My TOEFL iBT Study Plan: Good, Bad, Could be better?

[CrookedTrail]

Hi, guys! I'm new to this forum. I've taken the TOEFL before, but it was for my undergrad studies and it was still CBT then. :grad:

 

Generally, after nineteen years of education all in English, one could take the TOEFL for granted, but I believe in doing things with full effort and with the best that you could give. :hmm:

 

I've been lurking around for the past few days and read through many of the posts in the past. I've compiled the suggestions I found very useful and formed my own study plan.

 

Do you think my study plan would work to reach my goals? I'm a bit confident when it comes to reading and listening. Writing could do better, and speaking would probably be the most challenging. I speak American English fluently, however I tend to over-analyze sometimes. :doh:

 

I would love to hear suggestions from the many successful test takers (and high scorers!) here. Thanks! :tup:

TOEFL iBT Study Plan

Goal: 110-120/120

Study Time: approx 3-4 months

Preparation Materials:

1. PRIMARY BOOK: Complete Guide to The TOEFL, Bruce Rogers
   
2. ETS Official Guide
   
3. Delta's Key to the Next Generation TOEFL Test: Advanced Skill Practice for the iBT
   
4. Cambridge Preparation For The TOEFL iBT
   

Supplements:

a. Vocabulary:

i. 400 Must Have

ii. 5000 TOEFL Word Lists

iii. Barron's Essential

b. Nova's Speaking And Writing Strategies

c. Barron's Essays

d. Perfect Phrases

[strivetoget26]

(Study Time: approx 3-4 months)

 

How many hours a day?

[Tino]

Let me offer this advice:

1) Looking through these books you will see that many if not all of the tips and reviews they give you are useful for an intermediate or upper-intermediate level English learner, who needs to boost up a low TOEFL to say 80-90 points.....MAYBE, and I stress maybe, 100. Someone of your ability will find that most if not all of the tips and exercises are of little or no use.

2) How will you practice, and how will you IMPROVE, your speaking and writing? How will you do these tasks? Who will evaluate them for you? Who will instruct you on improvement?

3) Assuming you buy these texts, you are looking at well over $200 of material, much of it repeating.

 

Based on such a high score goal, I sincerely recommend that you try any of the various online TOEFL programs out there, many of which you can find on here. I'm not going to advance one or the other, but I will say just make sure whatever program you choose has feedback/assessments of your speaking and writing included. I think they all do, or it is one of their product options. That is key for getting a really high score. I think you can spend a lot less than $200 and get an actual teacher.

 

Note, of the books you have chosen let me tell you this:

ETS Guide is all probably someone of your level needs, as you sound like the most a book can do for you is explain the TOEFL and give you some practice. The Cambridge book is quite good, and Cambridge samples are typically more difficult than the actual TOEFL, but the book is mostly exercises. Be sure to get the book WITH THE CD-ROM, the CD-ROM has 7 full practice tests and is a great value for practicing. Look through those vocab books before you buy them, you very well may already know most if not all the vocab. There is a list on this forum here: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/toefl-reading/77396-toefl-word-list.html

 

Note on study time: TOEFL is a skills test, not a knowledge test. Studying 3-4 hours a day, if your English is basically fluent, is completely unnecessary. The problem is that many people study the wrong way. I use the example of basketball. A basketball game is also a skills test. You can study basketball all you want, but if you don't actually play it, you will not do well in the game. Further, if your performance is not what you wanted, going home and studying basketball for hours and hours for months, will not do much to improve it -- IF YOU DONT PLAY. That is the way TOEFL is. If you want to improve your speaking and writing you must:

1) Speak and write

2) Have those speakings and writings assessed by someone who knows what they are doing

3) Based on those assessments, try again

4) Repeat

 

Best of luck!

 

Tino

[CrookedTrail]

Thank you very much for the sound advice (and the word list)! I had basically planned on studying at least an hour a day for my vocabulary. I ran through some of the lists and I can still recall around sixty percent of the words thanks to my TOEFL/SAT preparations in the past, but that was five years ago. Then another extra two hours to work on the books per day. I have to balance my TOEFL study time since I also have GRE to prepare for.

 

With regards to reading and listening, I can thank the internet and the media for being good practice resources for that. You do make a good point concerning writing and speaking though. I can probably find online friends or willing partners to evaluate my writing for me, but then again, the speaking is the most challenging. I searched through the forums for posts that recommend online services but they've been elusive. Would you be kind as to recommend some or post the link for me? I have seen other forum members finding speaking partners through Skype, it's a good idea, but I think unless you find a native or an extremely fluent speaker, it defeats the purpose.

 

Thanks again! You have been most helpful.

[Tino]

I agree with you. Speaking partners with other learners is at best a waste of time, and may make your speaking worse, because your mistakes will not be correct, and then become "fixed".... and you will keep getting under 26 on the TOEFL and blame the test, when you keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

 

I am going to send you a PM. I dont want to use the Forum area to recommend any businesses.

 

Cheers,

 

Tino