Ten Great Free Online Courses for TOEFL

Share This Post

Best Free Course — High Resolution Badge

In this post, we’ve compiled 10 free online courses to help you prepare for TOEFL. The TOEFL iBT test is a standardized test that measures a student’s ability to speak and write in the English language. The test is designed for non-native English speakers who want to apply or enroll in an English-speaking University.

The test can also be used as a measurement for applying for work or immigration and is essentially a way to show an employer or school faculty member that you stand out against other international students. It is accepted by over 11,000 English-speaking Universities in more than 150 countries around the world.

Featured Program

edX TOEFL Test Preparation

Disclaimer: Some courses may include an affiliate link. Courses were chosen first based on the methodology with affiliate links only added after the ranking was complete.

Some students find the test to be incredibly difficult and struggle to raise their score. Online test preparation courses for TOEFL can help with this. Have a look at these free options.

Ranking Ten Free Online Courses for TOEFL

1. TOEFL Speaking Success in 90 Minutes

Offered by Udemy

This course from Udemy says is guaranteed to show you how to increase your TOEFL score by at least three points, making it easy to copy your answers against real native speakers. Udemy is a platform that offers both free and paid courses to users depending on the desired effort level and benefit. Free courses like this one do not offer a certificate of achievement and only the video content can be accessed. However, there is still much to be learned!

The course takes around one and a half hours to complete and is filled to the brim with on-demand video content so you can clearly hear how to structure your answers as if you were an American college student. You’ll also learn how to take notes like an American professor and will have gained deeper insight into how academic English is structured.

Josh MacPherson teaches the course, and he is an experienced English professor with more than 3,400 reviews on the Udemy website. He is also the head of two online schools that focus specifically on TOEFL test preparation. He has worked with over 25,000 students and is sure to help you achieve the score you want.

Cost: Free

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: Approximately 1.5 hours

Curriculum: Intermediate

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Start anytime and go at your own pace
Offered by a seasoned TOEFL professor
Quick course, perfect for reviewing

Cons:

Only offers on-demand video content
Free course does not offer certification

2. TOEFL Test Preparation: The Insider’s Guide

Offered by edX

This TOEFL online course offered by edX is the one that’s recommended by many professionals to use to prepare for your test. The course already has over 1 million students enrolled and was designed by the test professionals who create and administer the exam. During the course, the instructors will guide you through each one of the sections, explaining what kind of questions you should expect and how best to study for the exam.

The free online TOEFL prep course is taught by four professionals from the Educational Testing Service, or the ETS, including Michael Knab, Cynthia Newman, Shawn Gorman, and Molly Palmer. edX is a MOOC platform, offering students the chance to take courses entirely for free. While the course does not come with a certificate of achievement, you can pay a $49 fee if you want an easily shareable, verified certificate.

Throughout your learning, you’ll be taught about how to effectively work through the four sections of the TOEFL test, how the TOEFL test is scored, how to best manage your time while test-taking, and how to use your scores for employment or scholarships.

Cost: Free

Certificate: Yes (With $49 fee)

Time to Complete: Approximately 6 weeks

Curriculum: Intermediate

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Start anytime and go at your own pace
Offered by four professionals who make an administer tests
In-depth learning experience

Cons:

Requires more time commitment
Certificate of achievement does not come free

3. Better TOEFL Writing Techniques for ESL Speakers

Offered by Udemy

This free course offered by Udemy is said to improve your TOEFL independent writing score by up to 25 percent and includes 10 straightforward video lectures designed to help you do better on the test. The online TOEFL prep course only takes about one and a half hours to complete and is perfect if you want to do a quick review right before your exam.

The instructor, Giles Ensor, is an English professor who began teaching English in Macedonia when he realized he would need years of international experience to properly teach ESL students. So that’s what he did! He claims that if there’s anything you need as an ESL student, he’s taken a course on it.

By the end of the online preparation course, students will have learned how to completely understand the process behind the TOEFL independent writing section, brainstorm effectively, write essays with proper paragraph and sentence structure, and conclude essays in a meaningful and effective way. The course is mainly designed for those attempting to get into American universities, but it can also be helpful for anyone wanting to learn how to structure and write an academic essay.

Cost: Free

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: Approximately 1.5 hours

Curriculum: Intermediate

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Start anytime and go at your own pace
Offered by a professor who specializes in ESL teaching
Quick course, perfect for reviewing

Cons:

Does not do a deep dive into topics since it is rather short
No certificate of achievement

4. The Complete Guide to TOEFL Writing

Offered by SkillShare

This three-hour class provided by SkillShare is focused completely on the writing section of the TOEFL exam. SkillShare is an online learning community full of various courses on virtually any subject you could imagine. The platform usually costs $15 a month or $99 a year and is subscription-based, offering users a flat fee to utilize any content on the site. However, SkillShare offers a two-month free trial to new users, and you can often find three-month free trials online using coupon codes.

It’s taught by Keehwan Kim, who has been teaching language since 2005, mostly to English-speaking and Korean students. His courses aims to help students engage with the language they’re trying to learn without losing the progress they make along the way.

By the end of the TOEFL course online, students will be able to determine exactly what they have to do in the TOEFL writing section, learn how to effectively note-take and paraphrase, and learn the difference between the integrated writing section and the independent writing section.

Cost: Free

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: Approximately 3 hours

Curriculum: Intermediate

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Start anytime and go at your own pace
Offered by a professor who specializes in English
Quick course, perfect for reviewing

Cons:

Does not do a deep dive into topics since it is rather short
No certificate of achievement
Only uses video lectures, no projects

5. Prepare for TOEFL

Offered by E2Language

E2Language is a subscription-based site that allows users to prepare for any of the language-related exams of their choice. Normally, you would pay based on how long you need to access the material for, but E2Language offers a one-month free trial where students can access live classes, practice questions, and methods lessons at no charge.

There are six different professors who teach the TOEFL program with E2Language, and they come from all around the world in countries like Australia, the UK, Canada, and India. Working with E2Language gives you full access to the course material, hundreds of practice questions, full practice tests, feedback on your speaking and writing, independent help with experts one-on-one, and hundreds of video grammar lessons.

By the time you’re done with your test prep on E2Language, you’ll certainly be ready to take your test or get a better score than you did before. Thousands of students have given the site a positive review and have later gone on to ace their exams.

Cost: Free (With E2Language free trial)

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: As long as needed

Curriculum: Intermediate

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Start anytime and go at your own pace
Can be taken for as long as the student needs
One-on-one feedback is available for students

Cons:

No certificate of achievement
Access to course content does not continue for free after trial expires

6. IELTS Reading Masterclass

Offered by SkillShare

While this highly in-depth course offered by SkillShare does not focus specifically on the TOEFL exam, it would still be highly useful for anyone preparing to take it. As mentioned above, SkillShare is an online learning community full of various courses on virtually any subject you could imagine.

The IELTS (International English Language Testing System) is a test similar to TOEFL that non-native English speakers use to test proficiency. Many of the skills you learn for the TOEFL apply to the IELTS and vice-versa. This 17-hour course is centered around IELTS, but would be valuable for any non-native English speaker studying for a proficiency exam. This is the most comprehensive course on IELTS reading, and it focuses on how to accurately complete short answers, true or false, multiple choice, diagram, and other reading-based questions.

By the end of the online TOEFL course, students will be well-versed in any possible type of question they could get on the IELTS exam as well as most other English proficiency exams, like TOEFL. After finishing the course, students will be confident in their abilities to read in English and will hopefully get the score they need to live or work in an English-speaking country.

Cost: Free (With SkillShare trial)

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: Approximately 17 hours

Curriculum: Intermediate

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Start anytime and go at your own pace
Extremely in-depth look at all kinds of reading questions

Cons:

No certificate of achievement
Access to course content does not continue for free after trial expires
Doesn’t directly focus on TOEFL exam

7. Master the TOEFL Exam: Speaking Practice Tips

Offered by SkillShare

This TOEFL preparation course, taught by Jose Castillo, is the perfect way to review some tips right before you take your exam. While it isn’t an in-depth look at the TOEFL exam, it will help you to feel more confident and relaxed before moving into the speaking portion of your exam, ensuring that you can achieve the score you want. With a SkillShare free trial, you will be able to access this course completely free for up to three months.

Jose Castillo has more than seven years of experience teaching English to students in Japan as well as throughout South America. He is more than qualified to help you get the score you want on the TOEFL exam, allowing you to work or study wherever you please.

The free online course comes in a short, four-part series that covers how mindset can impact your grade and achievement, how to come prepared with practical tools to give you an edge, how to combat nervousness before entering your exam, and how to give the best possible answer to the questions provided. By the end of the course, students will have a “toolkit” of practical resources they can put to work immediately.

Cost: Free (With SkillShare trial)

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: Approximately 45 minutes

Curriculum: Intermediate

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Focuses specifically on speaking portion
Great for reviewing right before your exam

Cons:

No certificate of achievement
Access to course content does not continue for free after trial expires
Very quick overview of material

8. ESL001: Beginning Lower-Intermediate English as a Second Language

Offered by Saylor Academy

Saylor Academy is a non-profit educational platform that provides free courses to any student who wants to learn. The website offers nearly 100 classes across many different fields that are suitable for both college and professional levels. Classes are free to take and are available to complete on your own schedule. Certificates of achievement are available at the end of the courses, and you have the optional choice of taking them through Saylor Academy’s Direct Credit Program to be awarded college credit and an official transcript.

This ESL001 course takes roughly 12 hours to complete and is designed for non-native English speakers to improve their reading and writing skills. There are four units in the course, and they cover understanding the different parts of speech, how to read actively, how to learn more words by reading more, and how to read to help your writing.

By the end of the TOEFL prep course online, students will be able to write a few sentences about their favorite activity using the parts of speech they learned in unit 1. While this course is not specifically designed to prep students for the TOEFL exam, it will help non-native English speakers take the first steps in learning vocabulary for the exam.

Cost: Free

Certificate: Yes

Time to Complete: Approximately 12 hours

Curriculum: Beginner

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Perfect for new English speakers, starts with the basics
In-depth look at parts of speech and how sentences are structured
Free certificate of achievement

Cons:

Does not prep specifically for TOEFL exam

9. ESL002: Intermediate English as a Second Language

Offered by Saylor Academy

This course from Saylor Academy is the next level up from the course mentioned above, and is also designed to help non-native English speakers become proficient in their reading and writing skills. The course aims to teach students how to understand the language fully and take time practicing it, ensuring they don’t lose any progress from the first level course.

Saylor Academy courses are entirely free for use and they come with a free certificate of achievement upon completion of the course. ESL002 takes about 10 hours for the average student to complete, so it is slightly shorter than the first level course. The course has four units, which cover how to use the past and present tenses, how to read more actively, how to read descriptions, and how to write about the past.

While this course does not specifically aim to prep students for the TOEFL exam, it’s a perfect place to start if you don’t feel that your English is good enough for the exam yet. This course will help you brush up on intermediate English skills, which can help you to prepare for the exam in the future.

Cost: Free

Certificate: Yes

Time to Complete: Approximately 10 hours

Curriculum: Intermediate

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Perfect for new English speakers, starts with the basics
In-depth look at parts of speech and how sentences are structured
Free certificate of achievement

Cons:

Does not prep specifically for TOEFL exam

10. TOEFL Video Lessons

Offered by i-Courses.org

These video lessons offered by i-Courses.org allows users to follow a less-structured kind of course, which they can do at their own pace and don’t need to “complete”. Rather, students can just focus on areas or specific video lessons where they need extra help.

The webpage contains 13 TOEFL-related video lessons that tackle the kind of questions on the test, the independent speaking and writing questions as well as the listening sections.

These kinds of video lessons are perfect if you’re only having trouble with one specific area of your test prep and need to hear some tips from a new perspective. The video lectures are around 5-15 minutes long and give a brief overview of what to expect on your exam. If you would rather study on your own and don’t want to follow a highly structured course, these video lessons are perfect for you.

Cost: Free

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: Approximately 15 minutes – 2 hours

Curriculum: Intermediate

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Perfect for reviewing right before your exam
Doesn’t require a long time commitment or free trial period

Cons:

Does not follow a structured course syllabus
Only offers video lectures that give a brief overview of topics

Frequently Asked Questions About Free Online Courses for TOEFL

As with any standardized test, studying for your TOEFL exam is hard work, and the lead-up to the exam can be very stressful. However, it doesn’t have to be! One of the best things you can do leading up to your exam is study consistently and effectively with whatever method works best for you.

Taking an online TOEFL prep course could allow you to discover the areas you need to study the most, all while hearing about the ins and outs of the test from a seasoned professional.

Many people are nervous going into TOEFL preparation. It’s normal to be stressed and have questions, and hopefully the following section will help to calm your nerves and answer some of your most burning thoughts.

If you are preparing to take a TOEFL exam or a prep course, read below to hear the answers to some of the most commonly asked questions.

Who Should Take a TOEFL Online Course?

If you are a non-native English speaker who is preparing to take the TOEFL exam or any similar exam, (IELTS, etc) you will benefit from taking an online course. Plain and simple! Studying or taking an online course to prepare for your TOEFL exam will help you succeed and achieve a higher score.

You have nothing to lose in taking a preparation course for your exam, especially if you are already nervous about getting a low score or not scoring high enough to attend the university of your dreams.

Why Should I Take a TOEFL Online Course?

As with any exam, studying and practicing with your material is key to getting a good grade. If you don’t study for your test, you are not guaranteed to receive the score you want and will likely be more nervous going into the test.

Especially with any of the free courses listed above, you will lose nothing by attempting one and at least seeing where you stand in your test prep. Even if you think you’ve studied as much as possible, hearing another instructor’s perspective on a prep course could help you see things in a new light or prepare your answers differently.

Are Online TOEFL Courses Difficult?

The TOEFL exam is one that’s designed to challenge students and make them think critically about the English language. Many TOEFL online preparation courses are structured the same way, with seasoned professors who might try to stump you or get you to see things from a new perspective.

While this might seem daunting or challenging to some, taking a more “difficult” course is a great opportunity to challenge your mind into doing things you didn’t know you were capable of. So the likelihood is yes, you will find most TOEFL courses to be challenging and difficult. However, the difficulty level will also make them incredibly rewarding and aid you greatly in your test prep.

What Will I Get Out of a TOEFL Online Course?

Every course is different, but many professors promise their students a higher score if they complete all of the coursework and engage as much as possible. When you complete your TOEFL exam, a high score can be fundamentally life-changing!

A high TOEFL score could allow you to attend the university of your dreams, get your dream job, or immigrate to the country you have always wanted to live in. The opportunities are limitless when it comes to your success on the TOEFL exam, and it could be one of the biggest pushes toward your eventual success.

Are Free Online TOEFL Courses Worth It?

The short answer is yes, absolutely. Any of the free courses on the list above would be worth taking and could advance you to the next step in your career or immigration status. If you plan on taking the TOEFL exam at any point during your life, it is essential that you start studying now in order to achieve the highest possible score.

The best way to study is to constantly practice and learn new material, which is exactly what many of these online courses aim to help you do. The only thing that you have to lose in taking these classes is your time, and we are sure that your time will be well-spent if you choose any of the courses we have listed above. Best of luck on your exam, and keep studying!