ilovechula

Thank you for your comment. I'm hearing your point about misnomers. That's what I have currently concerned about because I have read many responses from this forum and noticed that many of which used a wide variety of dictions. I would like to include the so-called GRE words in my arguments as many as possible, but I find it difficult about when to use those words appropriately especially when they are close synonyms but have different connotations. Memorizing hundreds of difficult words are challenging, but knowing their connotations precisely are somewhat disconcerting. What am I supposed to do? I'm not a native user!:rolleyes:

This is my first time of self-studying for GRE. I personally think that writing tasks are challenging, but I still don't know much about how to make a well-written response. This is my first time of writing this essay, kind of like a diagnostic test. Thus, it would be very thankful if you can help evaluate my essay and try giving a possible score. Frankly, I used almost 40 mins to finish this part (I was supposed to use only 30min, right?). Anyway, please help:p “A new study collected data that shows that people who snore are more likely to gain weight than are people who do not snore. It is well known that many people who snore also stop breathing frequently during the night for a few seconds, a condition called sleep apnea. The interruption of breathing wakes the person — often so briefly that the waking goes unnoticed — and can leave the person too tired during the day to exercise. Anyone who snores, therefore, should try to eat less than the average person and to exercise more.” My response According to the above information, when a person snores, his breathings will be temporarily halted in a repetitive manner. In response, he/she will wake up, mostly unconsciously, making him/her feel relatively exhausted during the day, sporadically disrupting one’s predisposition to exercise. Nevertheless, one will not change one’s eating habit. That’s why the writer of the topic assumes that a snoring person will be fatter. Moreover, he concludes that the snoring person should avoid eating more than the average person and exercise more. However, I think that this assumption has several flaws that make it become unconvincing. First of all, the collected data that the writer selects cannot be applied to all snoring people. There are other factors that the writer should take into account. It can be clearly seen that the writer discusses nothing about personalities of samples used in a research. The data may simply assume that all samples snore in an averaged frequency and duration. Probably, more than half of the samples snore rather considerably, but they personally love exercising while they still maintain their eating habits. Therefore, for these group of samples, they are unaffected by snoring. On the contrary, samples in another half snore very little, but they are still included in the experiment. They may personally dislike exercising, but they enjoy eating so much that they gain weight. As a result, their increased weights will affect an averaged weight increase of all samples, distorting the fact and making others believe that all snoring persons will gain weight. Therefore, the writer should see other factors as well before making any assumptions. Second, the writer should consider specifically about the ages of the samples. People at different ages have different rates of metabolism. Therefore, a children who snores a lot may get tired because of unsmoothed sleep, but he has high metabolic rate that help maintain his weight. In contrast, an elderly who snores very little to none can get abnormally increased weight because his metabolic rate is low as compared to that of the children. Hence, the writer should consider about the ages of the samples. Third, the writer advice that if one snores, he/she should eat less and exercise more. However, some snoring people may do as recommended, but the writer may forget to consider about the fact that when one exercised too much than one’s limit, he/she will lose lots of energy and, in response, eat more than normal because one cannot stop the natural force of the body. Thus, he/she can still gain weight. Meanwhile, the snoring may eat less and are unable to exercise because they feel lack of energy, so they can still eventually gain weight. To sum up, the writer cannot apply the result of the research to every people in general because there are many more things to be taken into account. However, it can be just a solution to those who may suspect that their weight is the result of their snoring. Anyway, one should not take it seriously as it is not always true.

I think that many test takers would like to have special preparations for speaking section becuase it is very new and challenging. However, it is difficult to find official topic lists for the 1st and 2nd questions in this section. Therefore, I would like to take an opportunity from this forum to create a thread treated as a repository of possible speaking questions. I hope this will help many prospective test takers. Start with your test date. Then, tell what your first and second questions for the section were. You can type what your responses were if you can recall, so others will know directions for their answers. For me, Test date : 1 November 2008 Question1: What is your favorite style of clothings? Describe it and explain why. My answer : My favorite style of clothings is sport-like and easy-going. My first reason is that it is comfortable. Normally, these clothes have only one layer, and they are suitable for climate patterns in my country. Second, it is inexpensive. I personally prefer buying bundles of single-layer apparels to purchasing a single piece of luxurious cloth. You will thus save a lot of money. Plus, this style of clothings well reflects my personal taste as easy-going. Therefore, I like sport-like clothes because of its comfortability and inexpensiveness. Question2 : Do you agree or disagree with the following statement; "People in older generations are more informed about news than those in younger generation" My answer : Although some argue that people of younger generations are less informed than their older acquaintances, I personally think that we Gen Y are are more accessible to news than them. My first reason from my experience is that I am more dependable to the Internet than are my parents. They update tidings through newspapers or televisions, but I do on the net. Simply speaking, it is a lot faster. My second reasons is that I have an interest in technological gadgets, so do others in Gen Y. Those innovations allow us to see the world in multilateral perspectives...bla bla bla...

Topics for speaking section (Q1) can be found on the internet. It is quiet difficult to see official repository of topic questions. I, by chance, found one on the net; it was unofficial, gathered by experiences from more than one past test-takers. Overall, the first question asks you about your personal preference. The most important thing is that you have to be clear. For me, I was asked to describe my favorite style of clothings and explain why. My answer was something (as I recalled) like this,.... My favorite style of clothing was sport liked and easy going. My first reason was that it is comfortable (bla...bla....bla....). My second reason is that it is inexpensive (bla...bla...bla....). Plus, it well reflects my own characteristic as easy going. Therefore, comfortability and inexpensiveness are reasons for my preference of this particular clothing style. (Don't forget that good reasons should be something about people, quality, quantity; in this case, I chose quality--comfortable & inexpensive) For writing, you can find topics on an official website of the toefl ibt. You can do it.(Tell yourself that you can be a good and convincing speaker!)

Wow! Your score is so cool! I would like to earn a score like this! (Anyway, any score higher than 110 is enough for me; I'll set it as my personal threshold that I have to pass someday in the future). For me, I just took the test on 1Nov 2008; I initially expected only 100+ coz it was my second attempt, and my first one two years ago was quiet unpresentable (74/120). This is the score of my second attempt Total 105 : Reading 30 :p; Listening 25 :(; Speaking 23:hmm:; Writing 27:eek: My test experience To be frankly, the reading score was quiet shocking to me coz when I did the last question, the summarizing part, I was queit sure that I used only my instinct to answer that question( I had only 20 secs left for that part to be done). Therefore, I expected only 28(in case of any unthinkable mistakes). Overall, the reading section was okay unless we mention about its length:crazy:. I would like to get some scientific-related topics, but I got only 1 geology and 2 European histories which, of course, were not my appetites. Personally thinking, the listening section was rather tricky, but it might be easy for others. I had a problem with a test taker beside me(I forgot to tell you that a test room I got had no partitions b/w test takers; instead, it was like taking an exam in a normal classroom in highschool). Her server was temporarily halted, so she got frustrated and pissed off at others while I was listening to my part, reducing my concentration to the contents. I feared that I would get a lower score than planned, but 25 was okay when counting on the fact that I had to tolerate with an annoyance created by her. The speaking part was as initially expected. The first question was as planned, demanding me to describe my favorite style of clothings. The second question was about who I do think are more informed, between the elder and the younger. Other 4 questions were quiet difficult for me due to very limited time allowed for preparation and speaking. However, I think that the most important thing is summarizing skill as sm_55 already pointed out. The writing score was quiet below my expectation. I was always informed by others that an essay's length was the priority, and that I must have a good command of grammar. Thus, I typed about 270 words for the first Q, then almost 600 for Q2. I think that I had problem with spelling of some easily misunderstood words, so instead of meaning this, I typed that. Well, I think I have to stop my comment coz it seems unstoppable. Congrats to you sm_55, you are so smart!:tup: