Gave my TOEFL® got 100!

[Vipulkatira]

Hi All

I got 100 in my TOELF exam got the scores this week. A decent score I should say and I am happy. This was my first competitive exam in 10 years. So I was little nervous but that’s human. My target was scoring in 90’s but I got 100 so I got a Bonus 10 grades. I studies for 25 days for 7-8 hours.

Reading: 28
Listening: 28
Speaking: 19
Writing: 25

I want to share with you some of my experiences this might be useful to any one taking TOEFL.

Study Material:
I referred Barron and Kaplan Books. Plus I came to English-test.net forums to improve my writing and reading what other people were tackling the exam. I referred to ETS website for free material that also helped.

Reading:
Reading was the easiest, but was far lengthy than I practiced. I never took written notes. Always tried to understand and remember. It’s advantageous to know various topics so start reading different topics and be fast in understanding the gist.

Listening:Had easy topics but you need to concentrate a lot. I got bored by the end. I just did very little practice on this but managed well. Be an active listener. The tips in Kaplan Books helped here.

Speaking:
Personally this was my weakest as I stutter so my fluency was bad. And I could not do much about it. I could have easily score more here but the topics were easy. You need to relax and be individualistic when you answer. Your need not speak BIG words but your sentence should make sense, connect and should interesting points.

Try to be lively and concentrate on spoken grammar; a very important thing. Practice topics to speak as it builds up your fluency.

I also referred to this site for speaking assignments. Its a pretty good site.
http://global-english.lefora.com/jasonrenshaw/blog/

Writing:All you need to do is write words you are comfortable with.
Finish the essay in time very important. Don’t write too many ideas and make it complex. Practice keeping the essay simple first so there are fewer chances of errors and you finish on time in practice. Once you get some confidence you can always improve your vocabulary. Use interesting points, examples to make your essay interesting and readable.

Mental Makeup:
Relax and enjoy this exam you will do well. It’s not a tough exam to crack.

TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between a professor and a student discussing a possibility

[Gray]

Kudos! This is a great news. Keep up the good.
_________________
First lesson - English, not english. I, not i. ~A student of English

[Riteaid5227]

Hi there:
I am happy for you, can I ask you some questions?
1-Do we need to do "indention" in our essays too?If yes, how many spaces is needed?
2-did you put the topic essay in the beginning of each supportive paragraphs or did you start with your main idea?
3-is it ok if we start the body paragraphs with this sentence"one of the most important reasons that I support the idea of.....is".
4-did you wirte the main points of your idea in your thesis too?or not.
thanks a million

[Vipulkatira]

Hi Sorrry this reply is late but hope this helps. Next time I will try to answer quickly. My answers in bold

[Jojotejada30]

Hello fellow TOEFLers! I just got my TOEFL result and finally after 3 attempts I got 102, a grade more than enough for my entry to a medical program, Please admit this exam is so annoying but reviewing for it though anxiously will bring forth many lessons, I was searching for tips in the web as my last resort and I was very lucky I did so here I am willingly sharing to everybody how I did it as a payback.

I only read 1 book and that was Princeton's Cracking the TOEFL, there are tips and exercises that were exciting to read at first but boring right after but its still worth reading, what brought me miracles were the videos posted in the web.

For reading section, please please please dont read the passage!!! proceed directly to questions, answer the easy questions first then the harder questions last, you will surely grasp the passage as you refer to it per question and fortunately by the time you answer the hard questions you already have a fine understanding of the whole passage, doing this gave me extra time at the end to review my answers, but on the other hand, have faith on your first answers they are usually correct.

For listening section, what I found more effective is to try to write everything that you can grasp, this works for me better rather than remember everything, Each of us has his own style. I also tried seeing lots of english movies with subtitles its fun and enjoyable. In this section its important to address the following: main idea, purpose and behavior of the speaker.

For speaking section, Its very important to practice your answers in a limited amount of time, so, straight to the point, clear language, no pauses. The videos posted by Steve Ford and Joseph on notefull.com are very helpful. Fortunately for us, the graders are so lenient on grading our spoken response, dont worry much, but recording and critiquing your own responses are the key.

The writing section was my highest and the one that I was so proud of, and this is because I followed the structures suggested by videos posted in youtube, How to structure your essay by Rebecca, Jason Renshaw's writing suggestions there are two. And tons of other useful videos. At the end, please use your extra time for checking your essay for wrong grammar, subject verb agreement. If you have extra time , check and recheck, it will surely improve your essay and your grade.

So, there goes my tips, I hope we all get what we hardly work for, I felt how frustrating this ordeal can bring to all of us foreign speakers but the last and most important message I would like to share is to pray to our Heavenly Father, only He knows what our hearts truly desire. Goodluck!!!

[Nzuahp]

Vipulkatira and Jojotejada30, congratulations,
You people have done a great job and that is surely the truth of your labor.

The information you people have provided above is very important and I recommend anyone who wishes to take the TOEFL IBT to follow them.

Best regards,
Nzuahp
_________________
Practice makes perfect.

[I Hate Toefl]

I got 73 in May.. Hoping for 90+ this time. I'm now a senior and I still don't know what I wanna major in or where to study = .. If I don't get the 90+, I'm going to commit suicide!! =P

I hate the TOEEEEEEEEFLL!!!!

[Nzuahp]

Hello "I Hate Toefl",
The preparation you have done so far will surely enable you to earn a good scores.
It is my wish that you score the 90+ that you need.
_________________
Practice makes perfect.

[I Hate Toefl]

:D

Thank you, Nzuahp. I did no TOEFL preparation, fyi.. However, I spent more than 2 months preparing for a harder examination, which is the SAT so I felt that my English has improved a lot!

[Richard]

Hi (I ... Toefl),
Could you please change your user name?
You won't pass an exam unless you like it.
Just a suggestion. :)
Best of luck.
_________________
Global Marketing

[Tuwichi]

Hello People,

Many congratulations on your success. In fact, I am also preaparing for the toefl and my exam will be on Jan 16 10. I have 1 month to prepare. Please suggest me some books and other online materials that you guys had used. This is my second attempt. I gave toefl last month and scored 73. My target is to score 90+. Please guide me, so that I also could score 90+.

Thanks in advance.
Tuwichi

[Richard]

[Tuwichi]

Thanks Richard for the suggestion.

Indeed, I am aware of my weaknesses very well. I asked about the preparation material because I am curious to know different resources, those are helpful and people are using to get decent scores. I have 1 month left and I cannot think about whether 1 month is sufficient or not. I have to prepare myself within this time only. Therefore, I am asking for the guidance to successful candidates.

Also, I am posting my essay's to this forum.

Thank you.
Tuwichi

[Richard]

Hi Tuwichi
I really don't know what I can suggest you all the books are helpful from my perspective. :D If I were you I would try to improve my listening,writing, and speaking skills, because you need more time to be proficient in reading skill and it needs more time and attention in my book. I'm a learner too and that was just my own personal opinion.
Best of luck.
_________________
Global Marketing

[Jojotejada30]

Hey Tuwichi, I believe 1 month of preparation is more than enough especially if you are going to study on a daily basis, and Richard is right all the books out there are useful, my suggestion though is to stick with only one book and read it by heart, The Official guide to Toefl is a good one, but its too much for me, content wise, so I reviewed the book Im familiar with which is Cracking Toefl by Princeton. The last attempt I made which is the most successful one is mostly based on the videos posted. (Please refer to my post above) Goodluck on your January 16 test. More pieces of advice if I may, get plenty of sleep a night before, make sure you know the site and travel time and parking a day before, and get rid of all the would be hassles that might affect your pure concentration on the day of the test. Believe. You can make it. Trust in HIM!!!