knok Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 Hi friends, For those who got 26 on TOEFL iBT, please let us know how you prepare for it. Which books do you follow? It seems that each book gives a different strategy. Is it possible to get a 26 on speaking? Please share your opinions. If it is too high and impossible to achieve in a short period of time, 3-4 months, we should exercise the second scenerio. We all spent too much time and energy for the TSE, which was a test that was impossible to pass for some of us. Please be realistic. We need to invest on what is possible only. We don't want our time, money, and energy to go down the drain. Just like someone asked, "Are you taking the test that you have no chance to pass?" Thank you for your sincere comment. With regards, Knok Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tino Posted July 20, 2006 Share Posted July 20, 2006 Well, I know a TOEFL teacher who took the test as practice to prepare for teaching it. He got a perfect score, which is 30 on the speaking. So it is possible technically. I have heard that the speaking sections are graded 1-4, but I am not 100% sure of that... and I do not know how the scores are used to obtain the 1-30 total. It might be that some sections count more than others. I have been trying to find out, and will let everyone know when I do. From all the students I heard from the TSE was really hard. I think it was the sort of test that was difficult to prepare for, and the methods of preparation people used would often work against them. For example, I read in the TSE raters guide (a book for TSE raters to tell them how to rate the TSE) that the rater should look for natural speech such as stopping, stumbling, saying "ah" or "um".... but many TSE test takers try to memorize answers and then speak them out perfectly.... Anyway, that test is gone. The iBT seems to be rated more easily. We will see as more and more TSE people switch over to iBT what their opinions are..... please post them! Thanks, Tino Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eager_pharmacist Posted July 20, 2006 Share Posted July 20, 2006 Hey knok, Toefl ibt is easier than tse, it is not as crazy and mismanaged as tse so i dont think u shld have any problems.. just be natural, dont focus on accent, because they dont judge on that, i think clarity of thoughts and your flow is the most imp thing for that. I took IBT since i needed TSE for MI board for licence and Mi does not need TSE, so i had to take ibt, i got 29 on speak test, i had gone without preperatn since i did not have any time, i got 29 on ibt speak test and TSE 50 after 1st attempt. So you can compare the diff here, my sis got 27 on speak test and she could not pass TSE in 4 attempts too!!so it is much much better than TSe. let me know if i can be of any help?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaucon_1973 Posted July 20, 2006 Share Posted July 20, 2006 Hi Eager_pharmacist, Can you tell me which book you use to prepare for toefl IBT? I am thinking to take it soon. What country do you come from? I tried taking TSE nearly 2 years, and could not make it. It sucks. Gaucon Hey knok, Toefl ibt is easier than tse, it is not as crazy and mismanaged as tse so i dont think u shld have any problems.. just be natural, dont focus on accent, because they dont judge on that, i think clarity of thoughts and your flow is the most imp thing for that. I took IBT since i needed TSE for MI board for licence and Mi does not need TSE, so i had to take ibt, i got 29 on speak test, i had gone without preperatn since i did not have any time, i got 29 on ibt speak test and TSE 50 after 1st attempt. So you can compare the diff here, my sis got 27 on speak test and she could not pass TSE in 4 attempts too!so it is much much better than TSe. let me know if i can be of any help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knok Posted July 20, 2006 Author Share Posted July 20, 2006 Thank you for your sincere comments. Anyone has any more experiences, please share. I will share general evaluations for my speaking section later in a different thread. I share some evaluation with my friend who came from a different country. Of course, her English is a lot better than mine. To my surprise, we got the same evaluation for fair, good or limited. I am looking for a specific comment but I could not see it from ETS's evaluation. For example, in ETS book, it gives details on each person's delivery on speaking section. In a real test, it seems that ETS just copy and paste, evaluation of "fair, good, or limited" to my evalutation. It is vague and not helpful at all. The fee now is $150. I don't think that it will be a lot of work for the raters to just put a specific comment. For example, if they say," I have grammatical or pronunciation errors or unidiomatic sentence", they should give specific examples which words I did wrong. It won't take more than half an hour to do that for a test taker, especially when wage is $15/hour. Thanks again. Knok Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tseprep Posted July 20, 2006 Share Posted July 20, 2006 Knok you forget that the "Raters" can't spend 30 minutes per test, if my guess is right, they need to rate 6 to 10 testers per hour. Six answer 6 minutes plus 1 or 2 minutes total to score, maybe 30 sec max to give a score for each question. That's anywhere between 7-9 minutes per test, after all if raters spent 30 minutes per test, the ETS will go under, or more likely they will raise the test prices to about $300 to maintain their non-profit profit margin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tino Posted July 20, 2006 Share Posted July 20, 2006 Yeah, I think I remember reading that raters were expected to grade a minimum of 4 essays per hour on the old CBT, so I imagine TSEPREP is correct. It is a bit unfair though. I mean if I take the test, why can't I get a detailed explanation of my score? Tino Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eager_pharmacist Posted July 22, 2006 Share Posted July 22, 2006 gaucon, i did not use any books for IBT , I had no time to prepare, but I have heard a lot abt KAPLANs course, I guess thast should be good, you will pass IBT it is very simple. Let me know if i can help you any further. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tino Posted July 24, 2006 Share Posted July 24, 2006 I have heard from TOEFL iBT teachers that they like the Longman book for iBT the best..... Tino Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knok Posted July 26, 2006 Author Share Posted July 26, 2006 Thank you for your input. However, according to ETS official guide book, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/007146297X/ref=pe_6680_2646940_cm_rev_emailcr_p1_c2646940_dp_3_h/102-8096907-2086505?n=283155 It says clearly that ETS do not expect test takers to summarize all information in reading and listening passages. You must answer what is being asked only. In Longman, the book tells the readers to summarize everything. I got 17 after following the longman on speaking section. On the first iBT, I got 20 on speaking without any preparation. Here is another book from Princeton Review which is good. I saw many people posting about this book and they followed it and got pretty high score. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375764275/ref=pe_6680_2646940_cm_rev_emailcr_p1_c2646940_dp_2_h/102-8096907-2086505?n=283155 If anyone has further good information, please share your experience. We need to get rid of the pain. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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