urasawa Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Hi. I'm a French-Canadian living in the Netherlands and I just came back from my TOEFL test. I want to enroll in an English program here that requires a minimum of 22/30 on each section of the TOEFL. Now, let me just say that I speak fluent English (all day every day, I don't really use French anymore) without accent although I do have the occasional slip-up in pronunciation, and my writing level is pretty high. It's silly to me that I have to pay 240$ to prove that I'm bilingual, but after a back-and-forth with the school, there doesn't seem to be another way. Anyway, rant over. So the reading, listening and writing section were really easy except for one or two questions that didn't seem to have a clear answer (I mean do they want to know if we're career analysts or do they want to know if we understand English?). I think I got lucky on the writing, because both topics were extremely clear and easy. I'm not worried about those parts. What I'm worried about is the speaking part. I'm extremely introverted and I am not good at talking. Unless I'm with a close friend, I have no charisma or even just speaking skills at all. I also have bad memory from my depression and that makes reciting in a natural tone-- impossible. I studied a lot for the speaking questions and I knew the format (though like 3 of them were different from the expected format and took me by surprise, for ex. #1 didn't ask a personal preference question), but I talked so fast that I ended up with 10 seconds of silence at the end of two questions. I also just skipped over punctuation a few times. I'm afraid this automatically means I'll get less than 22. I do think my answers showed that I know English grammar and all, but they sound spoken by a very nervous person. Is it possible the examiner will understand that and give me a decent score, especially since the other parts might have 27 points or more each, or did I nail my own coffin? I tried to make up for it with my essays, using "advanced" words and having no redundancies even though I went about 100 words over the recommended amount of words. On a side note, the testing facilities in Arnhem were absolutely dreadful. In my head, I had imagined a big lobby with a waiting area, a secretary and her counter/desk thing, and a long corridor leading to the (quiet and near-empty) laboratories. In reality, there was a big line coming out a sketchy-looking chlorine-smelling building. The bouncer (yes) at the door let people in if their name was on the list. Not all people though, some had to wait outside for the crammed tiny staircase that the entrance led to-- to be emptied of people before they could come in and wait in the staircase for their turn. After waiting in the staircase for about 7 minutes, a man tells some of us to come upstairs. 2 flights of stairs upstairs. To wait in a tiny, crammed corridor (if you can even call that a corridor) in front of the toilets and between the personal-effects area and a laboratory. Then we waited for the personal-effects-area-people to switch places with us. Then we had to wait for the crammed corridor to be cleared of people, which necessitated the crammed laboratory entrance to be cleared of people. We went in two at a time (and the man giving instructions was only speaking Dutch, good thing I understand the words "twee maand"). When I went in, the id-checker checked my id and told me to wait to be seated (in the crammed room). After a while, he tells me to go upstairs to be seated there instead. I go upstairs (so crammed as well), and the man there tells me that I should go downstairs to be seated. I chuckled to hide murderous intent. I go back in the crammed corridor and toward the laboratory door, but that door's bouncer (Dutch-only-man) gestures me to go in the personal-effects area. Seems he didn't recognize me. Though I did say "I was here just then but they told me to go upstairs". Anyway. The woman in the S-P area asks me what I need. I explain what happened. She goes past Dutch-only-man and opens the lab door, and in I go. Again. Polite-underage-worker brings me to my seat and explains what I have to do. I thought "well, the worst is over". Hahaha. I read (on this forum perhaps) that the headset blocked a good amount of noise. Not the one in Arnhem. It blocks about as much noise as... nothing. It blocks nothing. And the room was full of people making noise. With depression, I have a hard time concentrating. With noise on top of that, it got very frustrating. Sometimes I would miss a word or two of a lecture because of a loud noise behind me. But mostly, I just wanted to get it over ASAP, because keeping focus in those conditions was draining. I finished long before some people who got in before me. I might have set a record. To finish things off, when I got out, I couldn't find my coat because the previously single coat-rack had become three coat-racks spread across the room. I hope my post isn't too ranty (and long...). I just wanted to share my experience (albeit negative), and perhaps get encouragement in my hope of getting 22 or fear-confirmation that I won't get 22 for the speaking part. Nice day to you all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urasawa Posted February 2, 2014 Author Share Posted February 2, 2014 Well, I got my scores. 29/30/23/28. Not bad! Seems they aren't too strict on the speaking part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mia786 Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 wow awesome ..congrats..!:distracted: now pray for me :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.