TOEFL Corey

The scaled scores for reading and listening are simply the percentage of correct answers scaled to 30. Therefore, if you on average get about 80% of the questions correct on a practice reading test (assuming that the material is equivalent to the real TOEFL), then your scaled score would be 24/30 (since 24 is 80% of 30). Best of luck!

White Oak, I think you misunderstood the original poster's question. Yes, the TOEFL exam is the same whether it's taken in the U.S., India, Japan, or any other country around the world. However, I think pharmacist87 is asking about live TOEFL classes in the Los Angeles area. I live here and used to work for a language school (Language Systems International) that offers comprehensive TOEFL classes. Also, I believe most universities and community colleges offer TOEFL classes as well. If you still can't find a group class within your area or during the time you're available, ph87, you can always search for an online tutor, either myself or one of the several others who offer live TOEFL classes.

Thomashome, I agree with Moon84. You need to practice paraphrasing the information rather than copying it directly from the text (which is not allowed). Also, I would recommend that you write more than 2 or 3 sentences per body paragraph. Several of your sentences are extremely long and have serious errors or missing verbs or conjunctions. My advice would be to break down the author's point into two separate sentences (general & specific) and then do the same with the matching point from the lecture. In that way you will have 4 sentences in each body paragraph that clearly show the relationship between the two sides.

Hi Moon84, Although I believe with the right materials it's possible to study TOEFL reading and listening on your own, I think it's nearly impossible to do so with writing and speaking. I recommend you look for either a group class or a TOEFL tutor in your area who knows the test well and can give you constructive feedback on your writing and live coaching on your speaking. By the way, you won't be able to get a 25 in speaking since the scaled scores jump from 24/30 to 26/30 (there is no 25/30 on the speaking section, but you could get exactly 25/30 in writing if you score 4.0 on both of your TOEFL essays). Best of luck.

First of all, it's hard to evaluate this as a speaking response because it isn't in audio form -- in other words, it's just a transcript of your response so right away we are missing one of the 3 key components that the raters consider: DELIVERY. As for the content of this response, it's fairly good but lacking in any specific details and examples. Adding "a successful businessman" to your response does not make it any more specific (it's like me saying "patience" is important to being a good parent and just repeating that my mother was a good parent and she was always patient). You're just tacking on a specific name or category of a person to the original general idea. A much better way of showing how diligence is key to success would have been to describe a specific SITUATION in which you or someone else had to be diligent to complete your task (it could even be a hypothetical example of a student, worker, parent, etc.). Also, I would omit the "for a few reasons" at the end of your opening statement. I know many students say this, but it doesn't add anything.

In subjunctive, we use the word THAT + a subject + the BASE VERB (be, do, have, etc.). That is why you wouldn't conjugate the verb to "has" like you would in the simple present tense.

Yes, it's B. The relative pronoun "which" is taking the place of the word "insects." Dragonflies catch insects in flight (B), but don't catch IN insects (A). Also, if you chose answer A, there would be no direct object for the transitive verb "catch" -- your pronoun would be the object of the preposition instead.

Yes, B is the correct answer. It should be "so" rather than "very." Certain adverbs in English pair with certain words or expressions... 1) (so... that) I was so tired last night that I went to bed at 9:00 AM. 2) (too...to) I was too tired to go to the party. 3) (as...as) After the hike I was as tired as I have ever been. 4) (very.... NO PARTNER)

No, that's not actually true. ANYTHING is possible. The re-scoring could yield a higher score, a lower score, or no change at all.

Hi Albanna, Your TOEFL essays are scored using a holistic scoring guide (just as the speaking files are scored, except in writing two independent raters score each essay and then the two scores are averaged for each one). Any good TOEFL book will have a copy of it, but I can tell you that it includes the organization of your essay, how well you supported your ideas (or how well you reported on the reading and lectuer key points if we are talking about the integrated essay), and your command of English vocabulary and grammar. As for tutoring, I don't know if you mean live tutoring in your area or online tutoring, such as the coaching I provide for my students on Skype. I would recommend doing a search enging query using phrases like "TOEFL tutor / classes (your zip code)" or "online TOEFL tutor, " etc.

There are 3 criteria used to score your TOEFL speaking responses: delivery, language usage, and topic development. They are basically all equal since to receive a 4/4 you must be excellent in all 3 areas. When you say you speak more slowly than the sample answers, which samples do you mean? It makes a big difference whether you are listening to actual foreign student samples (such as the ones in the audio material for the ETS book) or samples in books such as Barron's (which are actually native English speaking actors reading a script). With delivery, I think it's important that you speak at the same normal, comfortable pace you would use in a casual conversation with any English speaker. If you are trying to speak faster than you normally would just to squeeze in more words or sentences, it usually leads to all kinds of problems. Besides, your responses are scored on overall quality, not on quantity.

I have had several students apply for rescoring and seen their 24/30 increase to a 26. I'm not sure of the exact odds, but you probably have at least a 30 - 40% chance of your speaking score going up one more level from 24 to 26. For those who score 23/30 or below, though, I don't think it's worth the rescoring.

Hi Kuksi, Not everyone receives extra reading or listening passages on the TOEFL. I would estimate it's about 20% of test-takers chosen at random for each. Unfortunately, by those odds it means there is even a 4% chance that a student receives both one extra reading passage AND 3 extra listening passages. That has happened to at least 3 or 4 of my students that I know of. On the positive side, at least they are only adding one extra reading passage now instead of the two. To answer your other question, no, there is no way to know which passages are "extra" nor any way to skip them. To tell you the truth, if they gave students the option I don't think any would waste their time on unscored passages when they could just ignore them and save their energy for the regular scored sections. That's why they have to mix them into the test in a way that students won't know whether they are experimental or regular.

19) Yes, reliable is wrong because it is an adjective. The correct word would be "reliability." 24) "Maintain" is wrong here because it is a verb. The answer should be "maintenance," the noun form. 25) The third answer is wrong because of word order. It should be "have made possible..." 26) "Change" must be changed to "changes." The following clause "that ARE projected" is a clue.

Actually, this is a REDUCED ADJECTIVE CLAUSE. The full clause would be "... that cut into the deep-sea..." To reduce this clause in active voice, you remove the subject of clause -- that -- and reduce the verb to the present participle form -- cutting. If it were in passive voice, you would reduce the verb to its past particple (-ed or irregular) form.

It's going to be quite difficult for you find any pbt offerings here in the U.S. The pbt has been almost completely phased out since the ibt was introduced in 2005. I don't know of any educational institutions or licensing boards in this country that still accept the pbt.

No, that's not correct. It's a little difficult to say for sure since there are mistakes in how both sentences were typed (words like aircraft/our craft). However, I believe these are supposed to be wrong because... 1) " SO tall that" so goes with that... as goes with as... too goes with to.... very goes with (nothing) I was so tired that I went to bed at 8:00 AM. She is as beautiful as any woman I have ever seen. I am too tired to go to the party. She is very pretty. 2) "Hunters" here are people, so you cannot use "which." It should be "... WHO appeared about 10,000 BC..."

I'm sorry, Maradona, but the chances of a 22 being upgraded all the way to a 26 are not very good. When a student scores 24/30 (usually meaning one perfect 4/4 and the rest 3's), I always recommend a rescoring. When he/she scores 23/30, which is a raw score of 18 (3 3 3 3 3 3), the odds diminish quite a bit. With a 22, though, it means that one of your six responses was assessed as a 2/4, so the chance that upon rescoring you end up with 44 33 33 (20 points of raw score) is extremely unlikely. In any event, best of luck in reaching your score.

I suppose it's worth a shot. I think you have a better chance in speaking than writing, though. The 25/30 in writing indicates that both essays were probably scored as 4/5. It's doubtful that new raters would look at either of your essays and view it as 5/5 (although you must have had one 4.5 the first time to earn a 27 in writing). Even though you scored a 23/30 on speaking, meaning all 3's, your past scores in speaking and writing indicate that you are at the high end of the range, so I think you have a decent chance of one of the two scores being increased.

Hello cevf, In my experience a 24/30 ends up being upgraded to a 26/30 or higher about 25 - 35% of the time. I usually DO recommend that my students go for rescoring when they reach a 24 (since it means at least one of the responses was assessed as a perfect 4/4 the first time). However, on scores of 23/30 or below, I have rarely seen the score increase to 26 or higher. By the way, the raters did NOT offer you any personal comments. The comments listed on your score report were computer generated and have nothing to do with your actual responses. Everyone with the same score on that section received the same auto-generated comments, so they really aren't useful at all. Best of luck.

You no longer can get 5 passages. They are now only giving one extra (or "dummy") passage to students for research purposes. Unfortunately, you CAN'T know which 3 are graded and which 1 is not -- if students knew that, I doubt very many would spend any time (or effort) at all on the extra passage. They only method I know of that will work at all would be AFTER the test if you ask other students what their 3 reading passages were about -- through a process of elimination you would figure out which of your 4 was the "dummy passage."

In general, I believe strongly in sustained study/coaching/preparation with the best materials that truly represent the test (in addition to a knowledgeable teacher or tutor). I personally don't think isolated tips/suggestions on their own make a huge difference in any of the four TOEFL sections. However, if you would like me to share just a few general tips for reading and listening, I would say: 1) For the reading section, don't read the complete passages. It is just too time-consuming and not necessary. Instead, try previewing just the first sentence of each paragraph. 2) Make sure that you are familiar with all 10 types of reading questions and how to deal with them. That way as you approach each question you can identify and immediately apply the best strategy (or strategies). 3) Don't be afraid to skip a question on the reading and come back to it later. That's a much better plan that wasting a lot of time on a single question, especially when the final question for each passage will be either a summary or category chart worth 2, 3, or 4 points. 4) In the listening section, I think it's better to focus more and take fewer notes. I believe in keyword note-taking -- never try to copy entire sentences or phrases. Just write down the key words of the professor's ideas and let your memory do most of the work (remember that these are not college notes that must be kept for a whole semester). 5) To strengthen your listening comprehension, I would recommend listening to a TOEFL passage and then giving your own 1- or 2-minute summary immediately after it's over. This will help you focus on the important ideas that are most likely to come up in the 5 or 6 questions after the passage. In any event, best of luck to you and all others taking the exam this week.

No, crackgretodoms, not exactly. You are suggesting that every student who takes the TOEFL exam will get either extra reading OR extra listening passages. That is not true. The computer randomly selects students for the extra reading and separately for the extra three listening passages. Therefore, four outcomes are possible: 1) one extra reading passage, 2) three extra listening passages, 3) NO extra passage or 4) I'm sorry to say this, but there is a slight chance that you may be randomly chosen for BOTH extra reading AND extra listening. The probability is less than 10%, but it has happened to a few of my students.

The correct answer is E (characteristic). A characteristic (noun) means a feature or quality of something (A distinctive characteristic of the giraffe would be its long neck.) Characteristic is sometimes used as an adjective to mean typical. (Red and green are the characteristic colors of Christmas.) The noun 'character' has several means, including the moral fiber of a person, the letters/symbols of a language, the people in a story, etc. However, none of the meanings refer to a single part (characteristic/trait/quality) of something.

It should be: "... found in all ABC windows and door types." When using "all of," there will usually be an article, such as, "All of the guests at the party seemed to have fun." All party guests (no article since 'all' in this case is an adjective/determiner meaning 100%) All of the party guests (here the 'all' is a pronoun and not inside the prepositional phrase modifying the guests)