TOEFL Writing Score: Score Calculation, Marking Criteria, and Marking Rubric

TOEFL writing section is divided into two tasks, and the total score ranges from 0 to 30. TOEFL writing score contributes 25% of your total score. TOEFL has updated this exam syllabus, and the writing section had major changes. TOEFL writing section became shorter and now includes new writing for an academic discussion task. You are achieving a TOEFL writing score scale between 24 and 30 shows an advanced level proficiency. Top-ranked universities worldwide requires on average 25+ TOEFL writing score. Understanding TOEFL writing score rubric is very important for writing a perfect answer.

TOEFL Writing Section Description

Before understanding the score calculation process, let’s understand the contents of the TOEFL writing criteria. The test-takers have 2 tasks here

• Integrated writing task
• Independent writing task

The following table shows the exam pattern of TOEFL writing tasks:

TOEFL Writing Score Conversion

TOEFL writing sections have a specific number of questions and the candidates obtain a raw score based on the number of correct answers given. This is the raw TOEFL score and this raw TOEFL score is converted into the scaled score on a scale of 0-30. The candidates can check the TOEFL IBT writing conversion table for this purpose.

TOEFL Writing Score to CEFR Level

Some of the top-ranked universities published their language score requirements on CEFR level. You can refer to the table below to understand the conversion of TOEFL iBT score to CEFR level:

TOEFL Percentiles Writing Score

Percentiles indicate how well candidates fared on the test. The greater your TOEFL score, the higher the percentile. For example, a candidate who scored in the 40th percentile scored more than 40% of all individuals who took the TOEFL but lower than 60% of all people who took it. The raw and scaled scores that correlate to some of the most important TOEFL Writing percentile levels are listed below. Remember that each essay is assigned a raw score ranging from 0 to 5, therefore your total raw score for both essays will range from 0 to 10. The raw score of the candidate is then translated to a scaled score ranging from 0 to 30, which is the number you'll see on your score report.

To establish what a "good" TOEFL Writing score is, candidates must consider percentiles. "Good" might be defined as anything above average or in the 50th percentile. Using that criterion, any scaled Writing score better than 22 is considered good. Candidates may alternatively define good as being in the top quarter of test takers, or at the very least in the 75th percentile. That would need a minimum writing score of 25.
A 90th percentile Writing score would suggest you outperformed 90% of other test takers on that part. This requires a minimum score of 27.

TOEFL Writing Score: Marking Criteria

The following tables show the marking rubrics of TOEFL writing evaluation criteria for the integrated writing task and TOEFL independent writing task:

Marking Rubric of TOEFL Integrated Writing Task

Essays on the TOEFL iBT's writing section are graded with distinct rubrics for the independent and integrated writing tasks. Both are graded on a scale of 0 to 5. The marks obtained for TOEFL integrated writing task shows:

Marking Rubric of TOEFL Writing for an Academic Discussion Task

TOEFL writing exam pattern has recently updated. TOEFL integrated writing task was removed and a new writing for an academic discussion task has added.