Leyladil

Okay!!! I hope I am not going to be a devil's advocate, but here is my experience: 1. I speak too fast, I cannot help it, it in in my nature. When I finished my test, guy sitting next to me told me that I spoke too fast during the speaking section. He elaborated more when we were outside, he said that he lost points on his previous test for speaking fast (his previous score was 23, and he needed 27). I started laughing because not only I spoke fast, but I did not know what to answer to first 2 questions on the speaking part that I knew I spoke complete nonsense, and reiterated the same nonsense over and over again. I think I was too nervous to think or to talk. So, I was expecting the least score to come from the speaking portion. I don't know the highest score possible but my score came out to be 28. 2. I think the importance is not about speaking fast, slow, calm or excited, it is about speaking, and answering the question. My answer may have been a rubbish, but at least it showed that I understood the question. Another key is pronunciation. It is important that person who is listening to you also understands you. So if your pronunciation is so so, then slow down, and try to be coherent. I cannot emphasize the importance of those youtube links enough that rainy_cloud provided. Go through each one of them.

Hi everyone, I am not new to this forum, but usually just read through the threads and skip on posting my own thoughts. This time I wanted to share with you all my experience with Toefl, in hopes to be helpful. I got 27 on all sections. 1. I did not study for it except maybe for couple hours day before the test, reviewed some tutorials that cloudy_rain put on the speaking and writing section (youtube tutorials). I wish I have studied for at least couple days. Does it me you can do it too? No, if you want the stellar scores that everyone else is getting study for it, not for couple hours couple days, but at least for a month. I think I just got lucky. Go through Barron's, Kaplan, Princeton Review. 2. I glanced through Kaplan, and Barron's (for about 30 minutes). Kaplan was not that helpful, but Barron's had lots more info, I even got my own strategy on reading section while reading Barron's. Here is what I have noticed about Reading: It is long, too much information, but understandable compared to GRE reading prompts. The best thing about Toefl reading questions is that it shows you the paragraphs and underlines the words the question is about. So here is what I did. I gave myself 2 minutes to read the first sentence of each paragraph and last sentence of last paragraph. I had already idea about the passage. Then for each question I carefully read the paragraph the question was from. That way I did not loose much time, and by the question 4, I had detailed information about the whole text. Remember you can go back to the question, so do not loose time, try to go as fast as possible, by the time you will be on question number 8 you will know the prompt almost by heard. I think one of the prompts was from Barron's practice book. 3. Listening, listen carefully and make sure to jot down some important points. You can make a sketch on your draft paper, like Title, main problem, concerns, solutions, the end remarks. And just fill those in as you continue to listen to the conversation. 4. For writing portion definitely follow those youtube links that rainy-cloud gave in previous posts. 5. Finally, the most horrible part: Many people could not concentrate in the testing center I was in because of constant come in and outs, talking during speaking part. If you need concentration and silence, toefl ibt may not be an ideal testing environment for you. Get used to studying in crowded, noisy environments, learn to ignore what is going on around and just to concentrate on you test. Good websites to utilize: quizlet.com for vocab, you can find ready flashcards, make your own and study for them. Good luck everyone.