Every year thousands take an English language exam, to be able to apply for a job, school or even to immigrate. English language schools around the world run special training programmes to prepare students for these tests.

The TOEFL exam is taken by students worldwide mostly for entry into US colleges as it measure the ability of students to understand American English at college level. Since 1964 the exam has been taken by students nearly 20 million times.

The paperbased test is being phased out and being replaced by the iBT (Internet Based TOEFL). The test consists of four parts: reading (60 minutes), listening (50 minutes), speaking (20 minutes) and writing (55 minutes).