To complete graduate study in the United States successfully, you
will need to be able to read, write, and communicate orally in
English with a high degree of proficiency. English language
proficiency will also help you to achieve your academic and personal
goals while in the United States.
To determine your level of English language proficiency, arrange to
take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) as early as
possible — at least a year before you plan to enroll. As with many
areas of U.S. education, each institution sets its own English
language admission standard, but some guidelines on the standard
required are given in the section on TOEFL scores below. Some
institutions accept English language examinations other than TOEFL;
check the information you receive from institutions to see which
examinations they accept.
Even if you have a good basic level of English proficiency and have
met the minimum TOEFL requirements for a university, some schools
may require you to take courses to improve your mastery of American
English, academic or research usage, and study skills. If you
studied English under the British system, you may find that U.S.
vocabulary and usage are quite different.
If you are applying for a teaching assistantship, the university may
ask you to demonstrate your proficiency in spoken English, which the
TOEFL examination does not test. The Test of Spoken English (TSE),
often required for this purpose, is offered less frequently and at
fewer centers than TOEFL. Allow several additional months for the
application process if you are applying for a teaching
assistantship. |
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If you are a non-U.S. citizen and
nonnative speaker of English who has been educated in English for
most of your school life, your TOEFL requirement may be waived.
Allow time in the application process to correspond with U.S.
universities about this issue. American universities are unlikely to
accept secondary school English language examination results as
proof of your language ability.
"There are many great TOEFL preparation books that can help you with
exercises for the test. You need to be familiar with the structure
of the TOEFL and prepare for it."
— Literature student from Hungary
TOEFL is given on computer in almost all countries worldwide, and
the paper-based version is being phased out. The test is offered on
many days in the month, but only at a limited number of
computer-based testing centers. You may have to travel some distance
to reach the nearest test center.
Preregistration is required, and
it is NOT possible to go to the testing center and hope to find
space available that same day. Computer-based testing registration
deadlines vary. According to current TOEFL instructions, mail-in
registration deadlines are three weeks ahead of your desired test
date, one week ahead of the test date for fax registrations, and two
days ahead of the test date for registration by telephone. Note that
a credit card is required to register by fax or telephone. You can
indicate the days when you would prefer to take the test, and the
test administrators will try to accommodate your requests. However,
at certain times of the year, or in certain cities, centers may be
very busy. It is therefore advisable to register at least two to
three months in advance of your desired test date. For those
countries where paper-based testing is still offered, the test is
given on certain dates during the year, and registration deadlines
are approximately six weeks ahead of those dates.
TOEFL registration bulletins are available from either the test
administrators in the United States, the regional registration
center for your country (see the TOEFL Web site at
https://www.toefl.org or the test registration bulletin for further
details), or from U.S. educational information and advising centers.
These centers may ask you to pay postage costs, and they may also
have test preparation materials for the TOEFL available for
reference use, loan, or purchase.
The test uses a multiple choice and essay
format to measure each examinee's ability to understand North
American English. The test is divided into four sections: listening,
structure, reading, and writing. The writing section requires the
test taker to write an essay. TOEFL is a computer-adaptive test,
which means that not all students answer exactly the same questions
on the test. Instead, depending on how the student performs on each
question, the computer determines whether the level of the next
question should be easier or more difficult.
The total number of questions you answer
correctly, together with your score on the essay, form the raw
scores for each section. Raw scores are then converted to a scaled
score for each section, which for the computer-based test ranges
from 0 to 30. From these a total score is calculated, which ranges
between 40 and 300 for the computer-based test. Each graduate
department within a university decides for itself what score is
acceptable. In general, colleges consider a total score of 250 or
above to be excellent and a score below 173 to be inadequate. Most
institutions require a score of between 213 and 250 (550 and 600 on
the paper-based test) for admission to a graduate program. A few
accept scores as low as 173 (500 on the paper-based test). |
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