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TOEFL iBT tips for a Better score!
Hi,
I'm from India, i gave my TOEFL iBT in september 2008. I hardly prepared for the test, but was able to pull off a mediocre 110/120 ( R-26, L-28, S-27, W-29). Having experienced real testing conditions i have a few tips which would greatly help you all in increasing ur score, especially in the speaking and writing sections.
First, try to create a template for every question type in speaking and writing sections. It's quite difficult to organise speech in 15 secs,and then deliver it flawlessly.So, pre defined templates would greatly help u cut short the time required for organising ur speech and let u concentrate more on the content to talk about. If my explanation seems vague, listen to these videos on TOEFL speaking:
[ TOEFL iBT ] Renshaw Internet School of English
This guy gives the best tips for TOEFL speaking section . With these, every body could score more than 26!
Similarly for the writing section, templates help. The main criterion for scoring speaking and writing sections is "Organisation". How well u organise ur speech or text matters the most. I say, even if you utter nonsense, but in an organised fashion, u would still get a good score.
So, having a template upfront will help u concentrate more on what matter to fill in the template with, rather than the organisation of the matter itself - not a difficult task to complete in 15/20 secs.
Don't forget to listen to the speaking tips on that link i mentioned above.
Second, practice speaking in timed conditions. Practise speaking on topics.
Get a collection of some useful high level words ( toefl wordlists are enough). Try to fill some sentences with atleast one high level word. This will greatly boost ur score in speaking and writing sections.I prepared for the GRE ( again..short term prep asusual!), so knew quite a few high level words to use in regular conversation. I guess most of u all must have prepared for some standardised test which required remembering wordlists, so remembering high level words shouldn't be a problem, though diction needs to be practiced.
For the reading section, assume the passage is a story and keep reading it while imagining the story in the background. This way u have a better chance of recalling than trying to take notes. Also, read the paragraphs thoroughly, twice. Once slowly in the beginning , and later reimpose the material by quickly scanning through the passage. Only then should you start working on the questions.
Similarly for the listening section, imagine the whole lecture, and only note down names, dates etc... I know this would greatly help.
Practice each and every section separately and rigorously.
And the most important thing, stop studying the day before the test and have a good night's sleep.
I screwed up(well, not exactly!) my test for one sole reason: I didn't sleep well the night before .So, I was sleepy during the reading and listening sections
( the 2 easiest sections where i lost valuable points). Even for the speaking and writing sections, my brain wasn't incontrol, i tried hard to concentrate, which is why i lost 3 points in speaking and 1 point in writing). The reason i'm mentioning these facts is to let u all know that staying fresh on the test day would help one score a lot more, than studying the night before the test to make up for short term preparation.
Trust me, Scoring a perfect 120 on the Toefl iBT is'nt difficult at all.
U just gotta work smart, not hard.
PS: I've formulated these tips from my own test experience/ from my short term prep. These may or may not suit everybody out there. You are free to experiment with these and if u find them useless don't waste ur time working on them.
If u feel like contacting me with smth, email or PM me.
Thank you, and i wish that u all with great scores!
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