TOEFL Speaking

[radagast]

I just got my TOEFL score. This is my first take. I got 28 for Speaking.

[SD2007]

Originally Posted by radagast

I just got my TOEFL score. This is my first take. I got 28 for Speaking.

This is an excellent score. Congratulation!
Could you please explain for us what is your strategy to get high mark on Speaking? I only got 20, 19 and 19 for three attempts and I just couldn't figure out how to improve it.

Thank you for your help!

[radagast]

One suggestion is try to vary your sentence structure. Second, if you think templates are too mechanical, convey your response in a way that is most convenient to you. Try to listen more often to spoken English. Of course, practice.

[lmona]

I took the TOEFL iBT three times and scored the following for the Speaking Section: 24, 23, 26. I'm just so happy that I finally got the score that I needed. To those who are having a hard time obtaining the scores they need, do not lose hope. It takes a lot of prayers and practice. During my first two attempts, I did not take practicing seriously since I have been speaking English since I was a child. But I realized that TOEFL doesn't really gauge your knowledge of the Language but rather your being able to perform assigned tasks. It's very much like answering the question and answer portion of a beauty contest. You have very little time to prepare (15 seconds) and they expect you to give a brilliant answer (lying is recommended). I suggest practicing to answer at least 10 questions a day for about 2 weeks. This really helps. Record your answer and listen to it at a later time so you can spot your weaknesses. Also, I think what I did differently on my third try is that I did not use the words found in the question, in short, I paraphrased a lot. For example, the question is: "What is your favorite subject?" Instead of starting as "My favorite subject is ...," say something like "When I was in College, I took a lot of Science subjects as a requirement for my Major...I really liked Biochemistry because my teacher made the subject very interesting..." Again, practice, lie, and paraphrase! Good luck!

[Trav]

Originally Posted by lmona

I took the TOEFL iBT three times and scored the following for the Speaking Section: 24, 23, 26. I'm just so happy that I finally got the score that I needed. To those who are having a hard time obtaining the scores they need, do not lose hope. It takes a lot of prayers and practice. During my first two attempts, I did not take practicing seriously since I have been speaking English since I was a child. But I realized that TOEFL doesn't really gauge your knowledge of the Language but rather your being able to perform assigned tasks. It's very much like answering the question and answer portion of a beauty contest. You have very little time to prepare (15 seconds) and they expect you to give a brilliant answer (lying is recommended). I suggest practicing to answer at least 10 questions a day for about 2 weeks. This really helps. Record your answer and listen to it at a later time so you can spot your weaknesses. Also, I think what I did differently on my third try is that I did not use the words found in the question, in short, I paraphrased a lot. For example, the question is: "What is your favorite subject?" Instead of starting as "My favorite subject is ...," say something like "When I was in College, I took a lot of Science subjects as a requirement for my Major...I really liked Biochemistry because my teacher made the subject very interesting..." Again, practice, lie, and paraphrase! Good luck!

Imona,

I liked it when you talked about "lying" when answering TOEFLiBT speaking questions because I did exactly what you have just said.

I had a question about "My greatest achievement to date and why do I consider that as my greatest achievement".... I responded by talking about getting the 12th child who will be a "reserve" soccer player in my family soccer team (all the 11 players being my children), which will reduce the pressure I'm currently having just to think about the consequences I might face in case one of my children gets injured during the competition.... I added a couple of blah blahs just to finish the alloted time and at the end I was laughing out loud.. and I think the person who marked my test should have thought that I'm crazy.... but it worked in my favor.

I don't mean that TOEFLiBT is a fair test.... It is not even close to being fair, because people like you who have been speaking English over the years should not "struggle" to acquire a passing score (26) for the speaking section. There's something wrong with this test.... The magic number (26) is too high and its validation is long overdue.