taking the TOEFL exam

At the moment, I’d like to do research again at a university. Therefore, I’d like to prepare to take the TOEFL as part of my exam preparation. This diary is part of the record of my studies in doing so.

Reading

The Reading section consists of questions on 3-4 passages, each approximately 700 words in length and with 10 questions.

The toefl ibt reading test may include passages taken from the textbooks of college-level classes. The sentences in reading test are often explanations of something, logical explanations of something, and sentences related to the history of something. The following three question formats are frequently used in the reading

• A question in which you must choose one of four options
• Questions in which sentences are inserted into the text
• Questions with multiple correct answers

Listening

The Listening section consists of questions on 2-3 conversations with 5 questions each, and 3-4 lectures with 6 questions each. Each conversation is 2.5–3 minutes and lectures are 4.5-5.5 minutes in length. Listening requires listening to meetings and lectures and understanding the content.

The following questions will be asked:

• Question to choose one correct answer out of four
• Multiple choice of correct answers
• Problems to determine the order of events and logic
• Problems to classify words or fill in tables

Speaking

The Speaking section consists of 4 tasks: 1 independent (Task 1) and 3 integrated (Task 2, 3, 4). In task 1, test-takers answer opinion questions on familiar topics. Not all questions can be answered by the template, but it would be useful to keep it in mind. A typical example of a reason statement is the following text. Of course, the main text explaining the reason is the most important.

• I agree with the idea that …
• But I don’t completely agree with that opinion.
• I think it is better to …
• I think it is a greate idea to …
• I fees this way for several reason.
• To be more specific, …
• In my opinion, I believe …
• For example, …
• I feel this way for … or several reasons.
• There’re … reasons to support my idea.

And if you have a little extra time, it may be useful to reiterate your statement again.

• So that’s why I think … is good idea for …
• Therefore, …

First Task

The first question is to give your opinion on the question. You have 15 seconds to prepare and 45 seconds to answer. Typically, your opinion is stated first, followed by details. Then the statement may be repeated again at the end.

• To begin with, I agree with that …for X main reasons.
• The first reason is that …
• The second reason is that …
• So, these reasons are why I prefer to … rather than …
• Compared to …, …
• So for these … reasons, I would like to chooose …
• Based on historical data…,
• According to my personal experience…,
• According to what I know, …
• there is not 100 percent certainty.

Second Task

Question 2 is about listening to a conversation at school and then summarizing it. You have 60 seconds to explain your answer. It is impossible to memorize the entire conversation, but at the very least, you need to memorize the outline and who is present.

Third Task

The third question is an explanation of a particular terminology or concept.

• He use X examples to demonstrate/illustrate …
• in the first example …,

Fourth Task

The fourth question is similar to the third. Since there is no reading, you need to accurately listen to what is being said and explain it in order.

Writing

The Writing section measures a test taker’s ability to write in an academic setting and consists of two tasks: one integrated and one independent.

• The reading and lectures are both about …
• While the author of the article argues that …
• His position is that …
• According to the reading …
• There are three reasons why the man supports/opposes this change.
• First of all, he argue that…. Moreover he mentions that …