TOEFL® reading and speaking sections. Advice?

[Flaaak]

Hello!! How are you all doing? I'm new in these forums, i have some questions!! i'm so nervous!, i'm taking the TOEFL iBT this friday!! ahhh Frankly i've being studing since the begining of september, i bought the KAPLAN TOEFL iBT cd-rom..and finished it today..mmm i have no complains i think is really helpfull..so the cd room brings 4 practice tests, in which the speaking part and writing part, they give you examples of high level answers so you can compare yours to those ones and score yourself..Honestly, yesterday i did the first one, and i think i did terrible, and i did it without concentrating too much, but today i did antoher one and i got 24 out of 39 questions right in the reading part, also got 30 of 35 in the listening part, which i thought was going to be the hardest one :S, and on the other two i think i did a good job, so i think i got probably 95 as my total grade... But, the reading part seems to be the most confusing one for me...so ANY TIPSSSSS? i've studied the whole kaplan book and still not good enough in the reading section..pleaaase help!!..also in the speaking section i think i did good, but not as i wanted to, so any tips also?..and..if you don't mind giving me tips for the whole test i would really appreciate it..i really need to ace this test!!..Thank youuuuuu very much!!

[Englishuser]

Hi flaaak,

There is no one approach that would guarantee you a high TOEFL Reading score. Obviously you need to understand English well enough to have the potential of getting the score you need, and being calm will help you keep focussed.

The obvious being stated, it sometimes helps candidates to first read the text without looking at the test questions - just as if you were reading any text. This will help you get the "big picture". If there is enough time to do this it may be a good idea. Then read the first test question carefully and read the paragraph dealing with that question. Underline the facts relating to the question. Deal with the questions one by one in this way. The answers are usually pretty obvious, but there will be some more tricky ones in each test as well.

All the best

EU

[Flaaak]

Hey EU! Thank you very much..actually i did one of the kaplan's practice tests yesterday and i got 84% in the reading section and 91% in the listening section, i hope i do that well or better in the actual test. On the other hand, how do you think the human raters rate the essays and the speaking section? Are they too hard on putting the best grade, or not? by this i mean..is not impossible to get the best grade in this sections, is it? Thank you again!!
Flaaaak

[Flaaak]

Hello people!! I was wondering, how do you think the human raters rate the essays and the speaking section? Are they too hard on putting the best grade, or not? by this i mean..is not impossible to get the best grade in this sections, is it? Of course, giving a complete and accurate answer. Thank you very much!!!
Flak!

[Ns]

Stay calm. Relax..

Your english is ok.
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