Tense used in an essay

[eagle80]

Hi!

Today I was writing my iBT TOEFL and I have a question about first part in writing section.

In every ibt toefl, first we read a passage, then we listen to some lectures. The lectures talk about the subject from the passage.

Our task is to write summary about the lectures and compare it to the passage.

I could use the past tense: "The lecturer talked about blah blah blah....", but I decided to use present tense : "In the lectures, the lecturer talks about this and that and it compares it to the problem mentioned in the passage..."

Is this way of writing completely incorrect? The problem is that my whole essay is based on present tense like this, so I am also wondering how big mistake this is....

One could think like "Well, lectures happen every day, so the present tense is correct after all"

Help please!

Oh and one more thing - how long do they usually need for the results? Listening and reading section can be checked by a computer, so do they put this results on the internet before the others?

Thanks!

[elya]

Hi,first congratulations that you finished it ,you are free now .i think there is nothing to worry about using present tense form if you have made your points clearly the second thing is you are not writing about personal experience or historical event that happened in the past it is integrated task you just need summarize and i think using present is more preferable,thus there is no problem .regarding o score reports they anounce results of all sections at the same not separately you should wait for more than 2 weeks how about other sections can you a little bit share your experience i have also exam tomorrow ,i ll be happy if you write
thanks

[eagle80]

well, it's not very hard, but it is tiring as hell. I was most surprised with reading part , it took me 1x20 + 2x40 minutes! other then that it is pretty similar to exercises that are out there...

just believe in yourself!

[melodyfair]

Originally Posted by eagle80

Hi!

Today I was writing my iBT TOEFL and I have a question about first part in writing section.

In every ibt toefl, first we read a passage, then we listen to some lectures. The lectures talk about the subject from the passage.

Our task is to write summary about the lectures and compare it to the passage.

I could use the past tense: "The lecturer talked about blah blah blah....", but I decided to use present tense : "In the lectures, the lecturer talks about this and that and it compares it to the problem mentioned in the passage..."

Is this way of writing completely incorrect? The problem is that my whole essay is based on present tense like this, so I am also wondering how big mistake this is....

One could think like "Well, lectures happen every day, so the present tense is correct after all"

Help please!

Oh and one more thing - how long do they usually need for the results? Listening and reading section can be checked by a computer, so do they put this results on the internet before the others?

Thanks!

About your dilemma using present tense in describing the lecture and passage in writing section: I thinks it is safe to use the present tense all the way through your reporting(don't mix it with any tenses unless you are really sure that it is the correct one. If you begin reporting in past tense, make it uniform all the way through.) Even some writer uses the present tense when reviewing the contents of a book or describing past events to bring them VIVIDLY TO LIFE for the reader....this is known as the literary or historical present.

[eagle80]

Thanks, I am not so nervous anymore...

[eagle80]

Got my TOEFL results: total = 109/120 !

Writing section was 27!