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Hello I am Anan Afrida. I am from Bangladesh. I am thinking of preparing for the TOEFL exam. I am going to apply for US colleges this fall 2020 to the undergraduate programs. So I will be needing this test. Just to introduce myself. I am happy to join this community and would love some help on TOEFL:)

which are the best books or video series for self study for toefl? How can we find speaking partner for toefl speaking practice?

As a professional test prep teacher who constantly works with aspiring TOEFL Test candidates, I always need more practice tests. Some preparation courses offer up to seven practice tests with their preparation books, like Barron’s and Cambridge, but – quite simply – they are not ETS, the company that makes the TOEFL Test! And McGraw-Hill plays up on this point quite well, slapping the ETS logo right on the top of the cover: “The People who Make the Test.” This is the book’s biggest advantage. No matter how good the other companys’ content is, and no matter how insightful their tips and strategies are, when it comes to the actual full-length practices tests, they are simply trying to simulate the actual TOEFL test experience with their practice versions. ETS is actually giving you five real, authentic TOEFL tests, brought back out of retirement, not simulations. So factors like the overall level of difficulty, the accuracy or authenticity of the reading and listening material involved in some of the questions, or the actual topic selections for speaking and writing tasks, are all genuine and realistic with ETS Official TOEFL iBT Tests – Volume 1. Obviously, the lack of a CD-Rom that simulates the actual interface of the test, keeps track of time limits, integrates the audio tracks when needed, and scores the results automatically, is a huge disappointment. This is an expected standard for today’s test prep material that virtually every TOEFL preparation book has been providing for years. This oversight sadly deprives TOEFL candidates of the comfort, familiarity, and confidence that come with being prepared to take the test as it will appear on a computer on test day. Furthermore, students who have not studied the Official Guide to the TOEFL Test (from ETS), those who are not familiar with the detailed system of scoring the four sections will likely not understand how to score their results using this book alone. There seems to be literally no guidance offered to candidates for scoring the Reading and Listening Sections, and very little guidance for scoring the Speaking and Writing Sections. Students who use this resource should know the 30-point scoring system for each section, and how the different kinds of multiple-answer questions are scored (in the Reading and Listening Sections), as explained in a separate publication, the ETS Official Guide to the TOEFL Test. Also, I would much rather prefer another TOEFL test or two over the 94-page “TOEFL Test Prep Planner” in the back of the book. Sorry, but I fail to see the benefit of padding the book with general resources. It is a benefical planner, but it has already been published online by ETS as a free resource. I’m putting down $36 for authentic TOEFL tests, not freely available resources. Despite the negative things I’ve mentioned, I would still recommend this resource to TOEFL candidates who have used all three of the practice tests in the Official Guide. Use all the official TOEFL iBT Tests in this book before using the practice tests from other companies. Of course, I don’t need to recommend this book to serious test prep tutors. I would assume most of them know how important it is and bought it months ago when it was released. With no CD-Rom and the other flaws mentioned, this book could not get anything higher than two stars for anyone other than ETS. A generous three stars (out of five) goes to the welcome return of five retired TOEFL tests!

The 4th edition of the ETS Official Guide to the TOEFL Test will be available on May 11, 2012. The following details are offered by Amazon: Paperback: 380 pages ISBN-10: 0071766588 ISBN-13: 978-0071766586 The 3rd edition was 453 pages. I'd guess that they moved one or both of the 2 practice tests out of the book. The new CD-Rom is improved, for Windows and MAC, having three complete practice tests on it. Let's hope they've managed to work the bugs out of it and have made some real interface improvements. They're also due to have some REAL AUDIO tracks to introduce the Listening Section (HELLO!). They're pitching the idea of having real ETS raters' comments on actual student responses. That's not new, so maybe they've added more of that, or maybe they've just decided to up their marketing game to focus on the kind of stuff that they can offer and no one else can. [ATTACH=CONFIG]6458[/ATTACH]

The ETS Official Guide (3rd ed.) tells us how questions on the Reading Section on their test are scored when they have more than one answer required. Summary questions needing three answers are scored as follows according to both ETS (p.51) and Cambridge (p. xxiii): 3 correct choices = 2 pts. 2 correct choices = 1 1 correct choice = 0 0 correct choices = 0 Table Completion questions needing five answers are scored as follows according to ETS (p.55): 5 correct choices = 3 pts. 4 correct choices = 2 3 correct choices = 1 2 correct choices = 0 1 correct choice = 0 0 correct choices = 0 However, Cambridge (p.xxiii) fails to tell us that some table Completion questions need five answers! Table Completion questions needing seven answers are scored as follows according to ETS (p.55): 7 correct choices = 4 pts. 6 correct choices = 3 5 correct choices = 2 4 correct choices = 1 3 correct choices = 0 2 correct choices = 0 1 correct choice = 0 0 correct choices = 0 However, Cambridge (p.xxiii) generously scores the same question as follows: 7 correct choices = 4 pts. 6 correct choices = 3 5 correct choices = 2 4 correct choices = 2 3 correct choices = 1 2 correct choices = 1 1 correct choice = 0 0 correct choices = 0 Remember, ETS is the company that administers and scores the TOEFL, not Cambridge.

Which TOEFL Preparation Book is the best overall? Feel free to post your reasons, or simply check in and cast your vote.

I am very interested in compiling a detailed article comparing and contrasting the style, content, and approach of the most widely used TOEFL Preparation books. I would to seek the help of my fellow TOEFL teachers on this forum. Could you provide any tidbit of information about any two (or more) TOEFL Prep books you have used and their related materials? I'll start by mentioning what I know: ETS Vs. Longman The ETS Official Guide is less detailed than the Longman Preparation Course. Teaching from the ETS Guide, I often need more examples of the question types to help introduce the idea, so I refer students to the Longman Book for a set of focused examples. I have found the Longman Book to be a bit impractical in some of the walkthroughs, like the note-taking skills for example. I can't imagine how anyone would have enough time to take notes the way they are introduced in the Longman book. The Longman Course takes 280 hours, according to the author, and I teach the ETS Guide in 80 hours. The Longman Course has been around for a while, and seems well edited, while the ETS Guide still contains a lot of typos and mistaken examples in its third printing. The ETS Guide offers official statistics about TOEFL test takers around the world, listing averages by gender, language, country, and even academic level. The Longman Course includes many helpful language appendices. My favorite is the cohesion activity, it is very helpful for students.