Updated October 2026
A four-week TOEFL study plan for the 2026 format
Four weeks is enough to improve noticeably if the time goes to the right things. This plan assumes about an hour a day and a longer session at the weekend. Adjust it to your own starting point.
Week 1: find out where you are
Start with a full mock test, timed, in one sitting. Do it before you study anything, so the result is honest. Then spend the next day going through it: which section is furthest from your target, and which task types inside it cost you most.
Use the rest of the week to learn the format properly. Know every task type, what it asks for and how it is timed, so that nothing on the day is a surprise.
Week 2: your weakest section
Give most of this week to the section that scored lowest. Practise its task types in short timed sets, one type at a time, and review every set straight afterwards.
Keep the other three sections alive with a little each day: a few sentences to repeat aloud, one short email, one listening set. Skills fade quickly if they are left for a week.
Week 3: second mock, second weakness
Sit a second full mock at the start of the week, on a paper you have not seen. Compare it with the first. If your weakest section has moved, turn to the next one; if it has not, look again at why you are losing points there.
This is also the week for typing speed and speaking fluency. Both improve only with daily practice, and both affect the score more than people expect.
Week 4: full sittings and rest
Sit one or two more full mocks early in the week, at the time of day of your real test. Review them lightly: by now you are confirming habits, not building new ones.
Stop heavy study two days before the test. Check your equipment, your identification and the instructions you were sent, and sleep properly. A tired test taker loses more than a day of practice could add.
What a daily hour looks like
A workable hour is twenty minutes on your weakest task type, twenty on a second skill, ten on vocabulary from the words you missed, and ten reviewing yesterday's mistakes.
Short and regular beats long and occasional. An hour a day for four weeks does more than seven hours every Sunday.
This is an independent summary written for test takers. ETS publishes the official specification of the test on its own website.