TOEFL iBT Writing practice
Practise Build a Sentence and the two writing tasks. Your email or discussion post comes back with a 0 to 5 score and feedback on what to improve.
- Time
- About 23 min
- Tasks
- 12 items
- Task scores
- 0 to 5
- Section band
- 1 to 6
Writing practice sets
Writing practice sets are coming soon. Choose Notify me to get one message when they open.
The three Writing tasks
| Task | Time | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Build a Sentence (10 items) | About 7 min | Read one line of a conversation and put the word tiles in order to make a correct reply. Each item is right or wrong. |
| Write an Email (1) | 7 min | Read a situation and write an email that covers 3 goals, in a tone that suits the reader. |
| Write for an Academic Discussion (1) | 10 min | Read a professor's question and two student replies, then add your own view to the discussion. |
How Writing is scored
The email and the discussion post are each scored 0 to 5 for how well they do the task, how fully the ideas are developed, the range and accuracy of the language and, for the email, the right tone. Build a Sentence adds one point per correct item.
Tips
- In the email, cover every goal in its own sentence or two, and match the register: no contractions or slang in a formal email.
- In the discussion, aim for 120 to 150 words. Take a clear side and add your own idea or example rather than repeating the students.
- In Build a Sentence, find the verb first, then build the subject and the rest around it. Questions often start with an auxiliary.
- Some Build a Sentence replies use inverted word order: after never, neither or not only, the auxiliary comes before the subject ("Neither have I").
Frequently asked questions
Is there a minimum word count?
No hard minimum, but very short answers cannot show enough to score well. An effective discussion post is usually at least 100 words.
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