TOEFL before and after 21 January 2026: what changed, from ETS's own pages
Most of what circulates about the 2026 TOEFL iBT is second-hand. This page uses nothing but ETS's own material: its test-content page as it stood in December 2025, its current test-content page, its Score Guidance page and its 2026 blueprint. Where ETS describes the old test in one line, that line is what appears here. Where ETS has said nothing, this page says nothing.
The two tests, section by section
Left: ETS's section table for tests before 21 January 2026, with its descriptions as written. Right: ETS's current table, with its task-type names and approximate base times.
| Section | Before 21 January 2026 (ETS, archived) | From 21 January 2026 (ETS, current) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | 35 minutes | 20 questions | Read passages and respond to questions. | 30 min base | 50 items | Complete the Words · Read in Daily Life · Read an Academic Passage |
| Listening | 36 minutes | 28 questions | Answer questions about brief lectures or classroom discussions. | 29 min base | 47 items | Listen and Choose a Response · Listen to a Conversation · Listen to an Announcement · Listen to an Academic Talk |
| Speaking | 16 minutes | 4 tasks | Talk about a familiar topic and discuss material you read and heard. | 8 min base | 11 items | Listen and Repeat · Take an Interview |
| Writing | 29 minutes | 2 tasks | Read a passage, listen to a recording, type your response. State and support an opinion in an online classroom discussion. | 23 min base | 12 items | Build a Sentence · Write an Email · Write for an Academic Discussion |
| Whole test | “Just under 2 hours”; ETS advised planning for 2.5 hours with 30 minutes for check-in. Sections in the order Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing. | Base times total 90 minutes; ETS says to allow approximately two hours, excluding directions, and that time and item counts vary as the test adapts. The blueprint gives 1 h 23 min to 1 h 29 min of test time. Sections in the order Reading, Listening, Writing, Speaking. | ||||
What ETS said it was changing, and why
Before the switch, ETS's content page announced the update under three headings. First, an adaptive test: the updated TOEFL iBT adjusts to each candidate's ability, which ETS presents as a more efficient and more personal sitting. Second, more relevant language: a broader mix of English, moving away from what ETS itself called traditional topics such as Greek mythology towards content closer to what students meet in higher education now. Third, an updated score scale: 1 to 6 in half-point increments, aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference.
The blueprint puts numbers on the first of those. Reading and Listening are two-stage adaptive sections — everyone sits a router, and the second module is chosen from the result — while Writing and Speaking are linear. Across the test, 108 of 120 items are machine-scored and 12 are AI-scored.
The tasks, then and now
ETS described the old sections in a line each and describes the new task types on its section pages. Set side by side, the descriptions say what disappeared.
Reading
Before: Read passages and respond to questions — 20 questions in 35 minutes.
Now: Three task types across 50 items: completing partially missing words in a short text, reading short everyday texts such as notices and messages, and reading a short academic passage. ETS notes that texts are concise, that everything needed to answer is in the text, and that no prior knowledge of the topic is required.
Listening
Before: Answer questions about brief lectures or classroom discussions — 28 questions in 36 minutes.
Now: Four task types across 47 items: choosing the appropriate response to a spoken prompt, a conversation mainly about campus life, an announcement in an academic or campus setting, and a short academic talk. ETS states you may take notes while listening and may hear accents from North America, the U.K., New Zealand or Australia.
Speaking
Before: Talk about a familiar topic and discuss material you read and heard — 4 tasks in 16 minutes.
Now: Two task types across 11 items: repeating short sentences exactly as heard, which ETS says measures accurate and clearly intelligible speech; and a simulated interview about experiences and opinions, which measures clear communication, a natural pace and appropriate vocabulary and grammar. No task is built on material read or heard first.
Writing
Before: Read a passage, listen to a recording, type your response; and state and support an opinion in an online classroom discussion — 2 tasks in 29 minutes.
Now: Three task types across 12 items: arranging words or phrases into a complete, grammatical sentence or question; an email in an academic or social situation such as a request or a proposal; and the online classroom discussion, which continues. The read-listen-write task is gone. ETS states that writing-assistance software is not permitted.
The scores, then and now
Before: four section scores of 0 to 30 and a total of 0 to 120, the total being the sum of the sections. Now: four section scores of 1 to 6 in half-point steps and an overall score that is the average of the four, rounded to the nearest half band — ETS's own examples are an average of 5.25 reporting as 5.5 and an average of 5.125 reporting as 5. For two years after January 2026 a score report on the new scale also carries a comparable overall score on the 0–120 scale, which ETS defines as the midpoint of the corresponding total range.
ETS publishes the correspondence itself, for tests taken before 21 January 2026:
| Section and total (1–6) | Reading (0–30) | Listening (0–30) | Speaking (0–30) | Writing (0–30) | Total (0–120) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 29–30 | 28–30 | 28–30 | 29–30 | 114+ |
| 5.5 | 27–28 | 26–27 | 27 | 27–28 | 107+ |
| 5 | 24–26 | 22–25 | 25–26 | 24–26 | 95+ |
| 4.5 | 22–23 | 20–21 | 23–24 | 21–23 | 86+ |
| 4 | 18–21 | 17–19 | 20–22 | 17–20 | 72+ |
| 3.5 | 12–17 | 13–16 | 18–19 | 15–16 | 58+ |
| 3 | 6–11 | 9–12 | 16–17 | 13–14 | 44+ |
| 2.5 | 4–5 | 6–8 | 13–15 | 11–12 | 34+ |
| 2 | 3 | 4–5 | 10–12 | 7–10 | 24+ |
| 1.5 | 2 | 2–3 | 5–9 | 3–6 | 12+ |
| 1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–4 | 0–2 | 0+ |
Source: ETS, Score Guidance page, “TOEFL Score Comparison for Tests Taken Before January 21, 2026”. ETS's note on the table: total scores are the sum of the section scores and can be obtained with different section-score combinations.
Read from the table: a 100 on the old total sits in the row for band 5, a 90 in the row for 4.5, an 80 in the row for 4. ETS adds that institutions are updating their requirements at different times, that some still list the 0–120 format, and that because the report carries both figures a candidate can meet either without converting anything — and to contact the institution to confirm.
What did not change
- Four sections, Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing — the order changed, the set did not.
- Two ways to sit it: on a computer at an authorised test centre, or the Home Edition on a computer at home with a live human proctor.
- Notes are allowed: scratch paper and pencils at a centre; at home, a small whiteboard or a sheet of paper in a transparent protector with an erasable marker.
- No scheduled breaks — ETS says to plan accordingly.
- A test with an untouched section is not scored: at least one Reading question, one Listening question, one Speaking task and one Writing task must be completed, or no section is scored.
- Scores are valid for two years from the test date, available in the ETS account three days after the test, with unofficial Reading and Listening scores shown at the end of the sitting.
- MyBest scores continue, with a rule for mixing the two scales that is set out in the questions below.
If you prepared for the old test
Hold the two ETS descriptions of Speaking against each other: “discuss material you read and heard” against repeating sentences and answering an interviewer. Then Writing: a task that began with a passage and a recording against an email and a sentence-building task. The preparation that went into integrated note-taking, into templates for a thirty-second planning window, into two long passages and five recordings, was preparation for those tasks. The classroom discussion is the one task that carries over intact.
What carries over is the language: vocabulary, grammar, the ability to follow a lecture and to write a paragraph that takes a position. What does not is the practice. The section guides on this site cover each new task as ETS defines it, and a full-length practice test runs the 2026 format under its own rules.
Questions about the change
Which version of the test will I sit?
The one that matches your test date. ETS's content page carried a date switch — before 21 January 2026, after 21 January 2026 — and every test administered from that date is the updated one, in a test centre or as the Home Edition. There is no way to book the old format.
Are scores from the old test still valid?
Yes. ETS states that TOEFL iBT scores are valid for two years from the test date and that it will not report or send scores after that. A score earned before 21 January 2026 is reported on the 0–120 scale it was earned on; ETS notes that institutions are updating their requirements at different times and that some still list them in the 0–120 format.
How do a 1–6 score and a 0–120 score compare?
ETS publishes a comparison table — reproduced on this page — giving, for each half band, the corresponding section score out of 30 and the total out of 120. It also states that for two years after January 2026 a score report on the new scale carries a comparable overall 0–120 score, the midpoint of the corresponding total range, so a candidate can meet a requirement stated in either format without converting anything.
Is the new test easier?
ETS does not say so, and the question does not have a scale-free answer: the two tests measure with different tasks and the new one is adaptive, so it adjusts to the candidate. What ETS does say is why it changed the test — to make it adaptive, to broaden the English it uses beyond traditional academic topics, and to report on a scale aligned with the CEFR. The comparison table is ETS's own statement of what a given performance on one scale corresponds to on the other.
Does my old preparation material still work?
By ETS's own descriptions, two of the old test's four sections were built on tasks that no longer exist: Speaking's discussion of material you read and heard, and Writing's read-listen-write task. Reading no longer has twenty questions on passages; Listening no longer has 28 questions on lectures and discussions. General language work carries over. Practice built around the old tasks is practice for tasks you will not be given.
What about MyBest scores across the change?
ETS's rule: on a score report for a test taken on the 1–6 scale, the MyBest section converts older 0–120 scores to the 1–6 scale; on a report for a test taken on the 0–120 scale, the MyBest section includes only 0–120 scores. So a candidate whose best sections are split across the two formats will see them combined only on a report for a new-format test.
Sources, all ETS: the test-content page as archived on 30 December 2025 (old sections, timings, question counts and descriptions; the announcement of the change); the current test-content page (new task types, base times, the two-hour allowance, scoring notes, and the FAQs on notes, breaks, writing-assistance software and Home Edition); the Score Guidance page (the 1–6 scale, the rounded-mean rule, the comparable 0–120 score, the comparison table, availability, validity and MyBest); the 2026 Test Blueprint and Specifications (items, points, adaptivity, machine and AI scoring); and ETS's Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking section pages (task descriptions, notes, accents). Checked 6 September 2026. ExamStep is an independent practice resource and is not affiliated with ETS. TOEFL® and TOEFL iBT® are registered trademarks of Educational Testing Service.
In this series: the whole 2026 format · Reading · Listening · Writing · Speaking · The 1–6 score scale · registration, fees and dates.