Make use of the best-score option

As a student preparing to continue the academic journey to university, you want to make sure that your portfolio and application are representative of not only your accomplishments to date, but also your holistic potential, as you prove to admissions officers that you have what it takes to be successful in your future studies. There are many components to your portfolio that help admissions officers gauge this potential success, including secondary school grades, a writing sample, recommendation letters, and involvement in extracurricular activities, to name a few. 

Another important piece, especially if you’re looking to study abroad in places like Canada, Australia and the United States, is your scores on an English-language assessment, such as the TOEFL, to demonstrate your academic English proficiency and preparedness for a university classroom setting.

TOEFL has rolled out several exciting updates over the past few months that enhance the test-taker experience, including a shortened test duration, the implementation of afternoon testing sessions, a shorter re-test waiting period, and the introduction of MyBest scores — a feature often known as “superscores” that enable you to showcase your best section scores across multiple test dates.

Benefits

Let’s assume that 82 is the TOEFL iBT total score requirement for admission into the college or university to which you’re applying, and that the scores in the below table represent your scores for two test dates.

The benefit of MyBest scores, calculated in the last column, is immediately apparent. Without MyBest scores, you would be two points shy of the admissions requirement of 82, based on a total score of 80 on Test Date 2. However, with this students would surpass the score requirement by one point, thus meeting university requirements for TOEFL test scores without needing to take the test an additional time. 

Who can benefit

Taking advantage of MyBest scores requires no extra effort, as this feature will be automatically added to your score report, in addition to the traditional scores from individual test dates. 

To find out whether MyBest scores will be reviewed as part of the admissions process at the colleges and universities to which you’re applying, be sure to check out their websites or contact them directly for score-related policies and information. 

It’s important to note that the addition of MyBest scores does not have an impact on the scoring scale for the TOEFL test. 

Students will receive a score of 0-30 for the Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing sections, as well as a total score of 0-120. Additionally, TOEFL iBT test scores remain valid for a two-year period from the test administration date.

— ets.org/toefl