bheekaran

Hi Everyone, I got my toefl essay scores today, 5.5 out of 6.0. I thought "wow !", honestly I never expected this much. And so it made my total toefl score 267. I am pretty happy with the score, maybe a little sad when I think that I should have studied more. Erin, a big thanks to you for the essay section at this site. The sample essays are really good, and your tips on how to compose an essay is really great, especially it made me really careful about spelling and grammar. After seeing my essay score, I think ETS is really liberal in their scoring process. My humble tip to test takers is to be extremely careful about your spelling and grammar, and try to make your first paragraph strong. Also don't forget to summarize your viewpoint in the last paragraph. Also try to give a good example, what I wrote was about an incident I was a part of some years back. And when you see the question, write down a few points about it in your scratch paper, and the trick I did was to number the points (I only had 2 ok ones), and write one small paragraph each about those points in the middle of your essay. So that makes your essay look neat and organized. So these paragraphs combined with your opening (make sure it is neat), example, and the closing paragraphs would be sufficient to get you a great score. I know it is easier said than done, but please don't worry too much about the the essay, just be confident and attack the essay. Best wishes to all of you, and to you Erin, arun

Hi aocam, I couldn't refer to any Listening exercises from the books, mainly because I was on a tight schedule. But later I found out that (you could say the day before the TOEFL CBT), some tips in a web site regarding how one should listen carefully to the second part of dialogues in a short listening conversation question. I think the tips in the books would be great, but they shouldn't be substituted for real practice, like listening to the radio. Testmagic has given a couple of links to some radio broadcasts, which I found really good. I am really sorry that I couldn't help you more. Anyway, best wishes for your exam, arun

Hi jrraji_sat, For gre, if you have good net connections, you could download the free Powerprep software from ETS' site, which I did myself. http://www.gre.org/pprepdwnld.html ETS is also providing the same software free on a cd when you register for the test, but it might take some days to reach your place. Or you could try this free math section from 800score. http://800score.com/gre-download.html But I haven't tried it yet. Also kindly let me know if you find some online tests for GRE. arun

hi dimple, i think a good method is to use Testmagic's links for vocabularies. and also the the tips here http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~osmirnov/gre/workout.html (from TestMagic's links) is good. though in my case i don't have enough time to implement all that. and when is u'r gre ? arun

Thanks Admin. I hope students would benefit from some of my observations. And adding some more gre stuff is really great. I would have really loved to come to Testmagic for coaching. But time and also money is a problem. So I hope we all would take the maximum benefit from the tutorials at Testmagic. Keep up the good work, and wishing all of you at Testmagic good luck, arun

Hi, I thought sharing some experiences and some small tips for TOEFL CBT would be helpful for future test takers. I hope it is appropriate to post here and doing it in a new topic is not annoying. I reached the test center very early (7.15 am)for my 8.30 am exam, so I was the first person to go in, and the center (in Chicago) was almost empty except for the supervisor. So I could start my test at around 7.45 (the manager/supervisor lady allowed it). And now I think it is better to register for the earliest morning slot possible. The supervisor lady was too nice, she eased my pressure a great deal, and even laughed with me when I told her the ETS' instructions about not even to blink or move a muscle inside the test chamber (I thought it was more like an unfriendly chamber than a long room). I always have some problems with closed space and bad coughs, but she told me to go ahead and take the vicks drops I had, whenever I want. I had planned to skip the mouse tutorial, but I guess I clicked the wrong button, and I had to go through it. But now I think it is a good way to reduce some tension, if you have any. So go for it. The Listening section was much easier than I thought, except for the fact that it was hard to concentrate, mainly because there was an air-conditioner behind me, and it was sort of like telling me in a hissing sound "ohho, you are going to fail". And in one long science lecture, I almost skipped through some dialogues, mentally trying to tell the ac to shut up, and I think it cost me some points. Structure section was a bit hard, maybe confusing. Mainly because I hadn't prepared well for it, and was mainly relying on my 'reading and making sense' ability. And by the time I finished, I had 4 mins left and no way to go back. So test takers, go slow, think twice or thrice, and take your time, because the section is small, and keep faith that you are definitely going to finish it. Out of the two sub-sections here, the sentence completion part was the easiest. Guess reading all those novels over the years made it easy. So people, read, read, and read whatever you could get hold of. The five minute break went too fast. The Reading comprehension part was ok, but not great. I thought I got all of them right (wishful thinking !), I might have made some silly mistakes. Also by this time, the place was almost full, and the guy to my right was hitting the keyboard furiously and noisily, so I had to make the extra effort to read the passages again, and again. Guys and gals, be aware of this problem, prepare well to concentrate, and also the people going and coming in was a bit distracting (I had to try real hard not to stare at a cute girl who came in at this time). So do lots of reading in your home, with your friends, and keep track of the time in this section carefully. There is a lot of time, but you know, sometimes, just sometimes... The essay topic was simple, but I took nearly two minutes going back and forth deciding on which side I should agree with. Then it was ok, except for some hiccups midway through the essay, when I got some moral doubts about the reasoning I was giving. I think I did it reasonably well, except for a real-life example I gave, which was simply too long. The marks I got: Lis-26, Str/Essay-12 to 28, and Reading-26. (Low scores, but you know, you have to prepare more to do well. So now, I am really into GRE, and today bought the ETS Test Prep book from amazon. I know it is late, but I am putting all my efforts into it). And I forgot to thank Erin before, really sorry. Erin, it is a great service you are doing to students who can't afford to take real classes, a big thanks. arun (aka bheekaran) Guys and gals, good luck !

Hi, I did my TOEFL CBT a few days back, and got 213 - 267. (I hope it is enough, and the essay was ok, but not great)I really did learn a lot from this site, and thanks everyone at Testmagic, for making it possible. I have my GRE on March 8th, so I am working really hard for it. And finally, the link below is a really good one, the shockwave ones are really great. Wishing all you test takers good luck, bheekaran http://www.bu.edu/mfeldman/TOEFL/