Which is the best book for Toefl ibt

[amarmnayak]

hi all....

Any one of u plzzzzzzz suggest me which is the best book to start with...actully i took a date but i find myself in a mess that from where to start with...so many sources are their... like barrons..Princeston...Kaplan...and so on...

so need thy help guys tht frm where to start....

Thank you....

[nguyenchitin]

I think you should start with Official Guide of TOEFL IBT, published by ETS. You must go through it first, practise all of its samples.

Then if you want to improve your score, you can listen to lectures of the Barron CD. I didn't like other sections of this CD, so I payed attention only to the listening section of this CD. Don't forget to look up the unknown words of those lectures. Don't forget to practise with other guys on skype for speaking skill and hints about the test.

Then I think thats it, you should have a sufficient knowledge for TOEFL IBT right now. However if you want to improve your score, you can take a look at Thomson's complete guide. Just like Barron, this book has a lot of stupid parts too, but its pretty helpful.

Good luck

[amarmnayak]

hey thanks... nguyenchitin....

For thy immidiate reply... i appriciate it... i found.. Princeton frm a library do u think is it good also... i mean generally people advice tht start with barrons 1st... and all... so wts thy opinion abt it....

Good day...

[TOEFL Corey]

I'm coming from a teacher's standpoint rather than that of a student, so my perspective may be a little different, but I have very strong opinions in this area (and most of my students have agreed). Far and away, the best overall TOEFL book to me is "The Complete Guide to the TOEFL Test -- iBT Edition" by Bruce Rogers, published by Thomson. It's not the easiest to find (especially to get the self-study pack with the book, CD ROM, 13 audio Cds, and answer book), but I think it's "head and shoulders" above the rest, both in terms of quality and quantity (it's over 800 pages with 13 audio CDs!!).

I've used many others, though, and they all have strengths and weaknesses. The biggest problem I've found with most of them is that they don't represent the material correctly -- especially the integrated witing and some of the integrated speaking tasks. This could be said for the Barron's book (especially their integrated writing and several task 4's on the speaking), Delta Keys, Cambridge, Longman, Princeton Review, and Kaplan.

For example, just take Speaking Task 5, the problem/solution task. If you practiced this from the Delta, you would expect three solutions most of the time from conversation rather than 2, and if you used the Longman, you wouldn't even know that they will ask for your own opinion in addition to the summarizing of the problem and solution (unless they've finally corrected this in the most recent edition). This is just one example, but many of these books are loaded with problems.

The ETS Guide is very good, but there isn't really much study material (less than 400 pages and only 1 CD with one set of listening tasks, speaking files, etc.).

Best of luck to you in your studies, whichever book or books you use!

[amarmnayak]

hey thank u so muchhhh.... toefl corey...


i saw that... u hav posted that u have some recorded class material... will u be able to send that to me.. as well...will appriciate that...

Thanx again.......for thy response...

[chris jones]

There are many books in a market. You must be careful about a book you choose. The test preparation software that comes with a book is equally important so look for a book that contains some CD too.

Cambridge iBT TOEFL Preparation – comes with 8 CDs and 7 practice tests.


Kaplan TOEFL iBT 2007-2008 – come with 4 sample tests.

[sonson2007]

I would say Longman, or Cambridge..I did not like thompson.

[jeril842002]

Don't wanna confuse you more with the list of books.

But I think even Delta's Toefl book is good.
You can buy the book which has 6 test.
Just give those test and it will be sufficient.

[Vancouverine]

I took my toefl today, so I can tell you that Longman's exercises are not very useful, specially the ones for the reading part. I also studied with Kaplan, I did the four sample tests and I think that its level is more similar to the real exam.

Good luck.

[m1n0taur]

hi,

a tip for those who prefer not to pay for a book...there are free toefl iBT prep websites too, like toeflsim, if you want to try a simulated online test.