Thenar

Yes an amazing score, especially the speaking score is just WOW PLease share some tactics and tips

Great Score Gongrats Could you share some experience, where are you from?

So I intend to take the SAT II Subject Tests Math IIC, Physics + Chemistry... So I decided to buy books, since there are no books in the stores here in Bulgaria, and even if I find any they'll be too expensive, I decided to order from amazon.com As far as I have heard the best preparation books for SAT II Math IIC is Barron's, the same is for Chemistry, but I have some doubts about their physics book....I read some really bad reviews for the 2003 or 2004 edition (dont remember which one it was), on the other hand their new edition 2007 probably is not that different from the previous one, but I didnt find any comments on that one, is there anyone who can say something about the book, from my own experience I know that most of Barron's books are really good, I am really happy with my TOEFL iBT book, and SAT I book, but cant say anything about their SAT II books.....

Hi bdoan Great score and congratulations So I did the test and got 98, which is ok for me, but not enough for a scholarship I think, so I think of retaking it and doing extra prep, want to improve after all.....and of course I want some extra information, if possible, such as where are you from, how long have you studied english, how long was your preparation, what materials did you use, and most important how didi you practice speaking and are you usually good at writing because you said that you wrote 3-5 full essays before the test date, if that's all your writing preparation I'm AMAZED, because it took me 5 months to get over this writing fever and get a 25 in the test.....so I cant think of any other questions right now, hope it's ok to ask if something comes up Succes on your nexte test :)

ummm I have a question, so because I want to retake the test I just want to know where are my weaknesses and how to improve them, so from my score you can see that is speaking, listening and then writing.....for the listening I'm gonna practice more, I can do better, but for the speaking it's kind of harder for me to evaluate myself just from the score, that's why I read the interpretantion of my score in the site and my question is: Is it always the same or they write specific critics to everyone, because I got on all my responses fair 2.5-3.0 Speaking Skills Speaking about familiar topics Level Fair(2.5 - 3.0) Your Performance Your responses indicate you are able to speak in English about your personal experiences and opinions in a mostly clear and coherent manner. Your speech is mostly clear with only occasional errors. Grammar and vocabulary are somewhat limited and include some errors. At times, the limitations prevent you from elaborating fully on your ideas, but they do not seriously interfere with overall communication. Speaking about campus situations Fair(2.5 - 3.0) Your responses demonstrate an ability to speak in English about reading material and experiences typically encountered by university students. You are able to convey relevant information about conversations, newspaper articles, and campus bulletins; however, some details are missing or inaccurate. Limitations of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation at times cause difficulty for the listener. However, they do not seriously interfere with overall communication. Speaking about academic course content Fair(2.5 - 3.0) Your responses demonstrate that you are able to speak in English about academic reading and lecture material, with only minor communication problems. For the most part, your speech is clear and easy to understand. However, some problems with pronunciation and intonation may occasionally cause difficulty for the listener. Your use of grammar and vocabulary is adequate to talk about the topics, but some ideas are not fully developed or are inaccurate.

Well, I had a long preparation, actually, which I think was unnecessary, I spend like 5 months preparing, but I had a slow and good preparation, without pushing myself, every week doing some homework, because I had tutoring, so for about 5 months I did a lot of readings, thousands of them, my tutor gave me all the readings texts, which werent all from the official TOEFL, just readings from so many different tests, after 2 month tutoring I decided to buy some books, I found the official guide on the internet and print it and purchased the barron's book. The official guide was too easy for me, I did the readings and the listenings there and I had no more than 1 mistake on every reading and even on the listening I had no mistakes, so you can use it for extra preparation, but I dont think it helped mi that much. After I registered two weeks before the test date I started practicing whole tests from the Barron's CD, I did some Longman (you can find the cd on the net, you can also find Kaplan's CD + Delta) and I think with my previous preparation, my tutor and so on just Barron's is enough. There test were much harder for me than the real exam, and I estimated that if I score about 90% on the Barron's then on the real test I could do 85%, because you are intensed during the test, I still think I can do better than 98 and I am really serious about retaking it, but we'll see. Huh Listening, actually lesser than you think, watching tv shows, episodes from 20min are the best practice if you ask me, I did only the listenings from the barrons and the OG, no listenings with my tutor, no extra exercises, only watching every night at least 2 episodes from an english tv show, without subtitles, and listening carefully to the actors, this did a great job, because this way I learned to understand different accents, the speed of speaking and so on.......huh so the most problematic section for most of us - speaking, well for the past 6 years I've been going to summer camps, and there I met so many americans which I think made me a little bit confident about this section, practiced it 2 weeks before the exam, couple of days, speaking to myself in english, repeating what the actors are saying from the tv shows, from the Barron's book - just to relax while I am talking, knok already said it, just speak, it's not like they do not care what you are saying it's just that the care most about if you are speaking, clearly, using your whole time, that's why I think that if I used my whole time on the first two task I could have had 24.......and the last one writing....as I already said writing is my nightmare, actually preparing so long for the exam was exactly because of it, well here I think you just should practice, write a lot, every day one essay, thanks to my tutor I had some sort of a evaluation of my essays, so if you have a tutor, or a friend who is teaching english, or someone who is more introduced with the requirements of the exam......so this way you could try to get better and better.....The scorers are warned not to score the amount of words, I was little worried that I wrote too much, but it seems OK, I mean you guys dont now how much 25 means to me, it means a lot, I never hoped that I'll get that much,25 is more than enough, because I had really big problems with the writing.....hope I helped you

Here is my score: Reading 27 Listening 24 Speaking 22 Writing 25 Total 98 So I was actually surprised by the score, beacause I knew I didnt do well on the test, I thought that I messed up the reading, but I guess I did not.....I am not really happy with the listening but what can I do, speaking.....huh dont know, I mean 22 is really ok for me, I think that if I had used the whole time given to answer on the 1st and the 2nd questions I would have had a better reasult with no more than 2 points, which would be kind of the perfect score for me.....on the speaking...on the other hand writing is my nightmare but this test is bringing me nice surprises :) My biggest fear was the writing, but I think I had good subjects to write about, and I wrote a lot like 360 words on the first task, and 490 on the other one :) I like my result, but I dont think that it is enough for my college application, because I need a scholarship, and since I am applying this autumn, I think of retaking it, hopefully a better score the next time......right now preparing for the SAT test on june the 2nd..... sp if anyone has questions about my preparation and so on just ask :)

and if I didn't send my scores to any school, do I still have 4 free

wow a great score, really good, well done:tup: I am still waiting for my scores, 6th April :(

Actually the test wasn't that hard, I don't know why but this time I didn't have enough time for the questions in the reading section, whereas last saturday I even had up to 6min after each text to relax, and the boy who took the test with me had a normal reading and normal listening section??? I used Barron's book and the tests there are three times harder, on the real test the reading passages and the conversations and lectures were way much easier than I expected, but probably because I was nervous I was in such a hurry in the reading passages....I cant remember the 4th speaking question too, oh wait, I remember it was about franchising, which is when new bussinesses use another companies' names and brand in order not to fail, the text was about franchising as a term and the lecturer gave examples with a pizza store….ohm what else, the first speaking question was the hardest one for me, and on the second question I didn’t use the whole time given for answering. On the other hand, on the 1st writing task I wrote about 360 word or even more and on the other one 490 words, but I gave only one example. The funny thing is that I was worried for the speaking and the writing sections, whereas the opposite thing happened; now I am more worried what scores I will receive on the other two sections. When will be the scores “revealed”? 6th April? Is there any possibility the number of word to decrease my scores?

Hah, something unbelievable happened to me yesterday during my TOEFL test. So I was at the end of my third reading text and then the screen became blue and then a window popped-up saying that there was some sort of a system error and that I had to contact with the administration officer in order to continue my test. Well I did that, and this woman did everything she could but the test did not restart and then they called in Holland, which was probably because the central office for Europe is in Holland, anyway within 2 and a half hours they were trying to fix the problem, but they didn’t manage to….so tomorrow I have to call to HOLLAND, jeez, they will give me another test date. I have a ticket number and a phone number, of course, but is there any possibility to do this from internet, because it’s really expensive to call from Bulgaria to Holland…..mm really awkward situation…..so yesterday I had the long reading section with 5 texts, is there any sort of sequence in giving long reading sections or long listening sections, because I really hate the long listening section and I prefer to do the long reading section, when I registered for the test a friend of mine took the test the Saturday before that and he had a long reading section and then I just thought that in the 10th of march there also is going to be a long reading section, and actually there was…. I am really satisfied from the testing center, the people there were really kind, and in the testing room were only me and one another girl…and they told us to calm down, not to be nervous, the monitors were really good, the computers everything, after this incident they even offered me to call to Holland from their phone, but it was Saturday and I guess I can call only during business days. So this is my TOEFL experience…..and I will have at least one more, and I hope the last one, but it also depends on my scores…

um, knok I know what you mean with the long listening section, it's just horrible, I hope I will get the long readign section because I get really tired and frustrated on the long listening...probably because you waste twice the energy on the listening, you're trying to understand and to write down what the lecturer is saying....:(

I do have the official ets guide, I used it only for the reading and the listening parts, and there they were quite easy, I did couple of test from the Barron's CD and the reading and listening sections are way much difficult I still make no more than 10 errors on the long reading section and 3-5 in the listening, but I thought that the speaking and the writing would be the same, wherever I study from....I dont know, for the past couple of days I have been doing only speaking, and I also tried to write down important things from the lectures and conversations but they talk way too fast and I am usually a slow writer, and I only managed to write down couple of words, we'll see, I am reading the speaking section right now, I hope it will help me....thanks for the advice, am doing the test in 4 hours, so we'll see

It is just horrible, I am taking my exam this saturday, well tomorrow, and I am just terrified when I read about your experience, and on the top of that you have lived in the states for several years already, then what are we the simple people going to do. I am doing speaking exercise right now and I have the Longman iBT CD and they give you sample answers to the questions and I just decided to countdown the answers and when you have to speak for 45sec the sample responses are definately more than 45 sec long, at least 70, this applies to the other questions too, there were only 2 sample responses which where the perfect 60sec. I dont know how am I going to do that test, and I dont want my parents to give so much money for the test just like you did, come on after all this is 140$ my dad's monthly income is twice that...