How to prepare for the TOEFL® exam in just one month?

[Samrat]

Dear All,

Hope everyone in the forum is doing great. I want a quick help from you people. My brother , who is a physiotherapist by profession has cleared an interview with US medical mission. He has been advised to clear the TOEFL with in a month time.

I have glanced through the various articles of Torsten in this site regarding the patterns of the exam and the methodologies we need to adopt to complete the exam with flying colors. All the articles are simply superb and eye opening.

I just want to get suggestions from you people to clear the exam in a very fast pace. As time is very crucial factor at this moment your suggestions are most welcome and based on your views I can marshall my brother towards the success of the exam.

Thanks,
Samrat

[Torsten]

Dear Samrat,

Many thanks for your questions. There are a number of proposals I'm going to share with you in a few hours or maybe tomorrow.
Talk to you soon,
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Torsten]

Dear Samrat,

As you can see I'm back online and now we can examine your brother's situation. He has had an interview with US Medical Mission and they suggested he take the TOEFL. That's a good sign because apparently they are interested in employing your brother as a physiotherapist and I assume your brother wants to accept that offer.
Now, let me ask you a few questions: Did the US Medical Mission indicate what score they expect your brother to achieve in the exam? How long has your brother been learning English? If he is capable of giving a job interview in English his language level should be quite good. As you know the TOEFL assesses your brother's writing skills as well as his listening and reading comprehension. Which area do you think your brother has the most room for improvement? Have you purchased TOEFL prep materials? How much time does your brother spend on his test preparation every day?
I'm looking forward to your answers.
Regards
Torsten
PS: Maybe, you could bring your brother on to our forum?
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Samrat]

Dear Torsten,

Thanks for your caring. Please see my answers inline.

[Torsten]

Dear Samrat,

Thanks for engaging in this dialogue. Here are some ideas your brother might want to consider:

He obviously needs some more practice with the listening comprehension part so he should try to listen to the tapes/CD's that came with the Barrons TOEFL prep guide on a regular basis. If he has got a walkman or any other cassette/CD player he should use this device to listen to the audio materials several times a day for a few minutes. He can have the tape play in the background while he is having breakfast or when is he is travelling to or from work. He should feed his ears with authentic spoken English in small portions as often as he can.

The speakers on the TOEFL test speak standard North American English so he doesn't have to struggle with slang or dialects. Also, in addition to the TOEFL audio materials it is important for your brother to listen to other authentic sources containing spoken English. Have you got access to CNN, the BBC, VOA or any other broadcasting stations? What about tapes and CD's? Go to your nearest library and see what type of listening materials you can get from there.

Let me know what you think and give your brother my best regards.
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Samrat]

Dear Torsten,

Many thanks for your sincere advise. I will ask my brother to follow your ideas.

Thanks again,
Samrat

[Torsten]

Yes Samrat do keep us posted and up-to-date. In the meantime you might want to take the following:

advice (noun)
advise (verb)

practice (noun)
practise (verb in UK English)
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Samrat]

Dear Tortsen,

Thanks for correcting me here. I will definitely practise your advice
My brother will appear for the Toefl exam by the mid of January and will keep you posted about that later.

Thanks,
Samrat

[jaguilar]

Well, my name is Juan, I am from Ecuador.
I was going to take the toefl because I was trying to enter a college or a university abroad Ecuador. ( I know you may find my english very poor or not good enough, i know)
I tried to enter in Brazil, Argentina, Canada and US.
But the fastest response was from Brazil so next week I am leaving from it.
What is this from? Why this?
Well, I think that the most interesting part is us.
We need for success our goal and all our effort and sacrifice. THe phrase "The much we do, the greater we will" is all that I have to say.
WHat we need to succeed... practice, understand, and continue practice.
Practicing means: reading with question and answers.
reading english books is also interesting and quite helpfull. who know the GRe? Well the GRe is the most difficult english test of all. Its purpose is to check the person's analytical skills; and mysteriously, my brother pass it just by reading and reading and reading... I don't know why but it's the truth.
listening to as many programs as we can.
and doing as many exercises we can. but we need also the answers, (we ourselves can check them too) and in which part we are weak in order to sharpen our skills

[Audrey]

Hi Samrat
As I just was reading your looking for advice for your brother I'm very curious to find out whether he was already successful!

[gayotri]

Hi all ,
I want to improve my speaking for my TOEFL test, I tried several times for TOEFL. I need TOEFL score 100.I got low score at speaking and I want to practice speaking with someone who are interested.
Torsen, could you give some advices how can I improve my speaking?

Gayotri,
Vancouver
dasgayotri@yahoo.ca

[Torsten]

Hi Gayotri,

Welcome to our forum and many thanks for asking me for some advice as to how you can improve your speaking skills. Many people think that they only improve their speaking sills if they speak a lot but that's only half the truth. Before you can start speaking you need to listen. The more you listen, the easier it will be for you to speak. How did you learn your native language? By absorbing the language through your ears. Your brain is like the hard drive of a computer. First you need to feed it with data before you can get something out. Since you live in Canada, it should be rather easy for you to surround yourself with spoken English on a daily basis.

For example, the first thing you should do in the morning is switch on a Canadian TV channel. Have it play in the background while you are having breakfirst. Then go out and mingle with native speakers. There are a lot things you can do get in touch with them. Go and register with the local library. As what services the library has to offer. Sign up with a local community group so you get a chance to get to know people. You will be surprised at how many people are happy when they have somebody they can talk to. Listen carefully to what they have to say, develop a keen interest in their stories, try to find somebody who needs your help.

Of course it would be good if you could tell me a little more about your situation. I take it you went to Vancouver in order to study and now you need to get a TOEFL score of 100?
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Cachia85]

Hi Torsten,

I really enjoy your post about helping us in improve our skill. So, I also want to aks you for some advice.
I took TOEFL last month on 29mar and my result is as follow:

Reading 28
Listening 27
Speaking 15
Writing 27

As you could see my speaking score is desperately low and it shortens my chance to apply for master cource at some well-known universty, so I want to retake the test and improve it to about 22-24. The problem is I don't know where to begin. I found that 15 seconds was very little for me to talk more on the subject they gave, I don't know how long should a good response (about 4-6 sentences ore more??). Another problem I have is when I write I will much more aware of grammar than when I speak, so how can I repair this weakness?
About my situation, I have learn English for 10 years or more, but in the recent 5 years I have studied in Romania so I don't have many chances to practise my English (actually my Romanian is going to "beat" my English, I am not Romanian native also, I am Vietnamese). Should I try to pratise with friends online like others recommend? I am afraid that it won't help much because they may not realize my mistake and we will just continue to make more mistake. I also try to talk with other people here but they say they can understand pretty well (maybe they have the same accent with me ), so I don't know what else to do.
Ok, I write a lot because I really want to have appropriated advice for my case . So thank you very much for any help you could suggest.

[Torsten]

Hi cachia85,

Have you tried to record yourself and listen to the recording? This will help you become aware of your speaking mistakes. Alternatively, you can send us your recording and we will give you an assessment of your speaking skills. In the TOEFL test it is important that you concentrate on the main points you want to make and as soon as you know what you want to say, you should start expressing your thoughts in short sentences. Try to use phrases you know, don't try to create new sentences you have never heard or used before.

Let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Maggie]

Hi, torsten

Would you guys mind evaluating my speaking skills as well? If yes, please refer to this link, http://thisismaggieftaiwan.blogspot.com/2008/04/this-is-my-first-audio-file-of-internet.html . I put my voice on my blog actually. You guys can simply hear my introduction by playing the video, which was converted from a audio file.

Thanks in advance.