TOEFL 2026 guide
How vocabulary works here
Twelve words a day, in named sets, on a ladder that finds your level rather than starting you at the beginning. It will never tell you how many words are left — and that is the most deliberate decision in the whole system.
The shape of it
Words are grouped into four tiers, and each tier is broken into small named sets of about twelve words. You work one set at a time. When a set is finished it says so, and the next one appears.
| Tier | What is in it |
|---|---|
| Core | The words that carry ordinary English. Everything else assumes these. |
| Campus & Daily Life | Timetables, deadlines, accommodation, forms — the English the new test asks you to handle. |
| Academic | The vocabulary of lectures, readings and seminar discussion. |
| Advanced | Precision words. The difference between a passing answer and a convincing one. |
Tiers have names, not numbers
There is no Level 1 and no Level 9. A number invites you to ask how many there are and to feel behind; a name just tells you what kind of English you are working on.
You do not start at the beginning
The first thing you do is a short ladder of about ten questions. It gets harder while you are right and easier when you are wrong, and it stops as soon as it knows enough. It is not a test and nothing is recorded against you — it exists so that you start where the words are new, instead of spending a fortnight on words you already knew.
If it puts you somewhere that feels wrong, you can move. Being placed too high wastes your time; being placed too low wastes it more quietly, which is worse.
What a day looks like
One list. Not “four new and eight due” — just today's words, in one place, and when the list is empty you are finished for the day.
- Words you have seen before come first. Remembering something at the moment you were about to forget it is what actually makes it stick.
- New words fill whatever room is left, and if there is no room, none arrive. The day never grows past the size you agreed to.
- A word you get right comes back later; a word you get wrong comes back sooner.
A word that keeps beating you gets set aside
If the same word defeats you again and again, it is taken out of rotation rather than left to clog every session. One stubborn word should not be allowed to eat the twelve minutes you came to spend.
Why it will not tell you how many are left
This is the part people ask about, so it is worth being direct: the number of words remaining is not hidden because we forgot to show it. It is not shown on purpose, and the software is built so that it cannot be shown.
A remaining count is a denominator, and a denominator turns study into a progress bar. Progress bars are demoralising when the number is large and they make you rush when the number is small. Neither of those helps you remember a word.
So the counting only goes up: words learned, sets finished, days you turned up. Those never fall, and none of them has a total sitting behind it. Within the open set you do get a number — eight of twelve learned — because that set is in front of you and its size is not a secret.
The story
Alongside the sets there is a twelve-part story set in a hall of residence, written at the level of the words you are learning. It is there because a word you have only met on a card is a word you can recognise but not use. Meeting it inside a sentence somebody had a reason to say is what moves it across.
Start with the placement ladder →About ten questions, then your first set of twelve.