Faster results, adaptive testing and real-life communication tasks among key updates; Gujarat hosts 1 in 5 test centres in India
ETS, the organisation behind the TOEFL exam, has announced major upgrades to the TOEFL iBT (internet-based test), set to roll out from January 21, 2026.
New adaptive format and updated content
At the TOEFL Experience Day in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, Sidnei Rodrigues de Souza, Executive Director of Global Partnerships & Sales Management at ETS, detailed the enhancements that will benefit students across more than 13,000 test centres worldwide.
TOEFL, accepted in over 160 countries and by 13,500 institutions, will adopt a multistage adaptive format for the Reading and Listening sections. The test will automatically adjust in difficulty based on a candidate’s performance, de Souza said.
Content will also be refreshed to be more relevant and culturally familiar to students. “Indian students may no longer face questions on Greek mythology, for example,” he noted. Scores will be reported on a new 1–6 scale aligned with CEFR levels (A1 to C2), alongside the traditional 0–120 scale.
Faster score reporting, quicker home-test check-in
TOEFL results will now be delivered within 72 hours instead of the current 7–9 days.
The redesigned test will introduce real-life communication tasks—including writing emails—to better reflect everyday academic usage.
For those taking the test from home, the check-in time will drop dramatically from 30 minutes to just 3–4 minutes, thanks to a unified security application replacing multiple verification tools.
Better test centre experience
Test centres will also offer noise-cancelling headphones, and a new centre will open in Kalol.
Gujarat emerges as a key market
While de Souza did not disclose the total number of test takers from Gujarat, he shared that students from the state largely prefer the US (42%), followed by Canada (22%), the UK (16%), Australia (10%) and the EU & Middle East (10%).
Within Gujarat, Ahmedabad accounts for 44% of TOEFL takers, followed by Vadodara (23%), Surat (18%) and Rajkot along with other tier-2 and tier-3 cities (15%).
ETS currently operates around 90 test centres in India, with Gujarat hosting nearly 20% of them—underscoring the state’s strong demand for international education.