TOEFL Tip #124: EXTRA! EXTRA! ETS Changes TOEFL Reading Section

by Strictly English TOEFL Tutors on October 12, 2011

ETS  announced on October 7th  that starting November 1, 2011 the Reading section of the TOEFL will have two major changes to it.

1. There will now only be ONE Experimental Reading passage on tests that have a “long” Reading section.

2. TOEFL will no longer break up the Reading section into two differently timed sections.

To understand these changes, we first have to explain how the Reading section has been administered until now. Previously, you were given the first passage with 20 minutes on the timer. Then, you received TWO passages and 40 minutes on the timer. If you received an “Experimental” Reading section, you were given TWO MORE passages and 40 more minutes. (The Experimental Section allows TOEFL to test out new passages to see if they have any mistakes in them. It’s their way of “beta testing” passages before those passages are used in a real test.) You wouldn’t know if the first 40-minute section or the second 40-minute section was the Experimental Section, which means you had to complete all five passages. This took 1 hour and 40 minutes! TOO LONG!!!  In addition, once the first passage’s time was up, you could not return to that passage again. (Although our research did find a bug in the programming: if you clicked on the REVIEW button and then clicked on a question from passage one, you could get back to the first passage.) This was bad because if you had time remaining after you answered every question, you could only go back and change answers in passages two and three, but not in passage one.

Well, enough test takers must have complained because now, instead of 5 passages (3 that you’re graded on and 2 that you’re not graded on) you’ll now receive only 4 (3 that you’re graded on and only 1 that you’re not graded on).

This might not seem like much of a change, but shortening the Reading by 20 minutes will be a huge improvement. Now, test takers will not get as tired before having to take the three other sections of the test. Even Strictly English tutors are exhausted after 1 hour and 40 minutes of Reading questions.

Frankly, we at Strictly English don’t think that ETS shortened the Reading section based on test taker feedback. ETS has consistently proved that it’s not really interested in customer service, as evidenced by how little they care about the deplorable test center conditions. Instead, we think that this is a direct response to the PTE Academic, a competing English Proficiency test that is only about 2.5 hours long, which is about 1.5 hours shorter than the TOEFL iBT.

Regardless of the reason, this is FANTASTIC news for test takers. You won’t be as tired entering the Listening section of the test, and you’ll get out of the exam in under 4 hours now.

As for all the passages being grouped into one timed section, this is also wonderful news. Now you can note on a piece of paper all the questions that you want to return to. And if you have time remaining, you can go back to any of the passages’ questions. MUCH BETTER!

THANK YOU ETS!!!!

Categories: Reading
5 comments so far

5 comments so far. Leave a comment.

  1. Irina Kazarian

    wrote on October 17, 2011 at 1:03 pm

    Really good news! I’m sure all my students will appreciate it.

  2. Kate Wong

    wrote on October 20, 2011 at 8:05 pm

    Hope they will now consider revising the reading section of the TOEIC exam!

  3. Strictly English TOEFL Tutors

    wrote on October 20, 2011 at 8:41 pm

    From your typing fingers to ETS’s inbox!!!

  4. StrictlyEnglish | Blog » Not all TOEFL Books Are Created Equal

    wrote on October 25, 2011 at 9:09 am

    [...] real test). This is because some of the books have not been revised recently. For example, when the Reading Section changes on Nov 1, all the books will be describing that section incorrectly. Also, Task 1 of the Speaking changed [...]

  5. StrictlyEnglish | Blog » The Year In Review

    wrote on December 30, 2011 at 6:42 pm

    [...] Additional topics about the Speaking section included elocution, diction, speaking with feeling, blending sounds, and news about a change to Speaking Task One. The Listening section also featured posts about using metaphoric idioms, and listening to public radio. In the Writing section, we discussed how less is more, touch typing, and using a QWERTY keyboard. We also spread the word about changes in the Reading section. [...]

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