On this page
What this practice test covers
It's a shortened version of the real test with all twelve task types:
| Section | In this practice test | On the real test |
|---|---|---|
| Reading | 21 questions: Complete the Words, 2 Read in Daily Life texts, 1 academic passage — 13 min | 50 items, 30 min |
| Listening | 13 questions: 5 Choose a Response, a conversation, an announcement, an academic talk — 8 min | 47 items, 29 min |
| Writing | 6 Build a Sentence, 1 email, 1 academic discussion post — 21 min | 12 items, 23 min |
| Speaking | 7 Listen and Repeat + 4 interview questions — the full section | 11 items, 8 min |
Reading and Listening pacing matches the real test per question. One honest difference: the real Reading and Listening sections are adaptive — your second module gets easier or harder based on your first. This practice test is a fixed form, so everyone sees the same questions.
Exam mode vs practice mode
- Exam mode times each section and holds all answers until the end — use it for a realistic baseline. Audio plays once, as on test day.
- Practice mode lets you check each answer and read the explanation straight away. Use it the second time through, or for the task types you missed.
Listening and Speaking prompts are read aloud by your browser's speech engine. Use headphones. For the speaking tasks, record yourself if your browser allows it (recordings stay on your device) and compare with the sample responses.
How the real TOEFL is scored
The real test reports each section and an overall score on a 1–6 scale in half-point steps; the overall is the average of the four sections, rounded to the nearest half band. For a two-year transition after January 2026, you also get a comparable 0–120 overall score.
ETS doesn't publish a simple answers-to-band conversion, and the real Reading and Listening sections are adaptive — so this practice test shows percent correct by section instead of inventing a band score, and the answer review tags every question with its task type. The email, discussion post and spoken answers are self-scored with a rubric and a sample response.
What to do after you finish
- Sort misses by task type. A weak Complete the Words score is a vocabulary-and-spelling problem; weak Choose a Response is usually pragmatics (what the speaker means, not what they say).
- Redo Build a Sentence items you missed and name the rule each one tests — question word order, passives, relative clauses.
- Rewrite your email or discussion post using the rubric: did you cover every point, pick a clear position, and add something new?
- Shadow the Listen and Repeat sentences until you can say the longest one in one smooth breath.
Then read the full TOEFL iBT guide and the 2026 changes explainer.
Official practice from ETS
For your final preparation, use ETS's own materials. The ETS prep page lists TOEFL TestReady, ETS's prep portal with practice tests, and the free 8-week TOEFL iBT Test Prep Planner with sample questions. Make sure anything you use is labeled for the updated 2026 test.
Sample questions
3 questions from this practice test, with answers and explanations. Take the full test above for timing, scoring and your weakest domains.
Read an Academic Passage
Read the passage and answer the questions.
Saving Water in the Dark
Plants face a basic trade-off. To take in the carbon dioxide they need for photosynthesis, they must open small pores on their leaves called stomata. But every time the stomata open, water vapor escapes. In hot, dry environments, this water loss can be deadly.
Many desert plants, including most cacti, solve this problem with a strategy known as crassulacean acid metabolism, or CAM. Unlike most plants, CAM plants open their stomata at night, when temperatures are lower and the air is more humid, so far less water evaporates. They absorb carbon dioxide in the dark and store it in their cells in the form of an acid. During the day, when sunlight is available, they close their stomata tightly and release the stored carbon dioxide inside the leaf, where it is used for photosynthesis.
The strategy has a cost. Because a plant can store only a limited amount of acid overnight, CAM plants generally grow more slowly than plants that take in carbon dioxide during the day. In environments where water is scarce, however, surviving matters more than growing quickly, and the ability to conserve water gives CAM plants a decisive advantage.
What is the passage mainly about?
- A. Why desert plants grow more slowly than other plants
- B. How some plants limit water loss while still carrying out photosynthesis
- C. How the structure of stomata differs between plant species
- D. Why cacti are able to survive without sunlight
Show answerHide answer
The whole passage explains the CAM strategy: collecting carbon dioxide at night to save water, then photosynthesizing by day. Slow growth (first option) is only one detail in the last paragraph. Cacti still need sunlight — photosynthesis happens during the day.
Listen to an Academic Talk
Listen to part of a talk in an astronomy class. Then answer the questions. The audio plays once.
Read the audio transcript
Female voice: Okay, so last time we talked about the Moon’s orbit. Today I want to answer a question students ask me every semester: why do we only ever see one side of the Moon?
Female voice: A lot of people assume the Moon doesn’t rotate at all. That’s actually not the case. The Moon does spin on its axis. It just takes the same amount of time to spin once as it does to orbit Earth once, about twenty-seven days. Because those two motions match, the same side always faces us. We call this tidal locking.
Female voice: So how did it happen? Early in its history, the Moon rotated faster. But Earth’s gravity pulled on the Moon and stretched it slightly, creating a bulge. As the Moon rotated, Earth’s gravity kept tugging that bulge back toward us, and this acted like a brake. Over a very long time, the Moon’s spin slowed down until it matched its orbit. At that point, there was nothing left to slow down, so it stayed that way.
Female voice: And here’s the interesting part. This isn’t unusual. Many moons in our solar system are tidally locked to their planets. In fact, for a moon that orbits close to a large planet, tidal locking is pretty much what we’d expect, given enough time.
What is the talk mainly about?
- A. How long it takes the Moon to orbit Earth
- B. Why the same side of the Moon always faces Earth
- C. How the Moon was formed
- D. Why the Moon's orbit is slowly changing
Show answerHide answer
The professor opens with the question “why do we only ever see one side of the Moon?” and spends the talk answering it. The 27-day figure is a supporting detail, not the topic.
Make an appropriate sentence by putting the words and phrases in the correct order.
A: Where did you find that article?
B: I 1 2 3 4 5 recommended.
Word bank for blanks 1–5: on / our professor / found it / that / the website
Show answerHide answer
I found it on the website that our professor recommended. Start with the verb after “I” (found it), then the place (on the website), then a relative clause describing the website (that our professor recommended). “That” has to sit directly after the noun it describes.
More TOEFL iBT guides
Frequently asked questions
Is this practice test the same length as the real TOEFL?
No. Reading and Listening are less than half the real length, at the real per-question pace; Speaking is the full section.
Why doesn’t it give me a 1–6 score?
Because a 1–6 band from a short, non-adaptive form would be a guess. You get percent correct by section, and the answer review shows the task type of every question you missed — more useful for deciding what to study.
Are these real TOEFL questions?
No. They're original questions written to mirror the official task types and difficulty. For official questions, use ETS's prep materials.
Sources & official links
- ETS — TOEFL iBT test contentets.org