Englishraven

I've just noticed this (Sototo) via another correspondence -- I have had problems with my Gmail account for approximately 8 weeks, with many subscribers' accounts and speaking/writing submissions not arriving in my inbox. Please rest assured I am doing my absolute best to solve the situation, and in all cases where students have paid fees and not received any confirmation or service, there will of course be a complete refund of the payment. Sincerest apologies for this mix up, - Jason

Great work, Clementine - a well-deserved result from somebody willing to stay positive and work hard! I'm very happy for you and I wish you all the best for a successful future, - Jason

Your account is already up and you have access to it - so in answer to your main question: it takes less time to set and access than it does to reply to a question on a forum! :-) Thanks, and I'm really happy to have you in my mentor program. But please do refrain from using the Test Magic forums for correspondence of this nature - you now have my email address. :-)

Hi April, Yes - the 'negative' prompt is another of the slightly different topic formats being used for Question 1 in the speaking section. I have incorporated two additional speaking topics of this nature into my TOEFL Speaking Mentor test system. Given that they are only technically available to subscribed members, I can't post the topics or my own sample answers here. However, you (and any others) are welcome to listen to the sample answers some of my students have been posting and see the scores they were allocated. These could give you some useful examples of strong responses to this 'negative' style prompt for Question 1. The sample answer threads are below (please note you can't record your answers there if you aren't a member, but as I said, you're welcome to listen and learn from the answers already posted): TOEFL Speaking Test 3 QUESTION 1 TOEFL Speaking Test 5 QUESTION 1 Hope that gives you some additional tips and ideas! All the best, - Jason

Wow, skauskas, Keesja, Vazgen - those are excellent results! Congratulations on your fine performances. - Jason

Um - no. This video was made by me today and uploaded to YouTube today. The template is the same as previous I have uploaded, but the question, sample answer and script are altogether new and reflect the new style of question being featured on some versions of the TOEFL speaking section. :-)

"Give advice to a friend..." Remember that confusing new style of prompt for question 1 in the TOEFL speaking section? Well, the example question, audio response and full script attached below will hopefully give you some ideas on how to handle this! :-) Hope it's helpful. All the best in your TOEFL preparation, - Jason Renshaw

With such a limited word count, and despite the fact you feel you have a five paragraph essay with good use of language, your score will probably suffer from not having explained and supported your key ideas sufficiently. In particular, you may have been lacking specific, convincing examples to support your main points. With a limited amount of writing, it is difficult to score above the 3.0 - 3.5 range (even if the language and organization are impressive). Just an opinion :-) - Jason

Thanks for the endorsement (again!) Knok - really appreciated. :-)

This process of extra passages and listening lectures helps to keep ETS tests reliable overall, but makes the experience less valid/reliable for the poor students chosen at random to take these extra tasks. You can't tell me it doesn't make a difference to performance: someone who had to take extra reading and listening tasks is inevitably going to be more tired when it comes to the speaking and writing sections. It is completely unfair in my opinion. ETS should trial new items with focus groups and paid or volunteer students - not smack in the middle of an actual test where a couple of points can make a huge difference to someone's results overall. - Jason

Well done toeflpbt - it's great to hear another determined hard-worker has made it through the iBT barrier. Congratulations and all the best to you for the next challenge in your life! - Jason

You're welcome - hope it gives you some good ideas :-)

Hi there, The free video below contains a sample of question 2 from the TOEFL speaking section, along with an example answer, script and some quick tips on preparation, organization and content. Enjoy! [video=youtube;jST-1QkhMYo] I regularly post free tutorials of this nature (for both speaking and writing) on my TOEFL iBTv page. Hope it helps! All the best, - Jason

The free Youtube tutorial below will give you some tips and examples on how to take effective notes for the reading passage when you are doing the integrated writing task in TOEFL: Hope it provides some ideas and help for you! There are more (regularly updated) free tutorials for both writing and speaking on my TOEFL iBTv page as well. All the best, - Jason

Hi Knok - your success on the test is gift enough for me :-) :-) :-)

More excellent tips (as usual!) from you Knok, which I fully support. If you're on this forum and not listening to Knok's sage advice about TOEFL, you are missing out! Good luck with the job hunting, too. :-)

This is excellent advice, Knok, and I encourage everyone to pay attention to it. It is accuracte and helpful (as everything Knok contributes to this forum is!). All the best, ~ Jason

Looks like this wasn't such a fabulous idea after all... nobody contributing any ideas! Anyway, I thought I would offer my help with it. No takers means more time for me to concentrate on other things :-)

Hi Hema75, This could be a good starting point: [ TOEFL iBT ] Renshaw Internet School of English Best of luck to you, ~ Jason

Excellent suggestions, Mayaat! I like them a lot. Anyone else want to contribute some ideas, especially for questions 3-6, orienting them around pharmacy related content and issues? :-) ~ Jason

Hi there TestMagic members, I was wondering if I could ask for some help and advice from pharmacy applicants out there who are experienced with the TOEFL speaking format and would like to contribute to a new practice tool. One of the problems for pharmacy applicants is that the TOEFL does not reflect the content and skills needed and used in the pharmacy profession. I think it could be a valuable introductory preparation tool if we create a practice TOEFL speaking section test that features pharmacy-related content. I can arrange the writing, formatting and professional recording of scripts, and I can make this practice test freely available online for all test takers. However, I need your specialized help to develop the content! So, can you come up with pharmacy-related topics and problems that could be featured in a TOEFL speaking test? We need pharmacy-related content for: Question 1 - Open choice question Question 2 - Closed choice (or agree/disagree) question Question 3 - A notice, a pharmacist's opinion in reaction to the notice, and the pharmacist's reasons for that opinion Question 4 - A pharmacy-related theory (for reading), and then that theory demonstrated in actual practice (for a lecture) Question 5 - A problem experienced by a pharmacist, with some suggestions from a colleague or senior Question 6 - An extended pharmacy-related theory or issue for a lecture I hope you will get involved and make some suggestions here using your pharmacy knowledge and background. This sort of practice test could be a valuable tool (and confidence builder) for pharmacy applicants, to demonstrate the format and requirements of the TOEFL speaking section by using content they are familiar with (or should reasonably know). The actual TOEFL might be just that little bit less intimidating for these people as a result - who knows? Please go ahead and post your content suggestions here in response to this thread. When I format the actual practice test, contributors to the content will be credited in the final version. As I mentioned, this is intended to be a free resource, so let's get together as an online community and try to make it happen. Best wishes to you all, ~ Jason Renshaw

Thanks for the info/confirmation. Just out of curiosity, may I ask if you can recall the framing of the question? Was it: A. Which of the following three would you not like... (a, b, or c)? or B. What would you not like ... (for example a, b, or c)? It's an important difference, because A is framed in a way which means you MUST address one of the three options. B, on the other hand, is suggesting three options but they are there as suggestions only and you could choose one of them or choose a different topic. It really does have me baffled, because if question 1 now asks you to choose between three options, it's basically a CLOSED topic type (like question 2), but ETS have always claimed question 1 is an "open choice" topic. Arrrggh! Why are ETS changing the rules as they go? Students have a right to know what to expect! ~ Jason