Hi All
Took my toefl on 16 Aug, after a lot of procrastination.
First of all let me about my experience at the test center -- The night before I just relaxed, had a beer, watched friends -- the usual
I had book the
NIMT, Greater Noida, India Center because its closer to my house. I strongly advise go for the prometric center. NIMT center has horrible facilities - toilets worse than Indian Railway Public toilets, waiting area has one fan, the testing area is in the basement very stuffy, No Aircon (ofcourse), no fan either on many desks, one hall with more than 40 students taking the test at a time. Worst was - the test was suppose to start at 10:00 am sharp, they couldn't download the paper or whatever (I think they were lying) and I started my paper at 2:00 pm. Many test takers just gave up waiting and canceled the test. Anyway I just wanted to get the thing done and dusted so took the test anyway. Got my score yesterday :
Total: 116/120
Reading:30
Listening:29
Speaking:27
Writing: 30
My advise for test-taker if you plan to take GMAT/GRE do that first, also consider buying atleast one toefl online test(around 40$), this test gives scores even for the objective sections, although speaking section may be lower as it doesn't take into account content delivery. The first thing I did was take a mock 4 days before the exam using the TOEFL-practice-online test( Scored a 110), just made a few minor adjustments to GMAT reading strategy, and worked on my weak areas for the next few days
Besides that here is my strategy for each section --
Reading1. Don't read the entire passage -- too long you wont remember it at all
2. Note from which para is the question asked, but don't go hunting for the answer instead read the entire paragraph making sure to distance yourself from the question. Once you have read the paragraph(tops 40-50 sec) prephrase the answer, and then look at the options.
3. As you go reading para after para(since toefl questions are ordered like that) you will build an overall comprehension of the entire passage. This will help you answer the summary questions.
4. Add: For the summary questions - just be careful not to pick minor details - wrong one are easy to spot.
5. Understand Question types. I didnt have to read the different question types.
Listening1. Try to make effective notes of major points - you may have to go through again. Also try to capture lists (of reasons, things, etc) usually one or two question is asked.
2. Didnt do anything else
Speaking1. The toughest section for me, partly because it hard to evaluate your performance. Try to stick to a template. Checkout
notefullvideos, they are great.
2. Prepare for the worst environment. A test taker in front of me was trying to imitate Kapil Sharma, maybe, and was also making all sorts of actions. He was pretty darn funny, and guess what I started laughing on the third prompt. It was really hard to regain composure after that.
3. Utilize the time while listening to write the templates.
Writing1. Word count is very important. For the integrated task I spewed ~400 words, and for independent task ~600 words.
2. Keep a simple lean template, make sure to capture all the points.
3. Best way to get word count up is think of real life or fictional examples these are usually bulky when written.
Thats all, from my side. I wish all test takers best of luck !! Cheers