On January 21, 2026, ETS changed both the format and the score scale of the TOEFL iBT at the same time. The exam is shorter and partly adaptive, and scores are now reported as 1–6 bands instead of out of 120.
Test Ninjas Research · Updated September 11, 2026
Most TOEFL material you will find online still describes the old exam. Guides referring to four reading passages, six speaking tasks or the independent essay were written for a test that no longer exists. Check the publication date of anything you study from.
Before and after
The pre-2026 TOEFL iBT compared with the current exam
Before
Now
Score scale
0–120 total, 0–30 per section
1.0–6.0 bands, 0.5-point steps
Overall score
Sum of four section scores
Average of four section bands, rounded to nearest half band
CEFR on the report
Not reported directly
Reported directly; band 5 indicates C1 for a skill
Delivery
Linear throughout
Reading and Listening two-stage adaptive; Speaking and Writing linear
Total items
Around 80
120, including unscored trial items
Reading
Passages with comprehension sets
50 items — 30 Complete the Words + 20 comprehension
AI-scored for the 12 constructed responses; rest machine scored
The scoring change
This is the change most likely to trip you up, because it alters what a number means. Under the old scale your total was the sum of four section scores out of 30. Now each section gets a band from 1.0 to 6.0, and your overall score is their average, rounded to the nearest half band.
Two consequences follow. First, the overall score sits on the same scale as the sections, so a “5.0 overall” and a “5.0 in Reading” are directly comparable in a way that 100 and 25 never were. Second, because the result is rounded to half bands, a single section can tip your overall score in a way that a one-point change on the old scale never could. The score calculator shows exactly where that rounding falls.
Dual reporting during the transition
For 2 years from the launch, every score report carries three things: your CEFR level, your 1–6 overall and section bands, and a comparable overall score on the retired 0–120 scale. That is deliberate — it gives institutions time to restate published requirements. Until they do, the score converter is the reliable way to compare a band against a requirement written in the old numbers.
The format change
Reading and Listening now use a two-stage adaptive design: a routing stage, then either a lower or an upper difficulty module. Speaking and Writing stay linear. That is why total test time is a range rather than a fixed number.
The current section structure
Section
Items
Delivery
Weight
Reading
50
Adaptive
35 raw pts
Listening
47
Adaptive
35 raw pts
Speaking
11
Linear
55 raw pts
Writing
12
Linear
20 raw pts
New task types
Three task types have no counterpart on the old exam. Complete the Words accounts for 30 of Reading’s 50 items. Sentence reconstruction accounts for 10 of Writing’s 12. And Speaking is now an interview format of 11 short items rather than a handful of prepared tasks. If you are returning to the TOEFL after a previous attempt, these three are where your familiarity is worth least.
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Two things at once, both effective January 21, 2026. The format became shorter and partly adaptive, with new task types and a total test time under 90 minutes. And the score scale changed from 0-120 to a 1-6 band scale in 0.5-point steps, with the overall score now an average of the four section bands rather than a sum.
It is shorter, but shorter is not the same as easier. Reading and Listening are now adaptive, so strong performance routes you into a harder module. The task types also changed — Complete the Words in Reading, sentence reconstruction in Writing, an interview format in Speaking — so familiarity built on old materials transfers less than you would expect.
Yes, for their normal two-year validity. Institutions read them against the ETS concordance. And for a 2-year transition period, every new score report also carries a comparable overall score on the retired 0-120 scale alongside your bands and CEFR level.
The band scale maps directly onto the CEFR — the international framework used to describe language proficiency — rather than to a numeric scale unique to one exam. ETS states that a band 5 in a section indicates C1 proficiency for that skill, which is a more portable statement than "24 out of 30".
With care. Content practice — reading academic prose, following lectures, speaking fluently — still transfers. Format-specific practice largely does not: the four-passage Reading section, the six-task Speaking section and the independent essay no longer exist. Anything promising "the TOEFL essay" is describing a test you will not sit.
Between about 1 hour 23 minutes and 1 hour 29 minutes. The range exists because the adaptive modules in Reading and Listening differ in length depending on how you are routed.