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TOEFL iBT® Test

The premier test of academic English communication

Learn more by selecting any step in your TOEFL iBT® journey.

 

TOEFL iBT Listening Section

The TOEFL iBT Listening section is designed to measure your ability to understand conversations and lectures in English. It includes listening for:

  • basic comprehension
  • understanding the speaker's attitude and degree of certainty
  • connecting information

Listening questions

You’ll hear lectures and conversations in this section. Both use campus-based language.

  • 3 lectures, some with classroom discussion, each 3–5 minutes; 6 questions per lecture
  • 2 conversations, each 3 minutes; 5 questions per conversation

You can take notes on any audio item throughout the test to help you answer questions.

Test time: It should take about 36 minutes to complete the Listening section.

 

Listening videos

Watch these videos to learn about the types of questions in the Listening section, plus helpful tips.

 

Play video button thumbnail for gist content

Gist-Content and Gist-Purpose

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Function

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Attitude

Play video button thumbnail for listening organization

Organization

Play video button thumbnail for listening connecting content

Connecting Content

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Inference

Accents

The Listening section includes native-speaker English accents from North America, the U.K., New Zealand or Australia to better reflect the variety of accents you might encounter while studying abroad. For example, listen to this talk about the greenhouse effect (MP3). The lecturer is from the U.K.

 

TOEFL iBT Paper Edition

The information on this page doesn’t apply to the TOEFL iBT Paper Edition. Get information about the TOEFL iBT Paper Edition, including content, structure and timing.