What the TOEFL is and who takes it · TOEFL คืออะไรและมีใครบ้างที่สอบ
English
TOEFL iBT is the English test most often accepted by universities in the United States, and it is
taken all over the world. It does not test what you know about English. It tests whether you can
use it: read a page from a textbook, follow a lecture 讲座, answer an email, and speak back.
It is made by ETS, an American organisation, and it is taken on a computer at a test
centre or at home.
Almost every Chinese student applying to a university in the United States or Canada may use it.
Many universities in the UK, Australia and Europe accept it as well — but always check the page
for your course, because the number they ask for is written there and nowhere else.
Four skills are tested in one sitting: Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking, in that
order.
⚠ The test changed in January 2026, and most advice on the internet is older than that. If a
book, a video or a shared question file talks about a 0 to 120 score, or about an "Integrated Writing" task
where you read a passage and hear a lecture, it is describing the old test. The sections below
describe the test you will actually sit.
The shape of the test from January 2026 · รูปแบบการทดสอบตั้งแต่เดือนมกราคม 2026
English
The test is now adaptive 自适应: it looks at how you are doing and gives you items at a level
that matches you. Two students sitting on the same day do not see the same questions.
Section
About
Items
What is in it
Reading
30 minutes
about 50
Complete the Words, Read in Daily Life, Read an Academic Passage
Listening
29 minutes
about 47
Listen and Choose a Response, Listen to a Conversation, Listen to an Announcement, Listen to an Academic Talk
Writing
23 minutes
about 12
Build a Sentence, Write an Email, Write for an Academic Discussion
Speaking
8 minutes
about 11
Listen and Repeat, Take an Interview
ETS asks you to allow about two hours in total. The exact time and the exact number of items
vary, because the test adapts as you go.
Two things follow from "adaptive", and both change how you should practise. First, you cannot
work out your score from a number of right answers — the same 30 correct answers mean different
things depending on how hard the items were. Second, the test gets harder when you do well.
Meeting difficult items is a good sign, not a bad one.
Notice how much of the test is now everyday English 日常英语: a notice, an email, an
announcement, a short conversation. The old test was almost entirely academic. Practise both.
ระวังว่าส่วนไหนของการทดสอบ现在是ภาษาอังกฤษในชีวิตประจำวัน 日常英语:一个通知,一个邮件,一个
announcement, a short conversation. The old test was almost entirely academic. Practise both.
You get four section scores and one overall score. Each runs from 1 to 6 in
half-point steps: 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6.
The overall score is the average of the four sections, rounded to the nearest half point. So
5.5, 5, 5.5 and 5 average 5.25, which is reported as 5.5.
The scale is lined up with the CEFR 欧洲语言共同参考框架, the ladder used across Europe:
Score
CEFR level
Roughly what it means
1 – 1.5
A1
beginner
2 – 2.5
A2
elementary
3 – 3.5
B1
intermediate
4 – 4.5
B2
upper intermediate — the usual floor for undergraduate study
5 – 5.5
C1
advanced — what selective universities and most Master's courses want
6
C2
near-native
⚠ Universities usually set a minimum overall score and a floor on each section. An
overall 5 with a 3.5 in Speaking is not the same application as a flat 5 — the weakest section
decides the result. Work on the lowest number, not the average.
Until January 2028, every score report shows three things: your CEFR level, your
1 to 6 scores, and a comparable 0 to 120 overall score.
That third number exists because universities write their requirement years in advance. A course
page that still says "100 on the TOEFL iBT" can be compared against it.
So when you read an offer, check which scale it is written on before you decide whether you
have met it. The safest move is to look at the university's own page in the month you apply.
1.5
How to use these notes
The four sections that follow are one per skill, in the test's own order. Each explains what the
tasks ask for, what the marker is actually looking at, and the mistakes that cost Chinese
candidates marks most often.
A number in these notes is a format fact, and format facts change. Every one here was checked
on the ETS website on 13 September 2026. Before you book, check the two pages below yourself —
it takes five minutes and it is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy.
1.6
Exam tips · ข้อแนะนำสำหรับการสอบ
Do not buy a practice book printed before 2026. It is not a slightly old book; it is a book
about a different test.
Decide early which scale your universities use, then write the target number on the first
page of your notebook. A target you can see is a target you work towards.
Practise everyday English deliberately. Chinese candidates usually arrive strong on academic
reading and weak on emails, notices and short conversations, because that is what school
rewarded. The new test rewards both.
Type, do not write. The whole test is on a computer, including the two writing tasks. If you
type slowly in English, that alone costs you marks in a 23-minute section — practise on a
keyboard from today.
A student sees “overall 5” and stops reading a course's language requirement.
The next line says “at least 4.5 in every section.”
An overall 5 does not show that all four section floors have been met.
Careful preparation begins with reading the whole requirement.
This supplement adds original worked decisions to the existing overview.
All programmes, score profiles and practice examples below are fictional.
They teach how to check information; they are not university admission advice or official rated tasks.
The preserved skill handouts remain beside these additional notes.
Separate the adaptive sections from the whole test
The 2026 ETS blueprint describes Reading and Listening as two-stage adaptive 自适应 sections.
Writing and Speaking are linear: test takers receiving a particular form get its same task set.
Do not read the older overview's broad description as saying every section adapts question by question.
A first module helps route a learner to a later module.
A module 模块 is a group of tasks, not a score report.
A difficult question alone does not prove that you have done well or badly.
Its difficulty to you also depends on your knowledge and the topic.
Task selection and score reporting answer different questions.
ETS notes that Reading and Listening can contain unscored items.
A raw score 原始分 records points before conversion to a reported scale.
You cannot convert “thirty answers felt right” into a reported band here.
Do not assume every displayed item contributes equally to that reported band.
Use practice errors to choose a learning action, rather than guessing your live result.
The public timing table gives approximate base times.
Directions and administration mean that adding its section times does not give the full appointment length.
Use the current official instructions for your test and any approved arrangements.
Our classroom practice clocks below are teaching choices, not a copy of the live test interface.
Read an overall score and section floors together
Fictional requirement: Riverside Programme asks for overall 5 and at least 4.5 in each section.
It also asks applicants to submit other documents. Meeting this language requirement does not guarantee admission.
Profile
Reading
Listening
Writing
Speaking
A
5.5
5
5
3.5
B
4.5
5
5
5
Profile A
The sum is 19. The average is 19 divided by 4, or 4.75.
Rounded to the nearest half band, the overall score is 5.
That meets the overall requirement, but Speaking 3.5 is below the section floor of 4.5.
The language requirement is therefore not fully met.
Writing “overall passed” in your notebook would hide the missing part.
Profile B
The sum is 19.5. The average is 4.875, which rounds to overall 5.
Every section is at least 4.5, so this profile meets the fictional language requirement.
Reading is the lowest score, but it does not automatically prevent meeting this requirement.
A lowest section matters in relation to the actual floor, not as a universal rule.
A threshold 门槛 is a stated minimum that you must compare against the correct score.
Record the programme, score scale, overall threshold, section thresholds and when you checked the information.
A different programme may ask for different evidence. Use its current written requirement.
Round the average without adding the bands
The new overall scale averages the four section bands, then rounds to the nearest half band.
Do not report the sum of the four new bands as the overall band.
ETS gives 5.125 becoming 5, and 5.25 becoming 5.5.
The midpoint example tells you how that exact boundary is handled.
For practice, consider section bands 5.5, 5.5, 5 and 5.
Their sum is 21; dividing by four gives 5.25; the reported overall is 5.5.
This is a calculation from supplied bands, not a way to grade your own practice answers.
During the transition, reports also provide a comparable overall result on the older 0–120 scale.
That number does not make the report outdated.
A practice resource can still teach useful vocabulary while describing tasks that are no longer in the current format.
Check its actual task descriptions, date and purpose rather than reject it only because it mentions 120.
Do not multiply a new band by twenty and call the result an exact conversion.
Use the reported comparable score and official guidance for a requirement written on the older scale.
Practise a communication decision before chasing speed
The following short original examples show what different language skills do.
They introduce practice; the later skill supplements will develop complete task sets.
Reading a practical message
Message: The workshop remains on Friday, but it will begin at 3 p.m. in Room 12.
Bring your draft. If you have already emailed it, bring a copy anyway.
Question: What should someone who emailed a draft do?
They should still bring a copy. “Anyway” keeps that instruction in force.
The message changes the time and room, not the day.
An answer about Thursday would add a change that the message never states.
Choosing a useful reply
Speaker: “Could you show me where the registration desk is?”
Possible replies: A “It opens at nine.” B “Sure, it is just beside the main entrance.”
C “I registered last week.”
B responds to the request for a location.
A gives a time, and C gives the speaker's own past action.
All three mention registration-related information, but only B answers this request.
A repeated word alone would not make a reply correct or incorrect.
Hear the sentence from a partner before reading these options to turn it into listening practice.
Building a clear sentence
Use these groups: “the librarian” / “because” / “I asked” / “the printer was not working.”
One complete sentence is: “I asked the librarian because the printer was not working.”
The main clause gives the action; the because clause explains its reason.
“I asked because the librarian the printer was not working” leaves the ideas in the wrong relationship.
Word-order practice should preserve the message as well as grammar.
Answering a spoken question
Question: “Where do you prefer to study?”
Original response: “I prefer the library because it is quieter than my flat.
For example, I can finish my reading without the television distracting me.
If I need to discuss a project, I meet my group in a separate study room.”
The speaker gives a preference, a reason, an example and a relevant exception.
This is an interview-style response, not a sentence to substitute in a Listen and Repeat task.
In repetition practice, reproduce the supplied sentence rather than change its meaning into your own answer.
Speak aloud. Written text alone cannot show whether your delivery is understandable.
Choose a practice action from the error
A diagnosis 诊断 identifies the difficulty you need to work on.
“Bad at English” does not tell you what to practise tomorrow.
A small error record can make the next action precise.
What happened
What to check
Useful next action
You chose Thursday
Day change invented
Mark changes in a fresh message
You chose the opening time
Location request missed
Identify a new question’s purpose
Your because sentence broke
Clause order unclear
Rebuild a new sentence; explain its action
Your listener missed the reason
Delivery or link unclear
Record a new answer; ask what was understood
Use a first attempt to discover the difficulty, then review the evidence.
A replay, slower reading or dictionary check can help learning after that attempt.
They are not failures simply because a live test limits those supports.
A timed attempt and a careful review train different parts of preparation.
Review ten overview decisions
Try the questions before reading the explanations.
Profile A reports overall 5. Does it meet Riverside's complete language requirement?
Does Profile B fail simply because Reading is its lowest section?
What is the average of 5.5, 5.5, 5 and 5, and its rounded overall?
Should you report their sum, 21, as the new overall band?
Does a comparable 0–120 total prove that a 2026 report is old?
Does one difficult Reading item prove your previous answers were correct?
Can the practice worksheet's total correct answers determine your reported band here?
In the workshop message, has the day changed?
In the registration question, why is an opening time not the best reply?
Can the written library response certify a learner's live speaking performance?
Explained answers
No. Speaking 3.5 is below the fictional section floor of 4.5, even though the overall threshold is met.
No. Reading 4.5 meets that floor. All four section requirements and the overall requirement are met.
The average is 5.25 and the rounded overall is 5.5. Divide the sum by four before rounding.
No. Twenty-one is the sum used in the calculation, not a band on the 1–6 overall scale.
No. The transition includes a comparable older-scale total. Check the report and actual task format.
No. The section routes across modules, and your experience of a question does not reveal the whole result.
No. Our original practice is not the scored adaptive test or its conversion system.
No. It remains Friday. The time and room change; the requirement to bring a copy remains.
The speaker asked where the desk is. A location response answers that request; a time response does not.
No. It shows ideas and language choices. Actual speaking needs aloud practice and a listener's check.
Keep a record that supports the next session
Write the requirement you are working towards and where it came from.
Choose one current task type and one difficulty to practise.
After the attempt, keep your answer, the evidence for a correction and the next action.
For example: “Workshop message; missed anyway; still need a copy; practise another exception instruction.”
Review the next attempt to see whether the same error returns.
A completed worksheet is useful evidence of practice, not a guarantee of a test result or admission.
About 30 minutes, about 50 items. That is much faster than the old test, and the items are
shorter — so the skill being tested is not endurance 耐力 any more. It is speed with accuracy.
Three kinds of task appear: Complete the Words, Read in Daily Life and Read an Academic
Passage. The first two are new in 2026.
The section is adaptive, so the passages you see depend on how you are doing. Do not try to
read the difficulty of the test as a sign of how you are performing.
You cannot go back to a section once you have left it. Answer every item as you meet it.
⚠ There is no penalty 扣分 for a wrong answer. An item left blank scores exactly what a wrong answer
scores: nothing. Never leave an item empty.
ไทย
About 30 minutes, about 50 items. That is much faster than the old test, and the items are
shorter — so the skill being tested is not endurance 耐力 any more. It is speed with accuracy.
A short text with letters or whole words missing, which you supply.
This is a test of grammar and vocabulary 词汇, not of finding information. You are not
hunting through a passage; you are asking "what word belongs here?"
Use the sentence around the gap. The word class 词性 is usually decided before the meaning is:
after the you need a noun, after very an adjective, after to a base verb.
Spelling counts. A word with a letter missing is a wrong word.
Read the completed sentence back to yourself. If it does not sound like English, it is not.
Emails, notices 通知, timetables, advertisements and other short practical texts.
The question is almost always what should the reader DO — or what has changed, or what is
not allowed.
Practical texts hide their key information in small places: a date, a room number, a word like
except, unless, only, from Monday. Those words carry the answer far more often than the
long sentences around them.
Watch the register 语域. An email from a tutor is polite and indirect: "you may wish to
consider" means do this. "It would be helpful if you could" is an instruction, not a comment.
⚠ A daily-life text is short, so students read it too fast and answer from memory of a similar
text. Read the one in front of you.
A passage from the kind of book a first-year university course would set.
Skim 略读 first, thirty seconds, for the shape: what is this about, how many parts has it,
where does the argument turn? Then answer, and scan 扫读 back for each fact.
The topic sentence 主题句 — usually the first sentence of a paragraph — tells you what that
paragraph is for. When a question asks which paragraph contains something, you are matching
against topic sentences, not reading everything again.
A question about a word asks what it means in this passage, not what it means in general.
Answer from the sentence, not from your dictionary memory.
Guess an unknown word from its parts: a prefix 前缀 (un-, re-, over-) and a suffix 后缀
(-tion, -able, -ly) narrow the meaning and fix the word class before you have understood
the root at all.
An inference 推理 question asks what the passage lets you conclude, not what it says. The
right answer is always supported by a line you could point at. If you cannot point at the line,
it is the wrong answer.
What costs Chinese candidates marks · สิ่งที่ทำให้ผู้เข้าสอบชาวจีนเสียคะแนน
English
Translating while reading. Turning each sentence into Chinese in your head takes two to three
times as long as reading it. At about 30 minutes for 50 items there is no room for it. This is
not a habit you can drop on test day; it takes weeks of reading without a dictionary to lose.
Subvocalising 默读出声 — saying each word silently. It caps your speed at speaking speed,
around 150 words a minute, when you need double that.
Hunting for a word from the question. The test writes questions in different words on
purpose. A synonym 同义词 in the passage is the normal case, not a trick.
Perfectionism on one item. Every item is worth the same. Two minutes spent rescuing one hard
item costs you three easy ones later.
Practise with a timer from the first day. Reading well and reading fast are two different
skills, and only one of them is trained by reading slowly.
Read one academic page and one practical text every day — a science article and an email, a
history page and a noticeboard. The section now asks for both.
Build vocabulary from the Academic Word List, but learn each word in a sentence. A word you
have only met on a flashcard is a word you will not recognise inside a line of prose.
After every practice set, write down why each wrong answer was wrong: did you misread the
question, miss a word, run out of time, or not know the vocabulary? Four different problems need
four different fixes, and only your own list tells you which one you have.
A library notice says that books are due on Friday unless your receipt gives a later date.
A student returns a book on Friday without checking the receipt.
The student may have met the deadline, but has not used all the information.
Reading means joining details and conditions, not recognising a familiar word.
This supplement adds original worked practice to the preserved Reading notes.
It covers Complete the Words, Read in Daily Life and Read an Academic Passage.
All passages, questions and answers below are newly written teaching examples.
They are not official ETS items, rated test forms or a complete adaptive test.
Their lengths and practice clocks are classroom choices.
Try each set before reading its answers. Keep the text visible while you work.
The official Reading description says the needed information is in the text.
You do not need specialist knowledge of the topic to answer these questions.
An answer must fit the particular text, even if another answer sounds possible in real life.
Complete words using letters, grammar and meaning together
In Complete the Words, parts of words are missing from a short text.
Use the supplied letters and the surrounding sentence together.
Grammar suggests possible forms; meaning and spelling narrow the choice further.
In this practice, each underscore represents one missing letter. Write the whole completed word in your notebook.
In a live task, follow its own entry instructions; our notation does not copy its interface.
Original text A: comparing paths
Students mea_____ (1) the temperature of two campus paths at the same ti__ (2).
One path lay under trees; the other was expo___ (3) to direct sunlight.
Their results sho___ (4) that the shaded path was coo___ (5) at every reading.
However, they cou__ (6) not con_____ (7) that shade was the only cause.
The study did not con____ (8) wind speed or surface material.
They pla____ (9) to rep___ (10) the measurements with these differences checked.
Explained completions
Measured. The students took temperature readings. “Measured” fits the past events and begins with mea.
Time. “At the same time” makes the comparison meaningful. “Times” needs an extra letter and changes the form.
Exposed. “Was exposed to” describes the path receiving sunlight. Exposing does not fit the three missing letters or this passive structure.
Showed. The results showed a pattern in the completed study. “Shown” does not form a complete verb after “results” here.
Cooler. The sentence compares the two paths, so the comparative form fits. “Coolest” needs more letters and suggests a different comparison.
Could. The phrase “could not conclude” gives a limit on the students' claim. The supplied cou and two missing letters fit could.
Conclude. After could not, use the base form. The students cannot reach this stronger claim from their evidence.
Control. Wind and surface material were not kept comparable. The base form follows did not; controlled would add an incorrect ending.
Planned. The students made a future plan after their first study. Planned has double n; planed is a different word and does not fit this meaning.
Repeat. They intend to take the measurements again. Repeat fits the supplied letters, length and meaning after to.
Read the completed text once more. The pattern and its limit should both make sense.
A correctly spelled word can still be wrong if it changes the sentence's meaning.
Original text B: a study collection
The college library created a dig____ (11) collection of local photographs.
Students can sea___ (12) it by street name or year.
Each image has a short des________ (13), but some dates remain unc______ (14).
The library asks users to provide evi_____ (15) before suggesting a new date.
This helps staff rev___ (16) the information without treating every guess as a fact.
11.Digital. A searchable electronic collection is digital; dig plus four letters fits.
12.Search. “Search it by street name or year” explains how users find images.
13.Description. A short written description accompanies an image. Des plus eight letters fits description.
14.Uncertain. Some dates are not established. Unc plus six letters fits uncertain.
15.Evidence. Users must support a proposed change. Evi plus five letters fits evidence.
16.Revise. Staff can change the information after checking it. Rev plus three letters fits revise.
The second text connects the words: uncertain dates need evidence before revision.
Do not select each word as if it appeared alone on a vocabulary card.
Check a grammar shortcut against the actual sentence
The original notes offer quick word-class hints. Use them as starting points, not fixed laws.
An article 冠词 such as the can come before an adjective as well as directly before a noun.
“The quiet room” contains an adjective between the and room.
“The carefully prepared report” adds an adverb before the adjective.
To can mark an infinitive 不定式: “They plan to repeat the study.”
It can also be a preposition 介词: “They walked to the library.”
In “They look forward to reading the report,” reading fits the whole expression.
Do not turn every word after to into a base verb.
A word family 词族 contains related forms, such as describe, description and descriptive.
“Each image has a short ___” needs a thing that the image has: description.
“A ___ note accompanies each image” could use descriptive.
The supplied letters, word length and sentence must all fit.
Prefixes can suggest meaning: uncertain means not certain, and repeat involves doing something again.
But a word part alone does not prove the answer.
A familiar ending can occur in words with different jobs.
Verify the whole sentence and preserve the spelling of the actual word.
Read a daily-life email for purpose and conditions
Original email
Subject: Wednesday workshop
Hello everyone,
The workshop still starts at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.
We have moved from Room 18 to Room 21 because the projector in Room 18 is being repaired.
Please bring a printed draft unless you uploaded your final draft before noon on Tuesday.
If you uploaded it after noon, bring a printed copy too.
You may wish to bring a notebook for your own notes, but this is optional.
Mina, workshop organiser
Questions 17–19
17. What is the main purpose of this email?
A Announce a new workshop day. B Explain a room change and what participants should bring.
C Cancel the workshop. D Ask participants to repair a projector.
18. Jia uploaded a final draft at 1 p.m. on Tuesday. What should Jia bring?
A Only a notebook. B Nothing because any upload removes the requirement.
C A printed draft. D A replacement projector.
19. What does the email say about a notebook?
A Everyone must bring one. B It is optional for personal notes.
C It replaces the printed draft. D It must be uploaded before noon.
Explained answers
17.B. The email announces the move to Room 21 and explains the draft requirement.
A changes Wednesday without evidence; C invents a cancellation; D confuses a repair reason with a participant's job.
18.C. One p.m. is after noon, so Jia must bring a printed copy.
The exception applies only to a final draft uploaded before noon.
A and B ignore the condition; D adds a job the email never gives Jia.
19.B. The email explicitly says optional. It offers a useful choice rather than a requirement.
A changes the strength of the message. C and D wrongly transfer the draft instructions to the notebook.
Polite wording can introduce a request, a suggestion or an option.
“You may wish to” does not always mean “you must.”
Read the whole message, including words that state whether an action is required.
Read a notice and a timetable together
Original notice
Study-support desk: from 6 October, afternoon appointments take place in the library annex.
Morning appointments stay in Room 4. Bring your appointment confirmation.
Walk-in questions are welcome from 12:15 to 12:45; booked meetings do not run during that period.
Period
Service
Location
09:00–12:00
Booked meetings
Room 4
12:15–12:45
Walk-in questions
Library annex
14:00–16:00
Booked meetings
Library annex
An annex 附楼 is an extra building or part of a building connected with the main one.
Here, use the stated location; do not invent a map or travel time.
Questions 20–22
20. Where should a student attend a 10 a.m. booked meeting on 7 October?
A Room 4. B Library annex. C Either place. D The notice does not state a location.
21. Which student can use the service at 12:30 without a booking?
A A student attending a booked meeting. B A student with a walk-in question.
C Only a student with an afternoon booking. D Nobody, because the desk is closed.
22. What remains unchanged from the previous arrangement?
A All afternoon appointments. B The location of morning appointments.
C All meetings are now walk-in. D Nobody needs confirmation.
Explained answers
20.A. Ten a.m. belongs to the morning booked period, which stays in Room 4.
B wrongly applies the afternoon change to every meeting. C invents choice; D ignores both notice and timetable.
21.B. The notice and timetable identify a walk-in period at 12:30.
A contradicts the statement about booked meetings; C invents an eligibility rule; D ignores the stated opening.
22.B. “Stay” signals that the morning location has not changed.
A misses the afternoon move; C and D contradict the service type and confirmation instruction.
The prose explains a change; the table helps locate a period quickly.
Join them. A true phrase in one cell is not enough if it belongs to the wrong time.
Read an academic passage as a connected explanation
Original passage: collecting seeds in a city
A town planting group compared two ways of collecting seeds from a local wildflower.
In the first method, volunteers picked seeds from the earliest plants to flower.
In the second, they returned several times and collected from plants flowering at different dates.
The group wanted a collection representing the variation already present in the local population.
The first method was convenient because volunteers could finish in one visit.
However, it risked leaving out plants that flowered later.
The second required more visits, but sampled a wider range of flowering dates.
Researchers explained that neither method creates new variation; collection determines which existing plants are represented.
The trial recorded dates and the plants visited, rather than testing later survival.
Its results therefore support a claim about the breadth of collection, not a claim that one batch grows better.
The group planned a separate growing trial before making that stronger claim.
Convenience remained important, but the group decided to compare it with its sampling aim.
Questions 23–28
23. Which title best expresses the main idea?
A Creating variation by collecting seeds. B How collection choices affect which plants are represented.
C Proving that early flowers always survive longer. D Replacing volunteers with researchers.
24. Why was the first method convenient?
A It created new plant types. B It needed only one visit.
C It sampled all flowering dates. D It tested survival immediately.
25. What does “it” refer to in “However, it risked leaving out plants that flowered later”?
A The first collection method. B The growing trial.
C New variation. D A late-flowering plant.
26. What does “breadth” mean in this passage?
A Physical width of the town. B Depth of a planting hole.
C Range of plants included in the collection. D Number of researchers employed.
27. What can reasonably be inferred about using only the first method?
A It may represent flowering dates less widely than repeated visits do.
B It proves the seeds will never grow. C It changes every plant's flowering date.
D It requires more collection visits than the second method.
28. Why does the writer mention the separate growing trial?
A To prove that collecting is unnecessary. B To show how researchers created new variation.
C To explain why volunteers stopped helping. D To distinguish a future survival test from the completed collection comparison.
Explain the academic answers from evidence
23.B. All three paragraphs connect collection decisions with representation and the limits of the trial.
A contradicts “neither method creates new variation.” C claims survival evidence that was not collected.
D invents a change of workers. A title should cover the explanation, not one familiar word.
24.B. The first method let volunteers finish in one visit.
A wrongly attributes creation of variation to collection. C ignores omitted later plants.
D confuses the completed comparison with the planned growing trial.
25.A. The previous sentence describes the first method as convenient; “however” introduces its drawback.
Follow the connected idea. The other options are not the method that can leave later plants out of collection.
A referent 指代对象 is the person or thing a word such as it refers to.
26.C. Breadth concerns how widely the collection represents flowering dates.
The paragraph contrasts this with survival. A and B choose physical measurements from another context;
D adds staffing information that the passage does not discuss.
27.A. Picking from only the earliest flowers risks omitting later-flowering plants.
That supports a narrower range of dates, even though the sentence does not repeat the option's wording.
B and C are much stronger unsupported claims; D reverses the stated visit pattern.
An inference must connect evidence. It cannot add a result the trial never measured.
28.D. The separate trial would investigate the stronger claim about how seeds grow later.
This marks the boundary of the existing evidence. A, B and C invent purposes or events.
A limitation 局限 states what evidence cannot establish as well as what it can.
Compare which existing plants are included before making a claim about survival.
Notice the passage structure: aim and methods, comparison, then evidence limits and next step.
A paragraph's job matters even when its first sentence is not a complete summary.
“However” marks a drawback; “therefore” connects the measured evidence to a restricted conclusion.
Improve accuracy before making the same task faster
The original notes give fixed reading speeds and broad claims about Chinese learners.
Use your own error record instead. Different learners need different support.
A dictionary check or a brief translation during review can explain a word you missed.
It does not itself prove that you cannot read under test conditions.
For a first practice round, allow four minutes for text A and three for text B.
Allow four minutes for the email and notice together, then five for the academic passage.
These are classroom clocks, not official task limits or a score prediction.
If you finish quickly but choose answers without evidence, review accuracy before reducing the clock.
If you run out of time, identify where time went: decoding words, rereading conditions or comparing options.
During review, write a short evidence phrase beside each answer.
For a missing word, write the complete word and the grammar or meaning that supports it.
Then attempt a fresh text. Faster recall of this worksheet is not proof of transfer to a new passage.
Scored Reading items have a maximum of one raw point in the blueprint.
That does not make a classroom total an exact reported-band conversion.
Unscored items, adaptive routing and scale conversion remain separate issues.
Do not calculate the number of later questions you will lose from one minute spent here.
Follow the real test's navigation and timing instructions when taking it.
Check six decisions on a fresh attempt
Does “the” always require the next word to be a noun?
Does “to” always require the next word to be a base verb?
Why must the collection passage not be used to claim better seed survival?
A notebook is optional in the email. Can polite wording make it compulsory?
Does knowing what a flower usually does replace the passage's evidence?
What should you change after successfully remembering all these answers?
Explained answers
No. An adjective or adverb-plus-adjective can appear before the noun: “the carefully prepared report.”
No. To can be an infinitive marker or a preposition. Check the whole phrase and sentence.
The trial measured collection dates and representation, not later survival. A separate growing trial is planned.
No. Read the explicit optional condition; do not override it with a politeness shortcut.
No. Answer from this passage. Outside knowledge may suggest possibilities the text never establishes.
Attempt new texts and explain their evidence. Change the task to practise the skill beyond this worksheet.
The Listening section and its clock · ส่วนการฟังและนาฬิกาจับเวลา
English
About 29 minutes, about 47 items. Four kinds of task: Listen and Choose a Response,
Listen to a Conversation, Listen to an Announcement and Listen to an Academic Talk.
Every recording is played once. There is no second chance, and there is no pause button.
You may take notes 笔记 while you listen, on the paper the test centre gives you.
The section is adaptive, so what you hear depends on how the earlier items went.
⚠ The single biggest cause of lost marks here is dwelling 纠结: a student misses one detail,
keeps thinking about it, and misses the next thirty seconds as well. One missed item is one mark.
Thirty seconds of not listening is five. Let it go and stay with the speaker.
Every recording is played once. There is no second chance, and there is no pause button.
You may take notes 笔记 while you listen, on the paper the test centre gives you.
The section is adaptive, so what you hear depends on how the earlier items went.
⚠ The single biggest cause of lost marks here is dwelling 纠结: a student misses one detail,
คิดถึงมันไปเรื่อยๆ และพลาดช่วงสามสิบวินาทีถัดไปด้วย การพลาดหนึ่งข้อคือเสียหนึ่งคะแนน
สามสิบวินาทีที่ไม่ตั้งใจฟังเท่ากับห้า. ปล่อยมันไปและโฟกัสที่ผู้พูด
You hear one short turn of speech and choose what would naturally come next.
This is a test of everyday conversation, not of academic English. The right answer is the
reply a real person would give.
Listen to the function 功能 of what was said, not only the words: was it a request, an offer,
a complaint, an apology, a suggestion? The reply has to match the function.
Intonation 语调 carries meaning here. "You're coming to the meeting?" with a rising tune is a
question; the same words falling are a statement.
⚠ An answer that repeats words from the prompt is usually wrong. Natural replies use different
words.
Listen to a Conversation, and to an Announcement · ฟังบทสนทนาและการประกาศ
English
A conversation is two speakers, often a student and someone at a university — a tutor, a
librarian, an office. Track who wants what: one speaker has a problem and the other offers a
solution, and most questions sit on that line.
An announcement is one speaker giving practical information: a change of room, a deadline, a
procedure. Listen for what has changed and what the listener must do.
In both, a change of direction is signalled before it happens. Actually, but, the thing is,
having said that, on second thoughts — a signpost 路标词 tells you the next sentence matters.
Numbers, dates, room names and prices are exactly the details these tasks ask about. Write them
down as you hear them; do not trust your memory for a number.
ประกาศ เป็นการสื่อสารข้อมูลเชิงปฏิบัติโดยผู้พูดคนเดียว เช่น การเปลี่ยนห้อง, กำหนดส่งงาน, หรือ
Listen for what has changed and what the listener must do.
ในทั้งสองกรณี จะมีการบอกสัญญาณของการเปลี่ยนทิศทางก่อนเกิดเหตุการณ์ขึ้นจริง เช่น Actually, but, the thing is
Listen for what has changed and what the listener must do.
ตัวเลข, วันที่, ชื่อห้อง และราคา เป็นรายละเอียดที่โจทย์ต้องการให้เขียนตอบ
Listen for what has changed and what the listener must do.
3.4
Listen to an Academic Talk · ฟังบทบรรยายทางวิชาการ
A lecture-style talk on a study topic, with one main speaker.
Do not try to write everything. Write the shape: the topic, then each new point on its own
line, with a dash for the example that supports it. Your notes should look like the talk's
outline, not like its transcript 文字稿.
Lecturers signal structure: today I want to look at, there are three reasons, the first of
these, which brings me to, so to summarise. Those phrases are the outline, spoken aloud.
Listen for the lecturer's attitude 态度 as well as the facts. Surprisingly, of course,
it is often claimed and a change of tone all tell you what the speaker thinks — and some
questions ask exactly that.
An example is there to support a point. If you catch the example but not the point, you have the
less useful half; ask yourself "what is this an example of?"
Listen once, like the test. Practising with replays trains a skill the test does not measure.
Play a recording once and answer; only then replay it to see what you missed.
Shadowing 跟读 — playing a sentence and saying it back immediately — is the fastest way to
improve both listening and pronunciation, because it forces you to hear the whole sentence, not
the words you already know.
Accents: the test uses speakers from North America and elsewhere. Listen to a range on purpose,
not only to the one you find easiest.
Fifteen focused minutes a day beats two hours on Sunday. Listening is a habit of attention, and
attention is trained by frequency.
Practise taking notes with your hand while your ears keep working. Most students can do
either but not both, and that is a skill you build in about two weeks.
Use abbreviations you already know: arrows for cause and result, + and -, initials for
long names. Inventing a system on test day costs you the first recording.
If you miss an answer, mark the item, choose the best guess now, and move on. There is no
penalty 扣分 for a wrong answer and a blank scores the same as a wrong one.
⚠ Watch the everyday tasks. Chinese candidates often score well on the academic talk and lose
marks on the short conversation, because school listening practice is almost entirely academic.
Practise taking notes with your hand while your ears keep working. Most students can do
either but not both, and that is a skill you build in about two weeks.
Use abbreviations you already know: arrows for cause and result, + and -, initials for
long names. Inventing a system on test day costs you the first recording.
If you miss an answer, mark the item, choose the best guess now, and move on. There is no
penalty 扣分 for a wrong answer and a blank scores the same as a wrong one.
⚠ Watch the everyday tasks. Chinese candidates often score well on the academic talk and lose
marks on the short conversation, because school listening practice is almost entirely academic.
About 23 minutes, about 12 items, across three kinds of task: Build a Sentence, Write
an Email and Write for an Academic Discussion.
You type everything. There is no handwriting anywhere in the test.
Twenty-three minutes is short, so there is no time for a long plan — but there is always time for
a thirty-second one, and it is the best thirty seconds you will spend.
⚠ The old Integrated Writing task, where you read a passage, heard a lecture and wrote about
both, is gone from the 2026 test. If a practice book teaches it, the book is out of date.
4.2
Build a Sentence
English
You assemble or complete a sentence so that it is grammatically correct.
Accuracy is the whole point. Nothing is being measured except whether the sentence is right.
The traps are the ones Chinese candidates already know: articles 冠词 (a / the / nothing),
agreement 主谓一致 (the data show, each student has), tense 时态 across a sentence, and
the preposition 介词 that a particular verb takes (depend on, consist of, result
in).
Word order in English is fixed in ways Chinese is not: subject, verb, object; adverbs of frequency
before the main verb; adjectives before the noun in a set order.
Read your finished sentence once, slowly. Most errors here are visible on a second look and
invisible on the first.
ไทย
You assemble or complete a sentence so that it is grammatically correct.
Accuracy is the whole point. Nothing is being measured except whether the sentence is right.
The traps are the ones Chinese candidates already know: articles 冠词 (a / the / nothing),
agreement 主谓一致 (the data show, each student has), tense 时态 across a sentence, and
the preposition 介词 that a particular verb takes (depend on, consist of, result
in).
Word order in English is fixed in ways Chinese is not: subject, verb, object; adverbs of frequency
before the main verb; adjectives before the noun in a set order.
A short email that does a job: reply to a message, make a request, explain a problem, decline
politely.
Start by deciding who you are writing to and what you want to happen. Everything else
follows from those two answers.
Register 语域 is graded here. To a tutor or an office you are polite and slightly indirect:
I was wondering whether, would it be possible to, I would be grateful if. To a classmate you
are direct and warm.
A good short email has four moves: why you are writing, the detail, what you are
asking for, a close. Four sentences can carry all four.
⚠ Do not open with Dear Sir or Madam when the prompt names the person, and do not sign off
Yours faithfully in a message to a classmate. Getting the register wrong is more visible than
a grammar slip, because it is wrong in every sentence at once.
Answer everything the prompt asks. An email that is beautifully written and leaves out one of
two requests has failed at the job the task set.
语域 (Register) ถูกประเมินที่นี่ สำหรับอาจารย์ผู้สอนหรือสำนักงาน คุณควรสุภาพและไม่ตรงไปตรงมาเล็กน้อย:
I was wondering whether, would it be possible to, I would be grateful if เมื่อพูดกับเพื่อนร่วมชั้น
ควรตรงไปตรงมาและเป็นมิตร
Write for an Academic Discussion · เขียนเพื่อสนทนาเชิงวิชาการ
English
You are shown a professor's question and two students' replies, and you add your own contribution
to the discussion.
This is the task that most resembles real university work, and it is scored on whether you can
join a conversation, not on whether you can write an essay.
A contribution that scores well usually does four things:
States a position clearly, in one sentence.
Gives a reason for it.
Supports the reason with an example, a consequence or a piece of evidence 证据.
Engages with a classmate — agreeing and extending, or disagreeing and saying why.
That fourth move is what separates a good answer from an average one, and it is the one Chinese
candidates leave out most often. I agree with Mei that... but I would add that... is worth more
than another paragraph of your own opinion.
Length: one solid paragraph. You have minutes, not an hour. Write fewer sentences and make
each one carry weight.
⚠ Do not restate the professor's question before you start. It costs you a quarter of your time
and earns nothing: the reader already knows what was asked.
ขั้นตอนที่สี่นี้คือสิ่งที่แยกคำตอบที่ดีออกจากคำตอบระดับกลาง และเป็นสิ่งที่นัก
จากจีนละเลยบ่อยที่สุด I agree with Mei that... but I would add that... มีน้ำหนักมากกว่า
ย่อหน้าความคิดเห็นส่วนตัวของคุณอีกย่อหน้าหนึ่ง
What the marker is actually looking at · สิ่งที่ผู้ตรวจจริง ๆ กำลังมองหา
English
Across the writing tasks, four things are judged, and they are the same four that any English
marker looks at:
What
What it means here
Task completion 任务完成
you did everything the prompt asked, and nothing it did not
Organisation 结构
a reader can follow your argument without going back
Vocabulary 词汇
precise words, used correctly, not long words used vaguely
Grammar 语法
accurate sentences, with enough variety to be natural
A memorised phrase is a risk, not a shortcut.With the development of society and every
coin has two sides appear in thousands of scripts and add nothing; a marker reads straight past
them and the words you spent on them are gone.
Precision beats decoration.Cost fell sharply after 2015 says more, and scores better, than
there was a considerable diminution in the pecuniary outlay.
A short correct sentence outranks a long broken one. Complexity only earns marks when it is
accurate.
ไทย
Across the writing tasks, four things are judged, and they are the same four that any English
marker looks at:
ประโยคที่จำมา حفظ เป็นความเสี่ยง ไม่ใช่ทางลัดWith the development of society และ every
coin has two sides ปรากฏในกระดาษคำตอบนับพันใบและไม่มีความหมายอะไรเลย; ผู้ตรวจอ่านข้าม
它们ไปและคำที่คุณใช้เวลาบนพวกมันหายไป
ความแม่นยำชนะการตกแต่งCost fell sharply after 2015 บอกได้มากกว่า และมีคะแนนดีกว่า
there was a considerable diminution in the pecuniary outlay
Type in English every day, not just in practice tests. Typing speed is part of this section
whether you like it or not.
Plan for thirty seconds before the Academic Discussion task: position, reason, example,
whose comment you will answer. Then write straight through.
Leave sixty seconds to read your answer back. Look for articles, plurals and verb endings —
those three account for most of the errors a Chinese candidate makes and can fix.
Practise writing to a person: a tutor, an office, a classmate. An email with no sense of its
reader is the commonest weak answer in this section.
The Speaking section and its clock · ส่วนการพูดและนาฬิกาจับเวลา
English
About 8 minutes, about 11 items, in two kinds of task: Listen and Repeat and Take an
Interview.
You speak into a microphone 麦克风 at a computer. There is no examiner in the room, and no one
reacts to what you say — which is exactly what makes it feel strange the first time.
⚠ The old independent and integrated speaking tasks, where you prepared for fifteen seconds and
spoke for forty-five, are gone from the 2026 test.
Eight minutes is short. Almost all of your preparation is therefore about starting quickly,
not about having more to say.
ไทย
ประมาณ 8 นาที, ประมาณ 11 รายการ, ในงานสองประเภท: Listen and Repeat และ Take an
Interview
This belongs to Speaking, and it is scored on what you say. It is not a listening warm-up.
You are being heard on pronunciation 发音, on stress and on whether you reproduce the
whole sentence, not on inventing anything new.
The skill is holding a whole sentence in your head long enough to say it. That is trainable, and
the training is simple: take any recording, play one sentence, say it back, and lengthen the
sentences as you improve.
Say it at a normal speed. Slowing down to be careful breaks the rhythm 节奏 of the sentence,
and rhythm is part of what is being judged.
If you miss a word, keep going and finish the sentence. A complete sentence with one wrong word
is worth much more than half a perfect one.
You answer a series of spoken questions, as you would in a conversation.
Answer the question that was asked, first. Then add one reason, and one example. That shape —
answer, reason, example — fits almost every question and starts you speaking within a second.
A silence is worse than an imperfect sentence. Fillers 填充词 that real speakers use — well,
I suppose, that's an interesting one — buy you a moment and sound natural. Long pauses do not.
Do not recite. A memorised answer is audible: the rhythm changes, the vocabulary jumps a
level, and it usually does not quite fit the question. Markers discount it.
If you lose your way mid-sentence, repair it out loud — sorry, what I mean is — and carry
on. That is what fluent speakers do, and it is marked as fluency, not as failure.
Give reasons, not lists. Because the bus is cheaper and I can read on it is one good answer;
three unexplained items is a weaker one.
ความเงียบแย่กว่าประโยคที่ไม่สมบูรณ์แบบ คำเติม (Fillers) ที่ผู้พูดจริงใช้ เช่น well,
I suppose, that's an interesting one — ช่วย给你เวลาและดูเป็นธรรมชาติ การหยุดนานเกินไปไม่ได้ช่วย
หากคุณหลงทางกลางประโยค แก้ไขด้วยเสียงดัง — sorry, what I mean is — แล้ว
ดำเนินไปต่อ สิ่งนี้คือสิ่งที่ผู้พูดที่คล่องแคล่วทำ และถูกประเมินว่าเป็นความคล่องแคล่ว ไม่ใช่ความล้มเหลว
What the marker is actually listening for · สิ่งที่ผู้ตรวจข้อสอบกำลังฟังอย่างแท้จริง
English
What
What it means here
Fluency 流利度
you keep going, at a natural speed, without long silences
Pronunciation
you can be understood without effort — not that you sound American
Vocabulary 词汇
the right word for the idea, used naturally
Grammar 语法
accurate, with enough variety to sound like speech rather than a list
Being understood is the standard, not sounding native. An accent 口音 is not an error. Sounds
that change a word's meaning are.
Word stress 重音 matters more than individual sounds. PHOtograph, phoTOgrapher,
photoGRAPHic — the vowels change with the stress, and a listener tracks the stress first.
Sentence stress 句重音 carries meaning: I didn't say she stole it means six different things
depending on which word you lean on.
Practise the sounds that Chinese does not use: final consonants (cost, asked, fifths),
/θ/ and /ð/ (think, this), and the /l/–/n/ and /r/ distinctions. A few minutes a day for a
month is enough to change how easily you are understood.
Speaking with nobody in the room · การพูดโดยไม่มีใครอยู่ในห้อง
English
Record yourself and listen back. It is uncomfortable and it is the single most useful thing
you can do — you will hear pauses, repetitions and unfinished sentences you did not notice.
Practise with a timer running, answering aloud, into a microphone. The format is the hardest
part for most candidates and it is free to rehearse.
Talk to yourself in English during ordinary tasks: describe what you are doing, argue with a
podcast, explain your day. Fluency is built by speaking hours, not by reading about speaking.
⚠ A typed answer always flatters you. When you practise writing what you would say, you get no
hesitation, no silence to fill, and as much time as you like. Speak it aloud instead.
Start within one second of the prompt ending. The clock is short, and a slow start costs more
than a poor sentence.
Finish your sentences. An abandoned sentence reads as a breakdown; a simple completed one
does not.
Warm your voice up before the test — read aloud for five minutes. A cold first answer is a
wasted one, and in an eight-minute section you cannot afford it.
Do not try to use difficult vocabulary. Use the right word. Markers reward precision and hear
straight through decoration.
Pick one and the site follows you — notes, papers, videos and practice all open on it. · เลือกหนึ่งตัว และเว็บจะติดตามคุณ — หมายเหตุ, ใบงาน, วิดีโอ และการฝึกฝนจะเปิดอยู่ที่นั้น
Type to search notes, lessons, code, vocabulary and past-paper questions across every subject. · พิมพ์เพื่อค้นหาบันทึก, บทเรียน, โค้ด, คำศัพท์ และคำถามข้อสอบเก่าในทุกวิชา
