TOEFL iBT® Test Writing Section
What Is In the Writing Section?
The TOEFL iBT® test Writing section is designed to measure your ability to write in English in an academic setting, and you're expected to be able to present your ideas in a clear, well-organized manner.
There are 2 writing tasks.
- Integrated writing task (20 minutes) — read a short passage and listen to a short lecture, then write in response to what you read and listened to.
- Independent writing task (30 minutes) — write an essay based on personal experience or opinion in response to a writing topic.
You'll type your responses on a computer keyboard (or hand write them for the TOEFL iBT® Paper Edition). Responses are sent to ETS, where they are scored by a combination of AI scoring and certified human raters to ensure fairness and quality.
You'll have 50 minutes to complete the Writing section.
Practice Your Writing Skills
Get The Official Guide to the TOEFL® Test for a list of sample writing topics. You can purchase the Guide through your , either online or via the TOEFL official app.
Inside the TOEFL® Test
These Inside the TOEFL® Test videos describe the types of questions you will find in the Writing section, plus helpful tips.
View Transcripts
Do You Need to Be an Expert?
The writing tasks are designed to measure your English proficiency, so you don't need deep knowledge of specialized topics to get a high score. Raters recognize that each essay is a first draft, and you can receive a high score with an essay that contains some errors. See the Writing Scoring Guides (Rubrics) for more information about how the essays are scored.
