Paradoxical scores!
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25 Apr 2012, 12:40
Hi there everyone, I would need some advice.
I have taken two times the toefl test so far.
For the first exam, I had prepared for two weeks very intensively but still not intensive enough in the speaking part(without any partner just by myself , only the youtube videos), I was almost sure I won't take the required scores.I was aiming for 25 in S, W and 90 O. The scores made sense because I knew I lack the speaking skills to take 25.I had to take the test due to the application deadline.
My first toefl exam score (in the fall of 2011):
R L S W O
20 22 19 25 86
The second time I took the exam I had prepared for 2 months , again very intensively. Now, I thought there's no way I can't get the required scores. I focused my attention on the Speaking part to make sure I get at least 25, and made a lot of Listening exercises because I knew the Listening part is very important to the speaking part (You have to completely understand the lectures and the discussions in order to prepare your answer.).
My second toefl exam score (14th of april):
R L S W O
20 20 23 24 87
When I finished the exam , I was certain that I could not have worse scores in L S W than the scores in the first exam. I was only worrying about the reading part because I had some problems there. But the listening and the speaking part was approximately 80 % better. I didn't even need all the given time in the listening part, I could make strong arguments on why I had chosen that answer. As for the speaking part, again I was surprised that I could answer the questions so well.
What I want to add is that in all this time I've been living in Canada and many people didn't even notice that I'm actually an immigrant when speaking with them and they are the ones who claimed this.Nevertheless I am the one who has taken care of all my issues(living , jobs, paperwork, ...) I've had a natural english accent since I was a kid in school.
I mean, I'm completely confused, has anyone ever faced such a problem. I'm still not convinced that those are my scores and I am almost sure that I can't dispute them in the sense of making them re-evaluate . I know that it's not impossible for them to make a mistake(confusing the score with a different person's score or something else).
Now, I have no idea of what to do to improve that score, the only possible mistakes I'm aware of are in the reading part due to my lack of vocabulary and in the listening where the questions do not have a correct answer (logically) within the 4 possible answers. I've seen on another forum that other people had noticed this too. Still I do not recall to have seen many questions of that type.
If someone could give me some advice, that might be very helpful .