{"id":2479,"date":"2015-11-24T09:38:18","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T17:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=2479"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:44:43","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:44:43","slug":"toefl-tuesday-how-long-to-study-for-the-toefl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-tuesday-how-long-to-study-for-the-toefl\/","title":{"rendered":"TOEFL Tuesday: How Long to Study for the TOEFL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I imagine you\u2019re not surprised that there\u2019s no simple answer to this question. After all, some people need to improve more than other people. But hopefully this video can give a bit of context.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So here\u2019s what to do:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"TOEFL Tuesday: How Long To Study For The TOEFL\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XdlokFLtm48?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What score do you need?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Most university programs have minimum or recommended scores for applicants, often for individual sections of the TOEFL. This greatly affects your goal\u2014you should aim for a score above the minimums of the programs you\u2019re applying to.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That information is usually on the admissions offices\u2019 websites, so start your research there. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-scores\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our infographic of TOEFL score requirements<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will also help. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What do you need to improve?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>If you\u2019ve taken the TOEFL before, that helps a lot, because you know exactly how many points you need to improve by. If you only need to improve your score by a few points (5 or fewer), one month is enough for many students. If you need closer to 10 points, it may take a few months of regular training and English usage. If you need 20 points, then simply studying the TOEFL and the skills that it rewards may not be enough. You may need to improve your general English abilities a lot, which can take time\u2014sometimes years. Do not expect to see a 20 point improvement in just a couple months.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having taken the test before also gives you a clear idea of what skills you should practice more. Think carefully about that experience. What parts of the test caused you trouble? Some skills are faster to improve than others. If you had trouble with the timer in the reading section, for example, you might learn better test-taking strategy in just a few weeks to improve that. If you had trouble with listening and taking notes at the same time, that may take longer. And if you had trouble speaking smoothly because you forgot the words and grammar you needed, that may take months of regular speaking practice to improve.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you haven\u2019t taken the TOEFL before, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ets.org\/toefl\/test-takers\/ibt\/prepare\/practice-tests.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">use some official practice<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to get a better idea of what you need to improve: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the material seems straightforward and you\u2019re already comfortable, you can probably study in under a month.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you understand the majority of the language, but have trouble with the format of the test, it may be 1-3 months of preparation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the general language level is very difficult for you, getting to a high TOEFL score (&gt;90) could take years<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp; <\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How much time do you have?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you only need to take the TOEFL, and you know how much time you have until the test, start preparing now! <\/span><b>Use all the time you can<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to be absolutely sure that you know the test well and will score as high as you can. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But if you also need to taking another test, then you may have to divide your time. For example, if you\u2019re taking both the TOEFL and the GRE in three months, you will have to choose how much time to spend on the TOEFL and how much time to spend on the GRE. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In general, I recommend spending more time on the other test (GRE, GMAT, SAT) because they have more advanced English than the TOEFL and require math skills as well\u2014they are <\/span><b>bigger<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> tests. So if you have three months for both the TOEFL and the GRE, you may choose to spend two months preparing for the GRE and one for the TOEFL, for example. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I imagine you\u2019re not surprised that there\u2019s no simple answer to this question. After all, some people need to improve more than other people. But hopefully this video can give a bit of context. So here\u2019s what to do: What score do you need? Most university programs have minimum or recommended scores for applicants, often [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13602],"tags":[13621],"ppma_author":[13628],"class_list":["post-2479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prep","tag-video"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TOEFL Tuesday: How Long to Study for the TOEFL - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-tuesday-how-long-to-study-for-the-toefl\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TOEFL Tuesday: How Long to Study for the TOEFL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I imagine you\u2019re not surprised that there\u2019s no simple answer to this question. 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