How to prepare for the TOEFL in 2026

The test you’ll take isn’t the one most books and videos describe. Since January 21, 2026, it has new task types, Reading and Listening that adapt to how you do, and scores on a 1 to 6 band scale. Spend your first few hours learning how each task works before you practice anything. Our 2026 format overview covers the whole test, and each task has its own guide:

• Reading: Complete the Words, Read in Daily Life and Read an Academic Passage.
• Listening: Listen and Choose a Response, Listen to a Conversation, Listen to an Announcement and Listen to an Academic Talk.
• Writing: Build a Sentence, Write an Email and Write for an Academic Discussion.
• Speaking: Listen and Repeat and Take an Interview.

Check each school’s or program’s current English requirement. It may be given as a band on the 1–6 scale or as an old 0–120 total. For an old total, ETS’s own table shows which band it falls in:

A band covers a range, so a band 5 includes an old 95 as well as a 105. If your school asks for an old total near the bottom of a band, ask which band it accepts now. Our score calculator converts between the scales, and Is the new TOEFL easier? explains what the bands mean.

Before you plan anything, take one full practice test in the 2026 format, timed and in one sitting. Don’t study for it first: the point is an honest starting point. Look at two things afterward: your band in each section, and which task types cost you the most points.

How long you need depends on the gap between your first score and your target, not on a fixed number of weeks. As a rough guide from our own plans:

• Within half a band of your target: about four weeks at an hour a day is usually enough. Our 4-week study plan lays it out day by day.
• Short on time: the study plan has a two-week version that keeps two full tests and focuses the rest on your weakest sections.
• A band or more below your target in a section: plan for longer, and repeat the weeks for that section before moving on.

This is our advice, matched to how each section works. For a tip on every single task, see TOEFL tips for 2026.

1. 1

   Reading: short texts, read closely

   Read a little every day, from news articles and notices to short pieces of non-fiction, and practice guessing a word’s meaning from the sentence around it. Complete the Words rewards spelling the missing part of each word exactly, so notice how common words are spelled.

2. 2

   Listening: one listen, with notes

   Listen to talks, podcasts and conversations once only, taking a few words of notes as you go, then check what you caught. On the test, you hear every recording once and can’t go back to the first module once you’re in the second.

3. 3

   Writing: type it, and give your view first

   Practice on a keyboard, timed. Learn the shape of a polite email, and for the academic discussion, state your opinion in your first sentence, then support it with a reason and an example.

4. 4

   Speaking: say it out loud, every day

   Repeat sentences you hear exactly, small words and endings included, and record yourself answering a question in 45 seconds. Listening back is the quickest way to hear what needs work.

Skills only count if they hold up under test conditions. Once you know the tasks, practice them timed, hear each recording once, and don’t go back to change answers in a module you’ve finished. In your last week or two, take full tests in one sitting: there are no scheduled breaks, so building stamina for about an hour and a half matters.

After each practice test, spend as long reviewing it as you spent taking it. Our study plan shows how to review a practice test so each one teaches you something.

Plenty of well-prepared students lose their test to an ID problem or a late arrival. A week before, check that your ID matches your registration exactly, and if you’re testing at home, run the equipment check. Our test day checklist covers both a test center and the Home Edition, and how long the TOEFL takes times every section.

A lot of TOEFL material was written for the test before January 2026, and practicing the wrong tasks wastes your time. A book, course or video was made for the old test if it:

• reports scores only on the 0–120 scale, with no 1–6 bands;
• includes an “independent essay” or “integrated” Speaking and Writing tasks;
• never mentions Complete the Words, Build a Sentence, Listen and Repeat or Take an Interview.