Today I want to start a series of posts that list all of the changes to the 5th edition of the Official Guide to the TOEFL (compared to the 4th edition, of course).

ETS doesn’t really publicize changes to the test, but a careful examination of their resources is a good way to discover what is new, and how to help students best prepare for their big day.

Today’s post will be about changes to the first chapter of the book (titled “About the TOEFL iBT Test.”)


 

First, regarding the part of that chapter about the reading section:

Page 9: Under the heading “Reading Question Formats” a new format is mentioned which is: “multiple choice questions with more than one answer (for example, two correct answers out of four choices)

Page 10: Under “features” the “paraphrase questions” section has been removed. It used to read: “Questions in this category are multiple-choice format. They test your ability to select the answer choice that most accurately paraphrases a sentence from the passage.

Page 10: Under “features” the “summary question” is now called the “prose summary question.”


Next, regarding the part of that chapter about the speaking section:

Page 18: The reading part of question three is now described as 80-110 words. Formerly, it was 75-100 words. The listening part no longer has a word count mentioned (formerly it was 150-180 words).

Page 18: The reading part of question four is now described as 80-110 words. Formerly, it was 75-100 words. The listening part no longer has a word count mentioned (formerly it was 150-220 words)

Page 18: The listening part of question five no longer has a word count mentioned (formerly it was 180-220 words).

Page 18: The listening part of question six no longer has a word count mentioned (formerly it was 230-280 words).

Next, regarding the part of that chapter about the writing section:

Page 20: The article for question one is now described at 250-300 words. Formerly it was 230-300 words. The lecture for question one is now described as 250-320 words. Formerly it was 230-300 words.


Finally, regarding the rest:

Page 22-24: The score report is described differently, and the newer score report is pictured.

Page 25: The tips for reading skill building are rephrased.

Page 29: The tips for speaking practice are rephrased. There is a typo here. Come on, ETS. Get your head in the game.

Page 35: The TOEFL Sampler is now free for everyone. Fun fact: ETS actually emailed me back in the day when they wanted to promote this. The TOEFL sampler kind of sucks.

Page 36: The book now mentions that you might not get a QWERTY keyboard at the test center. It says you might get a local keyboard and a separate template to show you where all the keys are. That also kinda sucks.