Is Your TOEFL Score Good Enough?

What Is a Good TOEFL Score?

After taking the TOEFL test, you must be wondering the score you will get. Maybe, it was your first attempt on TOEFL, or you have already taken the test multiple times. At this point, it doesn’t play a significant role because you are so excited to see your result. The question you have in your mind is to know whether you will get the score you need. However, achieving your aim in this test might not be enough to get you enrolled in a university program or for your profession’s licensing. The right question, therefore, is to ask yourself if your score is going to be good enough. Unfortunately, there is no one correct answer to that question.

After waiting for six days to get your result, you must, now, be wondering,” Is my score going to be good enough for my university application?”. It is normal to be in this state, and feeling overwhelmed is quite normal. You should be more optimistic about your result and try to understand what your score means for you. Eventually, your overall score will determine your level in English.

What Are The Requirements for A Good TOEFL Score?

If you are new to TOEFL test, you must be wondering how much you should be scoring to pass the TOEFL test. This idea comes automatically because of most education systems. However, with the TOEFL test, there is no failing or passing the test. There are different levels for the other score ranges in TOEFL, but we can not conclude that it passes the test or fails it. However, there is a consensus on whether your score is above average or below average. This idea might help you to understand and evaluate your score better.

Many universities in the USA require a specific score in TOEFL. The score range varies from a different level of educations and also based on your profession. Some universities might require you to get 75. However, other universities might require you to get more than 100. For that reason, you need to determine your aim carefully and evaluate your score based on that. It means that the best score for you is the university’s requirement for you to get.

What Is The Minimum TOEFL Score Requirements?

If you apply for higher education programs, your overall GPA might play a significant role in getting acceptance. Increasing your GPA will also make you stand out from your peers and affect your application. For that reason, many students tend to work months and months trying to increase their overall GPA to increase their chances of getting accepted.

Can we apply the same idea to the TOEFL test? If I increase my score in TOEFL, will it be more advantageous? The answer to these questions is actually “No”. The reason for that is that as long as you surpass the given criteria for applying for the university, your score will not play a significant role in your application. For instance, if the requirement for TOEFL from the university is 88 and you have got 90. It means that you meet their requirements for the TOEFL criteria. This case wouldn’t affect your overall profile if you were to reach 110 in this case.

It doesn’t mean, however, that there won’t be some universities that will prioritize those who have a higher score in TOEFL. But, the numbers of those institutions are relatively small. Most of the universities will evaluate your application if you meet their requirements with TOEFL.

Check TOEFL Score Based On Each Section

There are some universities which require students to get specific scores in some sections of the TOEFL test. For example, a university might require you to get a minimum of 88 as an overall score and also 26 in the speaking section. It means that if you get 90 in the TOEFL test but your score in the speaking section is 23. Your application will not be fulfilled because of the speaking section criteria. Make sure you check out the educational institutions’ criteria clearly so that you won’t be having any issue after you receive your score.

Some universities might also require students to get a score range. They could require you to get between 70 to 90 in TOEFL. In this case, if you get a score at the lower band, in this case, 70, you might be obliged to get a conditional acceptance. Conditional acceptance means that you are eligible to enrol into the program, but you will need additional courses than someone who gets 90 in the TOEFL test.

If you are applying to prestigious universities, then it would be beneficial for you to exceed the minimum requirements. The reason for that is that there is a lot of competition to get acceptance from these universities. If you could get a higher score than the minimum, it will make your application stronger. For example, Harvard university requires a minimum of 100 in LLM programs. Acquiring above 100 will increase your chances of getting acceptance from these prestigious universities.

Do You Know The TOEFL Requirement From Your University

Make sure the requirement that you aim for in TOEFL are all updated. Sometimes, it might be tough to catch the announcements from the student office. If you have a list of universities to apply to, it would be also a good idea to call them and ask about their TOEFL requirements.

When asking the university via e-mail or a phone call, make sure to specify the department you are applying for. Because each university has a different specification for its application. For example, the minimum TOEFL score needed for doing a Ph.D. in Psychology at Harvard University is 80. However, for the MBA program at Harvard University, the minimum score required is 109. For that reason, you need to double-check the school requirements which might vary from department to department.

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Good TOEFL Score and TOEFL Percentiles

There is a term called TOEFL Percentile. What does that even mean? It means that the percentile you will get from TOEFL will show you how successful you are compared to the other test-takers. It’s a way to compare the results of the test takers. For example, the 80th percentile means that you scored higher than 80% of the students who also took the TOEFL test. The average here is the 50 percentile. If your score is above this limit it means that your score is above the average percentile.

This comparison is not based on all the test-takers, though. Your percentile will be determined based on where you come from, your gender, your level of education, and so on. It means that you are going against many people who have the same background as you. Obtaining more than the average will be a lot beneficial for you. If you score for example 80th percentile in your test. It means that your score is a pretty good one compared to other students who have the same background as you.

For TOEFL percentiles the country you come from also plays a major role. If you are coming from a big country like China it means that there will be a lot of test-takers like you who are going to be taking the test. Getting a high percentile in big countries will be a lot more challenging than in countries that have a small number of test-takers. In this case, if you take the test in China and score a high percentile, it’s a very good score for you.

It is also vital to know how long does it take to get a TOEFL score in order to fulfill the deadline requirements for your application.

If you would like to check out the TOEFL Speaking Topics check out the following link: https://drlanguage.org/all-the-toefl-speaking-topics-topics-for-2021-toefl/

TOEFL Score Range:

Let us now take a look at your score in a more detailed way and analyze it. To get the most meaning out from your score we need to comprehend how the score ranges are in TOEFL.

Getting less than 80: If your score is below 80 in the test. It’s considered generally as a low score in the test. Either you didn’t prepare well enough or long enough to understand the concept of the test or your level of English is weak. If your level of English is not around B2 it will be a bit arduous for you to exceed 80 in the TOEFL test. However, there are still some colleges out there that ask for a 70-80 score range for their applicants.

80-90: This scoring range is highly sought from TOEFL test takers. The reason being is because most universities in Europe or the United States require students to get a score between 80-90. However, this requirement is closer more to 90. This might be a safe score for you to carry on your higher education abroad.

90-100: This range is also aimed at many students around the world. Especially, for those who are trying to get their licensing in other states aim for this score range. Acquiring such a score will also show one’s ability to understand and fluently speak English.

100-110: Getting such a score is pretty good. You can apply with most of the Ivy league colleagues in the United States. It also means that your level of English is C1 at the CEFR level

110-120: If you can get a score within this range you should consider yourself as a TOEFL master because these scores are the perfect ones. You can almost fulfill any TOEFL requirement in the World and also could get a scholarship.

What Are MyBest TOEFL Score and Superscore?

When you take a look at your score report on TOEFL you will realize that there are two types of the score available. The first part represents your testing report and the second part is for your “superscore” which represents the best score you have gotten among all of your attempts. There is one important point that needs to be highlighted here. Since the TOEFL test score is only valid for two years. In the superscore part, you will only see the best score in the past two years.

Some universities will accept only your last score in the TOEFL test but there are also some universities that will accept your superscore in the test. The number of universities that accept this superscore has been increasing lately. It means that if you have multiple attempts already you can most probably use the best score among them when applying. However, you should double-check that with the university by emailing or calling them.

If you are wondering how MyBest score works in TOEFL it is fairly simple. Let us imagine someone has taken the TOEFL test two times and from the first exam he scored 90 and from the second one 100. MyBest score will show the combination of these scores by taking the best TOEFL score in each section. Imagine you scored 25 in the reading section when you got 90 but your score in reading was 23 when you scored 100. MyBest score will take the 25 as your best score in the reading section. In short, it will show you your best score in each section for the past two years.

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