ScoreFluentThis is not an update. It is effectively a new exam.
On 21 January 2026, ETS redesigned TOEFL iBT from the ground up: a new 1–6 band scale, 12 task types under new official names, and every integrated task removed. If you last looked at TOEFL before that date, almost nothing you remember about the format still applies.
Seven things that changed completely.
| Legacy exam | 2026 redesign | |
|---|---|---|
| Score scale | 0–120, four sections summed | 1–6 band per section and overall, in 0.5 steps |
| Task style | Includes integrated read-listen-write and listen-speak tasks | No integrated tasks anywhere — every task is single-modality |
| Task types | Legacy task names | 12 task types under new official ETS names |
| Total time | Longer sitting | ~2 hours (~90 min of section time) |
| Reading & Listening | Fixed, linear | Two-stage adaptive (MST): a router section routes you to a Lower or Upper module |
| Writing & Speaking | Linear | Still linear — no adaptivity here |
| Score reporting | Only the legacy scale | Band 1–6 primary; legacy 0–120 dual-reported (overall only) until Jan 2028 |
Integrated tasks are gone.
The classic TOEFL move — read a passage, listen to a related lecture, then write or speak a summary that draws on both — no longer exists. Every one of the 12 task types in the 2026 redesign is single-modality: a Reading task only reads, a Listening task only listens, a Writing task only writes, a Speaking task only speaks. There is no cross-pillar scoring in the new exam, because there is nothing to cross.
12 task types, none of them named before 2026.
Names like “Build a Sentence” and “Take an Interview” are new official ETS terminology — nobody had written about them before this year.
0–120 sticks around until January 2028, then it’s gone.
From 21 January 2026 to January 2028, score reports carry a dual figure: the 1–6 band scale as the primary result, plus a labelled 0–120 overall figure as a secondary conversion — never per section, never a stored score in its own right. After January 2028, the legacy figure is dropped entirely. If a piece of content quotes a per-section legacy number for the 2026 exam, that is not something ETS publishes — treat it as invented.
The full band-to-CEFR-to-legacy concordance, including where the legacy row simply does not exist below band 3.5, is on the score conversion page.
The 2026 redesign, answered.
What happened to TOEFL Integrated Writing and Integrated Speaking?
They are gone. The 2026 redesign has no integrated tasks at all — every task is single-modality: read only, listen only, write only or speak only. If your prep material covers reading a passage, listening to a lecture, then writing or speaking a summary of both, it describes the pre-2026 exam.
How long is the new TOEFL?
About 2 hours in total, with roughly 90 minutes of actual section time across Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking. That is a real reduction from the legacy exam’s longer runtime.
Is my old TOEFL prep material still useful?
Only partially. The task types, the score scale and the exam structure all changed, so material built around the legacy 0–120 scale or integrated tasks does not transfer directly. What still applies: general academic reading, listening and writing skill — the underlying English proficiency the new tasks test is the same, even though how it is tested changed completely.
Is 100 still a good TOEFL score?
It depends which scale you mean. On the legacy 0–120 scale, 95+ maps to roughly band 5 (CEFR C1) on the new scale — but that is a transition-only conversion, dual-reported until January 2028, and it is an overall figure only. There is no clean single-number answer without the full concordance table.
Are TOEFL Reading and Listening adaptive now?
Yes — both are two-stage multistage tests (MST). Everyone starts on a router section; performance on it decides whether the second stage is the Lower or Upper module. Writing and Speaking are not adaptive — they run linear, the same set of tasks for everyone.
ScoreFluent is not affiliated with or endorsed by ETS. Figures on this page come from ETS’s TOEFL iBT test content page and its score scale update page. Both are pre-launch documents ETS may still revise — check the official source before a decision hangs on a number here.
Train for the exam that exists now.
All 12 of the redesigned task types, scored the way ETS actually scores them.
Create free account