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Itp Toefl - 593


Boorz

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Today, May 19th I received the results taken from the ITP TOEFL. I waited this long because I didn’t want to bother Erin posting without a score. Here it goes:

 

 

Listening Comprehension: 57

Structure and Written Expression: 60

Reading Comprehension: 61

Total Score: 593

 

Below, you’ll find my thoughts I wrote the day after the test. Some of my assumptions were a bit wrong, especially in the listening part. But in the overall it’s ok. I still recommend the CBT instead the PBT.

 

Hi everyone.

 

 

Now I’m going to tell you everything about my preparation and performance on the ITP TOEFL. It will be long, yet, very helpful. Today (Saturday, May 07, 2005) is the day after the test.

 

 

I’ve always studied at CCAA language school in Brazil. And I also give classes there. Since I had finally finished my English course (To the Top 3), I thought it was time to both test my skills and get a good qualification to start giving classes for intermediate and maybe for advanced students.

 

 

I began to prepare for the Toefl three months ago, but I’ve studied English as a whole for as long as three years.

 

 

Because I didn’t have anyone (neither teacher nor friends) to support me and explain to me what the toefl looked like, I began to look up for information over the Internet.

 

 

Using e-mule, visiting the toefl official page and reading as much as I could at Test Magic site and forum, I was able to found out lots and lots of information.

 

 

Well, I’m not proud of this, but there were no other ways to improve my score. Without spending money (which I actually hadn’t). I downloaded some programs through e-mule like both Longman TOEFL preparation and their dictionary, The Heinemann TOEFL (this one for the paper based), Grammars from Cambridge, etc…

 

 

I also tried to solve every structure test I found in homepages. I did hundreds of them. Specially the ones on test magic because there were explanations for those (Thanks Erin :)

 

 

One month and a half before the test I did Powerprep TOEFL Test 1. Here were my results:

 

 

Listening: 23

 

Structure/Writing: 9

 

Reading: 27

 

 

I did simulate real test conditions. I’ve even used ordinary earphones! (made in China costing less than one dollar :) Since in the paper test I had to reach at least 55 points in each section, therefore 550 points in the total score I got really happy with the results. Boy, I managed to reach a 23 (57 converting to the paper based) in the listening part. The essay, the first one that I’ve ever done was bad. I think I would receive a grade of 3,5. Of course I was not worried about that because I wouldn’t need to write it on ITP test.

 

 

So, after the results I set some goals:

 

 

Listening= improve one point = 24.

 

Structure= improve one point = 10.

 

Reading = maintain the same score = 27

 

Essay = improve one point = 4,5

 

 

Ok. I was told CBT was a lot harder than the PBT (mainly in the listening part), but I knew there were some drawbacks on the PBT and I was absolutely right.

 

 

I kept studying around 3 to 10 hours a day, listening, reading, exercising the structure part and using the material I had collected. At www.voanews.com (this one I found right here at testmagic forum, but I don’t remember the mate who gave this information) I could listen to news and if I had any question I could check the written text and listen to it again. At air America radio I listened a lot of bad things about the U.S president. Lots and lots of talks and commercials.

 

 

On the week before, when I was at my parent’s house, I finally got a DVD (which I think is the most powerful tool for the listening part) and started to watch and listen to American movies with and without the subtitles in English. With a good dictionary by my side (thanks for Longman :) I was able to found most of the words and expressions I didn’t know (way to go Spiderman!, chin up among others).

 

 

I kept studying very hard. Accorgind to the results of the Longaman and Heinemann I was well qualified to do the toefl. On Longman my last score on the computer was 277, and on the Heinemann for the Paper Based it was 620. Of course I was aware they are a lot easier than a real test. Unfortunately, I couldn’t download the Kaplan CBT test that according to what I heard, was as difficult as or more difficult than a real computer based. I tried twice but in both of them the file was corrupted (that’s a tip for you, if you’re using e-mule don’t download this program, it simply won’t work, it will take you weeks to finish it but in the end it won’t work :(

 

 

Finally, on the day before the real test, I decided to take Powerprep test two. I once again simulated real test conditions and bla,bla,bla.

 

 

Mates. I swear for my sweet mom! GOD KNOWS THE TRUTH! god knows the truth! I didn’t cheat at any time and the test content was all new to me (except maybe for one short question in the first part, I think I had already heard that before, quite strange isn’t it?). Here are my results:

 

 

 

 

Powerprep Toefl Test Score Summary Test 2 (May, 5th, 2005)

 

 

 

Listening: 27

 

Structure/Writing: 12-28

 

Reading: 27

 

Total: 220-273

 

 

 

Essay Topic:

 

 

 

Some people pay money for the things they want or need. Other people trade products or goods for what they need. Compare the advantages of these two ways of obtaining things. Which way do you prefer? Explain why.

 

 

 

My Essay:

 

 

The two commoner ways of getting things are both paying and exchanging. While the latter is note widely used today, it was the main form of obtaining products or goods in ancient times.

 

Nowadays, the modern way of obtaining things is this: you work, receive your paycheck and use the money to get both the products and the goods you need. With all the currencies we have, paying for the things we want is much less complicated. By using a credit card you can get everything you want over the internet (provided you have a large sum of money in your account).

 

Since it's a lot simpler than trading, this way of obtaining things has spread all over the world. However, sometimes it's very useful to trade things. Let's suppose I needed to read an article written in Spanish, a friend of mine who knows Spanish really well could translate it to me. By my part, I could help him in a similar way, by translating something from English into his native language. Therefore, neither me nor my friend would spend money.

 

Of course, there are many other ways in which trading can be helpful. As what was said in the beginning of the essay, in ancient times, when currencies were difficult to obtain, people used to exchange products (mainly foods) like carrots for lettuce, rice for beans, etc, mutually helping each other, sharing things that they had by other that they didn't have enough.

 

Personally I'm so used to pay with money that I rarely trade products or goods. Living in a big city doesn't encourages you to trade and so that's why I prefer to pay for the things I buy.

 

In the powerprep, the listening part was not that difficult, but I couldn’t understand every part of the lectures because I missed some words or small parts. The structure was really really difficult, but I do know that I was doing fine because if it weren’t easy, it meant that I was doing right, right? The only thing that I didn’t understand is why with a 12 score I was not able to reach a 29 or even a 30 on the structure part, if a 6 essay means 18 points? So, 12+18= 30? (Addendum: I have taken Test 1 another dozen of times to understand how the structure part score worked, unfortunately, I couldn’t. I got such different and weird scores like: 12-28, or 12-29 and even 13-29, it’s impossible to understand what ETS have in their minds) The reading was easy as well. Much time to do, (you can even take a nap) very nice texts. I write the essay just to practice my writing, that was the third essay I wrote (the second was on Longman test). I’ve compared my essay with a 4 and 5 grade on the same topic. I think that it’s better than a four one but worse than a 5 one. I rated it as a 4,5 but I don’t have any real experience on it. As a whole, I made some mistakes because I didn’t have time to review all the parts carefully, I finished it 2 seconds left :). By the way, I also lied about “living in a large city” I actually live in small town far away form the city. I had to travel 350 miles do reach the test center. I stayed with my family (they do live in the capital state) the week before. I like to say: “when it comes to love and war, everything is worth of it”. So let’s give ETS what they want :) {Sorry, you should have an equivalent for that statement in English, I just translated it from Portuguese into English, but I’m sure you’ll understand.}

 

For me, it was a gorgeous score. I felt very happy and well-confident to do the exam. I just couldn’t believe in such a high score. For the first time I thought that a 600 score on the real test was possible. (Just let you know: in my country, a very good English teacher is required at least 600 on the Toefl to be well-qualified to give classes in the advanced levels. At first, I wanted at least 55 in all sections – which is enough to teaching for intermediate classes.)

 

I studied the rest of the day. At night, I simple couldn’t sleep. But let’s summarize the process:

 

Itp toefl

 

 

Listening part: I’ve failed. I don’t know what exactly happened. The sound came from a TV set that was connected with the computer running the ETS cd containing the listening part. The volume was with a lot “bass” (sorry again, I don’t how to say that, but I think you understand what “bass” means) on it. It was also low. In the powerprep I was set the volume very high when using earphones. I could barely understand the topic of the lectures. There were 50 questions. None with the pattern “where does this conversation takes place”. I was scared, cold-sweating, shaking all over... It was too hard that in the middle of the listening part I gave up and lost my concentration. Sometimes there was no time to read all the four possible answers and COMPLETELY fill in without the beginning of the next question I did really bad in this section. I think I’ll score no more than 52. The listening part will surely annihilate my global score. It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever listened to, it was as bad as understanding AIR America Radio or VOAnews.

 

Structure/Writing: Very easy, I assumed it would be more difficult. Too bad the time was very short, but I hoping a 62 score in this section. And what a pity there were no inversion questions, “Boy, was I looking forward for those :)

 

Reading: Easy, similar to powerprep. But once again the time was surprisingly short. There were 5 passages with 25 lines each and 50 questions to answer in 55 minutes. I had to rush here, sometimes I didn’t have time to read all the possible answers. I’m supposed to do well in this part just like in section 2. If I answered a least 44 out of 50 questions, what score would I receive? I just don’t know

 

Overall:

 

Time: in all the sections, time is a matter of live and death. You also lose a lot of time COMPLETELY filling in the ovals in the answer sheet. In listening, if we compare with the computer there are less than a half of the time to answer the questions and fill in. In section 2 in computer you have a mean of 45 seconds (without having to “completely fill in”), on the paper you have 37,5 seconds. The advantages are: it’s easier and you can skip questions. I did it in the test and it was very helpful. Section three is out of mind if we compare with the computer test. No need do say anything here. ETS should really rethink the time for this section.

 

I’m thinking of doing the official Computer Based Test. To bad it will cost me an eye to take it. I’m thinking about buying the ETS material too! Oh man! Don’t even ask how I’m going to pay for that. What do you guys think?

 

Thoughts:

 

I strongly DISrecommend (hey, we have a neologism here!) taking the paper test. If it’s somehow possible to take the computer instead of the paper, please, take the former!

 

Doubts:

 

I would like to know whether powerprep is or not a trustful tool to measure English skills. Isn’t it someway outdated or easy?

 

Please, post your suggestions, criticisms and whatever you want.

 

Special thanks:

 

Erin Billy: muito obrigado Erin, por esse maravilhoso site. Você foi o melhor professor que eu já vi atuar. As explicações para os exercícios de estrutura foram muito úteis. Eu prometo a você que se alguma vez ganhar na loteria eu vou aí te visitar e estudar alguns meses totalmente imerso no verdadeiro inglês americano.

 

Mishum2000: for the PBT texts this guy has provided all over the forum. They were very helpful. I read each of those and their respective questions about it. I wonder how this guy managed to get real ETS TOEFL texts. Because I knew ITP uses old TOEFL tests, I realized there was a small chance that in my test, one of that could appear. And guess what! I was right! The text about arid America and humid America, taken from a test given in 2003/08 show up right in front of my eyes in the day during the test. When I first read it, I immediately understood that the question: “this regionalization” referred to humid and arid America.

 

All the mates in the Test Magic Forum: for all the things I read and learned.

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