academic Talk is the lecture-comprehension task most people expect.
Listen and Choose a Response
Listen to a Conversation
Listen to an Announcement
Listen to an Academic Talk
The short response items reward everyday listening rather than academic listening, so preparation built entirely on lecture practice leaves a gap at exactly the point the module is deciding your difficulty band.
Three task types and no independent essay. Build a Sentence is a set of short constrained items. Write an Email is a practical task with a clear purpose and audience. Write for an Academic Discussion asks you to contribute to a threaded discussion — a position, a reason, and engagement with what has already been said.
Build a Sentence~60s each
Write an Email7 min
Write for an Academic Discussion10 min
The academic discussion task is marked on whether you actually engage with the other posts. A well-written paragraph that ignores them reads as a prepared essay dropped into a conversation, which is precisely what it is.
Sections report 1–6in half points. Most published admissions requirements still name the legacy total out of 120, and ETS's concordance between the two runs through 2028 — so Overall 4.0–5.0 (legacy ~72–100) is the range a competitive application usually sits in, written both ways. Check which scale your university actually used before deciding you have missed it.
About two hours in total. Reading runs roughly 28 minutes, Listening roughly 27, Writing about 23 and Speaking about 8, with directions on top of that.
Reading and Listening are multistage adaptive — your performance on the first module determines the difficulty of the second. Writing and Speaking are linear, so everyone sits the same tasks.
It means the second module is information, not luck. Getting a noticeably harder second Reading module is a sign the first went well. It also means pacing matters more than in a linear test: there is no skipping ahead to bank easy marks, because the test is deciding what to give you next.
New score reports use 1 to 6 per section. ETS publishes a concordance to the legacy 0 to 120 total that runs through 2028, so a university requirement written on the old scale is still readable — it is just not what your report prints.
Three task types: Build a Sentence, a short set of items with about a minute each; Write an Email, with seven minutes; and Write for an Academic Discussion, with ten minutes. The old independent essay is gone.
Our TOEFL mock runs all four sections on the 2026 format — including the adaptive second modules in Reading and Listening — and returns section bands from 1 to 6. The first session is free.
This guide is written from the TOEFL iBT test format published by ETS, in our own words. For the official wording, see the ETS test content pages. MockLive AI is an independent practice tool and is not affiliated with ETS.