Spinning the Wheel

Thanks As for the listening part, I guess I am just used to listen to a lot of english because I didn't anything extraodinary to prepare.

I just checked my iBT score. I got 106 (R:29, L:30, S:22, W:25). I am happy but I feel I could have done better. I am a litlle worried about the speaking part because some schools put specific minimun scores on each section. I hope my score will suffice.

I always felt the same about trigonometry while learning calculus. But I have to admit that some functions may be helpful when studying economic cycles

Did anyone receive or have checked online the scores from the 9th and 10th of June Toefl iBT ?

Well, I've heard that sometimes Fulbright doesn't allow you use the scholarship in a PhD program other than the 5 you've listed. As for changing the source of funding, the scholarship has to be renewed every year and I believe the less time you hold it, the less time you are obliged to stay in your original country.

ETS says 15 business days but I've never seen them delivering on their promised deadline. So, I am counting on my score only in the beggining of July.

One of the sites that I found more useful while I wa spreparing was www.testden.com . They have a mock test that is very similar to the actual toefl iBT

I am also applying to the Fulbright scholarship. My strategy was to choose only top 10 schools for the Fulbright commission to apply on my behalf. This way I believe I am enhancing my chances at places like Harvard where competition is very tough. And I will apply directly to some other universities too. If I get into one of my top pics with fulbright scholarship I will then try to change to a less stringent source of funding in the second year. I hope that may help you cause I was as confused as one can be too

Thank you:D

No I didn't get any extra reading passage but I believe I got an extra listening section, since there were 3 sub-sections in my test. I hope we all get good scores!:tup: As for the conditions I took the test. They weren't the best either. To start the test center was far from my house. It took me half an hour in a splendid no traffic day. At the test center, the air conditioning instilled a sinusitis crisis. I also didn't have lunch since I was supposed to get at the test center at noon, which would oblige me to have lunch around 10:30 am ( I woke up at 9!), which probably helped start a little headache which was agravated by the tight earphone in my head.:yuck:

Hi Folks This post is to share with you my iBT experience. I took the test last saturday. I was a little nervous but I believe everything went just fine. The reading passage is pretty much the same. Of course, the number of questions differ, but the style is the same. I got first one passage with 20 minutes to answer 13 questions and then 40 minutes to answer 28 questions. The last question of each passage was worth 2 points. They were all of the summary type. The listening was pretty much the same. The level of difficulty was like the old toefl one. I had three timed sections and the issues covered varied from astronomy to forgery art pieces. The speaking section for me was the hardest. It's not difficult to understand. My main problem was the time to plan an answer and to stick to it after. On the 4th question I didn't stick to the outline and my answer was full of hesitation like Aah!uhh! I think.... My advice is to plan your response and stick to it. Don''t try to embelish or add other stuff. I had to talk about the most popular sport in my country, etc. Even though all the candidates started the exam more or less at the same time, we did the speaking section at different times This was good for me because I did most of it while they were at the break, but then they did the speaking part while I was doing the writting, which can be pretty didconcentrating specially because they are answering the same questions. The writting was fine also. The integrated part asked to contrast to opposing views on commercial fossil colectors and the independent one was about the importance of the extended family in comparison to the past.I guess that it's all. Feel free to ask other questions as I may remember more when asked about specific details.

For both of you who have taken the iBT, what do you thing was your major flaw in the speaking? Does ETS care if you make small pauses while recording as though you are thinking about your answer? Or do they focus mainly in your grammar skills? Please help me I'm taking the test on June 9th and the speaking section is the one worrying me the most!

Vertical Horizon, you can call me spin. Thanks for your advice. I really feel I am improving. As for the font size in the conclusion, I really don't know what happen when pasting the text from MS-Word.

I hope it will help you. And sorry if I were too harsh on some parts! If you liked, give me some reputation points

I'm starting to like this essay comment thing!

Any remarks are welcome!:p “Advances in transportation and the communication like the airplane and the telephone have changed the way that nations interact with each other in a global society. Choose another technological innovation that you think is important” Give your specific reasons for your choice. The most prominent technological innovation that has substantially changed the way that nations interact in the present days is the internet: the World Wide Web. The Web has allowed people to exchange e-mails, to become acquainted to other countries’ costumes and characteristics and access a plethora of information on virtually anything. The reasons for such a success are probably grounded on three factors. The first one is its cost. The internet is a relatively cheap way to communicate. In comparison with the aforementioned innovations: the airplane and the telephone, internet is much cheaper. As an illustration in my country: Brazil, an airplane ticket to the closest foreign country: Argentina cost on average 250 dollars. A minute of an international phone call ranges from 50 US cents to 2 dollars, while someone can connect to the internet using an unlimited time broadband connection for US$ 20. And once they are logged in, they can communicate for free with the whole word 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and so forth! Another reason for why the internet has changed the way nations communicate is that it allows us to do so in a myriad of ways. By phone we can only talk, but by the Web on the other hand we can exchange written letters, videos, songs, speeches, etc. The means to convey our feelings and emotions is practically unbounded, just think of blogs, flogs, vlogs, personal websites, instant messaging programs and I must have probably left some novelty unmentioned since I am far from being a computer geek. The third and last reason for its importance is its intrinsic democratic character. Think of airplanes and telephones and how it is easy to censor them. For instance, in China people are not allowed to travel to some countries for vacation purposes. Only the official vacation destinations authorized by the government are within the reach of Chinese denizens. On the other hand, even though the government has attempted to censor the Web in China it has proven so far to be a far more difficult task, therefore allowing Chinese people a democratic interaction with the rest of the nation never experienced before. To conclude I believe I have lined up three different reasons: cost, multimedia and democratic characteristic, why the internet is a technological innovation that is reshaping the way the nations are communicating in the present world.

Well, I don't see any problem. What would it be?

Good ideas and examples but these are compromised by the typos and grammar and structure mistakes that you have done, which make difficult for the reader to understand you.

Hi, I am taking the toefl test on the 10th of June. I am a bit worried about the speaking part. Does anyone has a suggestion how to study for it? Or better, does anyone know websites that offer (preferably free) speaking tests? Thanks!

Thanks a lot!:D

Any comments on my essay are welcome! “Some people believe that is very important to make large amounts of money, while others are satisfied to earn a comfortable living” In life people choose to live different lifestyles. Some aim to earn as much money as they can and disregard anything else, while there are other people who care for other things rather than money. Some even go to the extreme and live an ascetic life. Those who just care for money claim that in a capitalist society like the one we live, money is the only thing that counts and that it is the mean to them to get whatever they want from the usual nice houses and cars to sex and affection. They also claim that by making big money now; they will not have to worry about their retirement perspectives. Of course, most of them have to work long hours to make such earnings and may not have the time to enjoy the pleasures awarded by such wealth. It is a current joke that rich people don’t take advantage of their fortune, only their wives and her mistress do. On the other hand, there are some people who choose to live a more balanced life. Their preferences are more equally distributed between earning a huge amount of money and other activities. These people report to value other objectives in their lives such as parenting or volunteering. Their claim that they want to see their kids growing up is almost a cliché by now. Of course one has to define what a comfortable life is. If it comprises not worrying about ends meet and having some luxury pleasures once in a while like leisure traveling or going out to dinner in a fancy restaurant, then I would say I am a comfortable living proponent. But if comfortable living means living barely as a monk than I am definitely an earn money type of person.

I hate these "in your country questions". The first time I took the toefl I had to write about the most popular animal in my country:yuck: There are some grammar and style mistakes. Mainly you repeat some words unnecessarily and you use the article "the" too much. As for the organization you have good supporting arguments, although, you repeat some of them. Also, you should try to state them more clearly. The reader may not grasp the flow or an evolution in your text. It may seem like a bunch of argument thrown together.

Probably a 4.0 or 4.5 out of 5.0. That's my guess

Rsshruti, I taught I would give a shot at your essay

Vetical horizon Thanks a lot for your advice