madison24

Your're welcome! :) Update: My scores arrived today and I got 109! So shocked and HAPPY!!

Hey everyone! My name is Madison, I'm from Romania and this past Saturday I've taken the TOEFL test for the first time. I'd like to share with you all my experience and also clear up some of the doubts I have. Unfortunately, my test went worse than I had expected and I am not satisfied with my performance. My scores have not arrived yet. Firstly, I have to mention that I needed to take an English test in order to study a degree in the United Kingdom. My chosen university required an 80 out of 120 score, which I didn't seem to find so unobtainable at the time. I bought a TOEFL preparation book, the Cambridge Preparation for the TOEFL iBT Test - Fourth Edition, by Jolene Gear and Robert Gear. I found this book immensely useful, I honestly couldn't have prepared without it. It has the book and also 8 audio CDs, diagnostic and practice tests, listening exercises, integrated-skill tasks, 2 complete practice tests and also Speaking and Writing sample responses. Ever since got it in November, I kept preparing , so whatever mistakes I made, I don't think they're caused by a lack of preparation. Whenever I practiced, I mostly got a 27 in Reading and 26 in Listening. These are the only tasks that I could properly score, because Writing and Speaking were relative and although the book had an exact scoring system, I couldn't judge whether or not I deserved a 4 in Speaking. My book had a 3-text Reading practice test, so 39 questions.Unfortunately, I didn't investigate further , or else I would've known of the possibility of a bigger number of texts and questions- hence my surprise at getting 56 questions over 4 texts . My fear regarding TOEFL had always been the Speaking task, I have the required vocabulary and grammar exercise, but I tend to get very emotional and stutter even if I am well-prepared. Test day I arrived at the test center at 10:20 am. We were around 12-15 people in the test room, we were sat down and explained the rules up until 10:55. The desks were pretty much stuck to each other , and divided only by a small plastic partition. I was beginning to worry about not being able to concentrate , as I had read people often have this kind of problem. They told us we were not to begin the Speaking at the same time and while trying on my headphones , I calmed down a bit, because they seemed to be pretty noise-canceling. Then the whole registration process began (picture taking, moving when another person's picture popped up on the screen, all that jazz), and I was really fortunate, because I was assigned an 'isolated computer' - over on my right side was a wall , so no neighbour, and over on the left side, the person that should've stayed there, didn't attend the exam. All in all, all throughout my exam , I didn't have any type of problem concentrating, people were indeed talking while I was listening, but it didn't bother me at all. Reading Together with my Writing, this was the task I was most confident about. Nevertheless, I made a terrible mistake: I forgot that the reading passages appeared on the right side of the screen together with the questions, I was under the impression that after reading it the first time, it would dissappear, and you'd have to memorize everything, so I kept taking notes of the first 2 texts. I didn't find the first 28 questions difficult ( meaning the first 2 texts), but then I glanced over at the time and it had gone flying. I panicked and started hurrying, skipping reading the texts all together, and only reading the passages that the questions were based upon. Considering this, I believe I made a few mistakes, let's say not more than 5 on the whole task. Listening Second task. I wasn't nervous about it, but nevertheless, I made some mistakes here also (in my opinion, I am not basing this on any feedback). The sound was clear, distinct, I didn't have problems understanding the lecturers or students , so the only thing that I could've done wrong was interpreting or not remembering correctly some of the details, although I took notes while listening. Speaking It.went. horribly .wrong. ,especially on the first 2 independent tasks, that are supposed to be easier than the rest ( because those require reading, listening, speaking , that's why I'm saying this). The topics I was asked to express my opinion on and give examples of, were not difficult. They were just a bit unexpected and a bit out of my comfort zone. The bad thing is that I stammered, stuttered, made some syntax and grammar errors that I stupidly proceeded to correct as soon as I heard the dumb things come out of my mouth. Subject-wise, I didn't ramble incoherently , I gave proper examples. Anyway, I'd rate my first 2 questions as a 2, indulgently. The remaining 4 went better, I assume, being able to takes notes from the reading and listening passages incorporated, it was easier for me to form an opinion based on this visual material. All in all, I surely won't get the much needed 20 points out of 30 on this task, I'm thinking more of a 10-15. Writing It went very good , I believe. The questions were okay, approachable. I followed the structure of an argumentative essay on the second task , wrote 380 words and I hope they consider this enough. As for the first task, the reading passage was okay, the lecture also, and I managed to combine the two using appropriate linking words and vocabulary. To sum it all up, the exam was NOT AT ALL difficult. They weren't asking for nuclear fision , the tasks were of an average difficulty. I could've gotten an 80, maybe even 95-100 easily, if I had practiced more with the Speaking, and not given in to my emotions. I have no one to blame but me that I wasn't able to concentrate on some of the tasks, even though the circumstances that didn't depened on me really helped. The dissapointment was big when I came out of the exam room, still is to this day, but me and everybody in the same position: we have to try again, failure can't get us down. :) All I have to do now is wait for a week , then nervously click on my TOEFL page on the 'View scores' section and either bang my head on the table (haha, kidding) or break out in a dance. I guess it depends on how harsh we judge ourselves and how the judges really view our work. GOOD LUCK TO EVERYBODY!