Study for the TOEFL
The TOEFL, or Test Of English As A Foreign Language, is an exam designed to measure fluency in English. There are four sections to the test: reading, listening, speaking and writing.
Contents
Steps
Improving Your English Skills
- Give yourself plenty of time to prepare. Learning a language takes a long time.
- Think in English. Do so all the time, while you walk, while you plan your day, while you eat. It will become easier as you practice more.
- The best way is to put your skills to use, having conversations with native speakers. There are many sites on the Internet offering pen pals and conversation partners. You can meet face to face or use Skype or other services. You may even meet an English-speaker who wants to learn your language, if you're willing to return the favor.
- You can also listen to radio, television, and even podcasts in English.
- Learn English grammar. Grammar alone will not assure you a good score in the grammar section, but it is important to know
- Learn to recognize the parts of speech in English. Nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections are the primary ones. There are also phrases that function as nouns, verbs, and so on.
- Learn some idioms. Try Wiktionary for a list of idioms with definitions.
- Read as much as you can in English. Magazines, newspapers, and short articles are a good start, but try to work up to reading books. The reading section will be hardest if you don't understand the main idea.
- Write as much as you can in English. Don't worry if your writing isn't perfect. Just work on putting together good paragraphs of about 5-6 sentences each. Practice pre-writing, or organizing your writing using an outline or other technique. You will find it easier to write a good piece if you have a plan.
Improving Your TOEFL Skills
- Take a practice test. You can find TOEFL practice online or purchase a test preparation book such as Barron's TOEFL.
- Time yourself during your practice so that you learn how long each section takes.
- Practice each section of the test and become familiar with it, so that you understand how each section works.
- Learn what sort of questions have been asked before, what sort of essay topics have been assigned, and what sort of subjects have been on the test before.
- Find out which sections and concepts are difficult and work on getting more practice in those areas.
- Buy TOEFL prep books. A good place to start is 'The Official Guide to the TOEFL Test'. You can also find copies of books online that you can review on the computer. They'll familiarize you with the structure of the test and how the content will be presented.
- There are a lot of tips in most of the prep books. Read them and keep them in mind -- they can make the difference between a good score and a great score.
- Be familiar with question types. There are certain types of questions in TOEFL; make sure you know what types of questions will be on test. Here's a very brief rundown:
- Reading questions -- mainly multiple choice, dealing with vocabulary, detail, purpose, negative factual information, essential information, reference, and inference. You will also deal with where to put information in a sentence, summaries, and tables.
- Listening questions -- again, mainly multiple choice, dealing with main idea, detail, purpose, organization and implications. There are also tables and some questions where you give more than one answer.
- Speaking questions -- you'll be given a topic to listen about, a little while to gather your thoughts, and then time to speak. The topics will vary from the more academic to the personal.
- Writing questions -- you'll be given two tasks. The first one you'll write about for 20 minutes, the second for 30. You must give your opinion and be able to back it up.
- Keep on taking practice tests. Taking one test means nothing -- you could do really well or really poorly. So take it a few times. Your final score will probably fall in the range of the ones had on your practice tests. And the more you take, the less nervous you'll be!
Tips
- Practice good test-taking habits.
- Learn how quickly you can work without making too many mistakes.
- If you're not sure about an answer on a multiple choice question, eliminate as many possibilities as you can and make your best guess from the others.
- If any one question is taking too long it may be best to guess or skip that question rather than waste time on something you don't know.
- Learn as many vocabulary words as you can.
- For listening, read the items quickly because you don't have enough time to read them twice.
- Don't sit near your friends because you will lose your concentration in the exam.
- When you go to take the test, make sure you wear comfortable clothes. If winter, wear something thin but warm. Do not bring extra stuff. You really only need ID card(passport, etc), water bottle and some snacks to eat during break (You get 10min break).
Warnings
- Never give up. Everything is possible for you.
- Find out if your exam is a paper based or a computer based exam. That's very important.
- Don't expect to pass with a good mark at the first attempt.
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Sources and Citations
- [www.ets.org/toefl/ The TOEFL page].
- Wikipedia article on the TOEFL.
