kunalguha

Hi Sspawn, I'm of the opinion of taking as much as possible from the test as you can get whether you are a native speaker or not. Personally I took about 20 sheets of scrap paper and used the full duration of the breaks. Trust me it helps, it's a really long test. Incidentally, I got a 29 in the listening section of the iBT despite taking notes and 30 in the listening section of the CBT which didn't allow you to take notes. However I still feel the notes help. Reading can come in parts. (One passage at a time) or 2-3 passages at a time. It varies from test administration. Kunal

Hi Harbinger, The integrated essay is probably the easier of the two essays. Remember length grammar and spelling are really important. Spend time organizing the thoughts in the passage. Write down one sentence that summarizes each of the paragraphs on your scrap paper i.e. Paragraph 1: Paragraph2: Paragraph3: Now when listening to the recording take down as many notes as physically possible. As you take notes organize them into the relevant paragraphs. Try to take down all the words in the recording if possible. You can practice this with the listening files on Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab - For ESL/EFL Students Now when writing your paragraph remember--You are not supposed to copy from the passage word to word. So type out the jist of each paragraph as you write. Then add from your listening notes. I know they would probably be strict if you copy word for word from the passage but I don't think they would mind if you copied the listening exactly as it is. In fact quotes like the lecturer said XYZ can help add length to your essay. While typing out the essay I would suggest type your INTRODUCTION IN 3 MINS. THEN TYPE YOUR CONCLUSION AND FILL UP IN BETWEEN. THIS WAY YOU CAN ENSURE THAT YOUR PASSAGE IS STRUCTURALLY CORRECT WHICH IS IMP. ALSO YOU DONT FACE A SITUATION IN WHICH YOUR ESSAY CAN BE SUBMITTED WITHOUT A CONCLUSION.

I think you need to purchase it. The alternative is to get a friend of yours who is a native speaker to evaluate your speaking sample based on the Kaplan sample responses. Kunal

Hi Rosemary, Longman, Barron's- I haven't ever seen the Longman or Barrons books. I don't know how good the books are for the iBT. I know they were good books for the PBT and CBT. - We intend to study: + Speaking-Writing: Princeton Review + Listening- Reading: Delta Key Good Resources- I would suggest look at -- Kaplan- I believe its important to study using the 4 full length tests. I would recommend that if you have access to a native speaker get them to score your Kaplan test on the basis of the sample responses. BOOK A TOEFL DATE ONLY IF YOU ARE CONSISTENTLY SCORING ABOVE THE SCORE YOU NEED ON THE TOEFL TO GET INTO THE COLLEGE YOU WANT. Cambridge (I think this is another book with full length tests) PowerPrep TOEFL- If you can get your hands on this software nothing like it. For what I saw the Reading section, Half the Listening section and Half the Writing section is the same as the CBT. You could take the test and compare your final scores using the ETS CBT to iBT score conversion chart. ESL websites such as Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab - For ESL/EFL Students can be good practice. I would also suggest that once you are confident of your speaking ability you take a scored speaking test from Welcome to Practice Test Site to get ETS's feedback on your speaking. Kunal

Hi Rupesh, I did do my GRE but ages ago in December 2002. I scored a 1520 with a perfect math score. I didn't apply to graduate school though. I did do the GMAT last year and scored a 730. My GMAT post is here http://www.www.urch.com/forums/just-finished-my-gmat/46356-730-v-40-m-49-a.html Kunal

Hi afaf, I personally don't like the organization of the Kaplan textbook but I would recommend you get your hands on the CDs. I thought the four full length tests really simulate the exam well and would recommend that all test takers take that test. I think it is important to write as much as possible (with good grammar and spelling) if you want a good writing score. ETS mentions that an effective writing response (Don't know what that means on a scale of 1-5) requires 150-225 on the integrated writing task and about 300 words on the Independent Writing task. I believe that in order to score high you want to be well above those ranges. The Integrated writing sample that recieved a 5 on the Official guide had about 250+ words. I think about 250 words should be enough to fetch you a good score for this task. The Independant Writing task on the Official Guide was about 350 words for a 5. I think about 350 words on this should be able to fetch you a good score. I tend to type fairly fast and ramble a lot hence the large posts. I do believe that a really long essay can only help your score. I use the following approach to improve length on the Essay. Start with General Examples: Borrow as much as you can from the prompt to write out general examples. Specific Examples: Borrow as many relevent examples from Art, Literature, Shakespeare, History, World War II, Business, Science, Technology etc. You should have a few examples ready that you can recycle in any essay. If you get stuck for General and Specific Examples use PERSONAL EXAMPLES. I'm sure you can come up with a story of an imaginary aunt, uncle or distant cousin that is relevant to the TOEFL essay. Kunal

Hi Rupesh, The TOEFL score was online exactly 15 days after my TOEFL iBT. That is 15 working days (exclude saturdays, sundays and public holidays in your calculation). I think my score was released on the 2nd or 3rd of August for the June 14th test. Hope this helps. Kunal

I wanted to post another test taking strategy I came across thatI didn't see in any textbook. Let's take the first question on the TOEFL sampler. In France in the 1920’s, children discovered a Grotto, a series of narrow cave chambers that contain huge prehistoric paintings of animals. Many of these beasts are as large as 18 feet . Some follow each other in solemn parades, but others swirl about, sideways and upside down. The word others in the passage refers to chambers beasts parades paintings The ETS answer in this case is (B) beasts. I think the best way to approach these questions is to cover the underlined word. Put in the word in the answer choices that best fits the covered word. Don't get tricked into thinking its paintings just because this is the literal meaning.

Hi Knox, It's good to know about the different TOEFL times throughout the world. Was worried about test fairness there for a bit. I think forum is probably the best resource for test takers across the world and I certainly don't doubt test magic's integrity. However I am afraid not all forums are as honest as this one and that was what worried me in the first place. I agree that some the speaking topics at least questions 1 and 2 should be posted on the website like the TWE topics. I hope my earlier posts didn't worry test takers about the exam center. I just wanted recommend that test takers take the test in a Prometric center and not a college or a cyber cafe so that they get a more standardized set-up. I don't work for Thomson Prometric. Kunal

I was curious about the fairness of the TOEFL iBT. Maybe Erin or any of the moderators can clear my doubts on this. When I visited the site the next day I was really surprised to see this post What really struck me was that he was really accurate on all fronts with this post. All the speaking questions he mentioned actually came in my exam. My question is -- Does the TOEFL iBT take place at the same time in all countries throughout the world? If it doesn't how does ETS ensure that if a person like EnglishBug posts the speaking topics in Japan or India (which is 10-12 hours ahead of the US online ) that a person in the US cannot see his speaking topics before his exam. This really got me thinking about the fairness of the test. Maybe its a separate discussion for another post.

Hi Soni, Personally I believe that Kaplan's reading was a lot harder than the reading on the real test. I personally used to get about 2-3 wrong in each reading section on the Kaplan Tests and have never got a perfect score. I know the word meaning questions and the summarize the passage were especially hard. I found the Word Reference questions especially hard because its different from what you see on the GMAT. E.g. Lets take a question How do you toss an egg on a concrete floor without cracking it? In the GMAT the 'it' could refer to both the egg or the concrete floor and hence the sentence is ambiguous. However on the TOEFL the 'it' will refer to only the egg. I found that the on reading section there was a range of questions Easy to Really Tough (GMAT Level) and based on my testing experience I don't think that you need all correct to score a perfect score. Kunal

Kunal

Hi Resu, I am a native speaker of english and have been speaking English as my first language all my life. I live in India. This was my second attempt at the TOEFL. I had taken it back in Feb 2004 when I was planning to attend grad school and scored a 293 (Reading- 30, Listening- 30, Structure 13-30 TWE- 5.5.) I guess I was asleep during the listening section as I seem to have slipped up this time. The old listening section was much harder as you couldn't take notes during the lectures. The link to my post in 2004 is below. http://www.www.urch.com/forums/just-finished-my-toefl/9602-toefl-feb-2004-243-300-a.html Personally, I had hoped that I wouldn't have to take the TOEFL again but business schools on the West Coast (Berkley, UCLA) are really rigid about this. My plea for a waiver fell on deaf ears. So it was back to the ETS center and the TOEFL. That's ten hours and $300 that I will never get back again. About Me- I am a professional test prep teacher and have been teaching the GMAT, GRE and TOEFL for the last 3 years. I didn't prepare specifically for this test but my teaching experience would be preparation enough. My experience with the test. The first difference I noticed when I signed up was that ETS had changed its policy on testing centers. Apparently, if you have a bunch of computers and an internet connection you can pretty much sign up as a testing center. When I registered on the internet I had a choice between a Thomson- Prometric center (The one I had taken the test in 2004) or a local cybercafe a km from my house. Not wanting to travel 30 km to the prometric center I signed up with the cybercafe. The pros of doing this were-- I could visit the center the day before. Speak to the guy who would be my proctor the next day and get a real feel for the place. I was even able to surf the internet from the cafe half an hour before my scheduled TOEFL start. The cons of doing this were- Awful proctoring. Examinees were pretty much walking about the place chatting with each other etc. There was this one guy who didn't bring any pencils to the exam (I would strongly advice you to do this. ETS doesn't mention anywhere that you need to bring pencils) he walked upto my desk, got a nice view of my screen and picked up one of my pencils. I didn't like that too much was surprised that the proctor allowed it. To add to this I was really scared about my microphone not working as the headset they gave me was of real low quality. Furthermore, the cafe's internet speed was too slow to download a completed listening file. So the listening file used to download in parts and was really irritating. The other thing that affected my listening score was that I was not mentally prepared for the Long Version of the listening section. (Other 14th July test takers can verify this.) When I attempted the listening section there were 6 lectures and 3 conversations and they lasted 90 minutes not 60. IT IS IMPORTANT TO BE MENTALLY PREPARED FOR THE LONGER VERSION OF THE TEST. Don't take it for granted that you will get the shorter version. I had to wait an additional hour after my test as one of the other test takers had incorrectly taken my passport and left his. This was probably one of my worst testing experiences. My strategies (Take these with a pinch of salt) Reading- Spend about a couple of minutes reading about the passage. Don't spend more than 3 mins as you need the time to answer the questions. Read for the General Idea, the structure (What's going on in each paragraph and the author's tone) Use Lead Words (Words that are easy to find in the passage), Chronology (Reading questions are in mostly arranged in the same order as the passage) Do all the detail questions first and only then do all the general questions. In this test the reading section was in an unusual format. I got one passage as Section 1 and two passages as section 2 of reading. For more reading strategies visit: kunalguha - Reading Comprehension Writing- To be honest when I first took this test I didn't quite understand it . I thought it would be like high school when you write to communicate ideas etc. As it turns out this test is completely different. LENGTH IS IMPORTANT. Trust me no matter what anyone tells you the secret of scoring a perfect score on writing is LENGTH, GRAMMAR and SPELLING. Make sure these are perfect and you should get a high score. Obviously you want to be as relevent as possible but sacrificing relevence for length is a good trade-off on this test. The only difference between my essay in 2004 in which I got a 5.5/6 and the writing section was the length. In 2004 I could barely type out 350 words in 30 mins in my 2007 essays I wrote over 600. Listening- TAKE NOTES. Make as much use of your scrap paper as possible. Trust me you will need it. On my listening section I used at least 10-12 sheets of scrap paper. Some questions will focus on details and you will need your notes for this. Be prepared for THE LONGER VERSION of the test. Remember the lectures are designed to extend beyond your normal attention span. Concentration is extremely important. Make sure your mind does not wander during the section. IGNORE THE PICTURES. Some of the pictures from this test came from the ETS Official Guide and the TOEFL Sampler. I actually got confused with one of these pictures as I had pictured the professor with a different voice and as someone else. i.e. I got mixed up with the TOEFL sampler listening file and the Real TOEFL listening file. Speaking- I have been struggling to understand ETS's speaking rubric. If I was to surmise I would say that they are looking for 30 seconds of clear speech with good pronunciation and ideas to give you a 4. I think pauses and improper grammar can really hurt your speaking score. I don't think its a good test as even native speakers would have a hard time getting a 26+ score on it. Practice is the best way to improve your speaking score. I would suggest recording your voice and playing it back to yourself and your friends to get feedback on this. The more you practice the better you get at this (no shortcuts). Preparing for the Test I think the major disadvantage iBT test takers have over CBT test takers is that there is not much FREE material available. On the CBT every test-taker could download and take two full length TOEFL powerprep tests. I thought these provided really good practice for test takers. For the iBT on the other hand there is not much Official Prep and if you want to take full length tests you need to pay for them (Something I recommend but was not personally willing to do). The TOEFL sampler is a joke and covers only about 20% of a real exam. I think ETS should make at least one test FREE for the $150, but then again its ETS. I managed to get my hands on the Official Guide to the TOEFL. (I would'nt recommend this book.) I found that a lot of the questions were the same as those in the TOEFL sampler and a PDF file I had downloaded from the TOEFL website. Plus a lot of the book is Writing Topics (Again downloadable from the internet) and a Grammar section that is not relevant to the exam. Overall it wasn't worth the money I would suggest you invest it in a full length test. Some of the books/CDs I would recommend though are-- Kaplan TOEFL- I wouldn't buy the book but I would recommend you get your hands on the CD. The four full length tests simulate the exams as closely as possible. Real Good Practice. Princeton Review- Nice strategies. Good Book. I would buy it. The only disadvantage is that it doesn't have full length computer based tests. I think Ive rambled on long enough. I will post more on this though. Kunal

Hi, Just logged into my account and checked my scores-- Test TELXML Test Date July 14, 2007 Reading 30 :) Listening 29 :( Speaking 30 :) Writing 30:) Total 119 :( Kunal

Hi Sorry wrote it in a hurry it is with + NOUN + BEING + Noun Complement