I took my TOEFL exam on 9th Dec, 2017 and my scores came on 20th Dec. (R 29, L 28, S 28, W 27)
I thought I should share my experience.
Preparation Time: I started preparing to TOEFL sometime in mid of October. However, I did not study every day. As my test date was 9th Dec, I has a lot of time. So over all I can say I studied for 4 weeks (including practice time aswell).
Preparation Material:Taking TOEFL has been on back of my mind for quite some time. But I never actually started preparing seriously. I has EduSync app on my phone for a very long time and when ever I was free I would practice Reading and Listening, just for no reason. When I finally decided to take the test and get over with it, the first thing I did was to register for the test. This creates a dead line and you to start managing your time better. I registered on 25th October and initially my test date was 26th Nov. (Why I took my test on 9th Dec? I will come back to it later). So I had around 1 month to prepare. First I enrolled in online course "TOEFL Test Preparation: The Insider’s Guide", the course is freely available on EdX by ETS. Taking this course gave me a thorough knowledge of test structure, types of questions in each section and scoring scheme. Each section come with real test like exercise questions as well. The writing and speaking exercises are scored by e-raters, that ETS also uses to rate on real test, so it gives you a good idea about what you will score on real test day. My scores on test practice tests were actually very close to real scores.
Following are the other resources I used to practice for each section.
EduSync: This come in app form for android phones for TOEFL practice questions. Its also available in web from.EduSync is good for Reading prep, has a lot of free reading passages and questions. However, not all type of questions are covered in this section (for example summary questions and inference questions). For Listening, this app is the very good. Reading and Listening are free, while writing and speaking are not, you have to buy an license to get practice those . I recommend you to buy 5$ Basic license, that will give you a lot of practice questions for writing and speaking, but evaluation is not included in this package. Packages with higher cost will also give you sample test, and writing and speaking sections will be scored by human raters. I bought CERF level test, but it was useless. The raters gave me lowest possible grades in writing and speaking with no explanation on how to improve, or what were the mistakes. My response in real test was not very difference that CERF test, and I got very goof scores in real test.
NoteFull: Organisation to help prepare for TOEFL, with free content on YouTube channel.I used the videos of Notefull on YouTube for preparing Writing and Speaking section. They give good writing templates for task 1 and 2. I actually used all of the templates for Writing task 1 and all the speaking sections (with my own modifications). One the video I find especially usefull, in writing, is the one in which the instructor evaluates students response in writing task 2. One specific YouTube Video is:
TOEFL Review Wednesdays: Your Writing Q2 Body ParagraphsYouTube channel: [i]NoteFull TOEFL MasteryEnglish Lessons with Adam: Adam has his web site and YouTube channel to help prepare for English test. I found his videos on writing very useful, and I created my own template for Writing task 2 using his videos (and NoteFull's) on how to write introduction and conclusion and body paragraphs.
Some of the links to Adam's YouTube videos are:
IELTS & TOEFL Writing Task 2 - The Introduction
How to Write a Strong Conclusion for IELTS / TOEFLHe also has several other videos which you can check on this YouTube Channel :
Write to TopMy Strong and Weak Points and On the test Day:Reading: In reading I had the time issue. During practice I getting around 80% marks. However, luckily on the test day I did not have any problem in reading. Time was still very tight. But I knew the answers to almost every question. The reading section is very long, and looking at screen for so long can made me loose concentration at my third passage. But overall it went well.
Listening: While praciting, my listening skill were the strongest. So I did not gave it much attention and time. However. at test, I was confused between multiple choices on many questions. May be I should have practised it more with more difficult level of questions.
Speaking: OMG.... I am so bad in speaking at such a short notice. The time is biggest enemy here. I was really worried that I will not get any reason and examples in part 1 and 2 of Speaking section. But I did ok in exam. And got more marks than I expected. The time in real test was also not an issue, because you already know the instructions and when the test speaks out the instructions, you can use that time as well to prepare answer .
Writing: I was good in task 1, but in task 2, I again has same problem of not finding good reasons ans example. My worst fear came true on the test day when I got a prompt to which I cannot think a sensible reason or examples. But what I have found out is that the quality of your reasons and example does not matter. What matters is the structure. If you stick to the structure even with average content, you will get good marks. I did not practice much either for this section, so time was the issue. In real test, I could not review the last paragraph of both tasks, and there were surely some mistakes there (spelling mistakes).
OVERALL: I think the biggest enemy here is the time, practice as much as you can. At least for reading and listening download mobile app and practice when every you are free (instead of playing games on phone). Same for speaking task 1 and 2. For writing and rest of the Speaking tasks you have to find time. At least write 5 essays per task and do as many speaking tasks as you can. To evaluate yourself, look at the video by Notefull, where they evaluate a students essay and try to apply the same evaluation method to your writing. To evaluate speaking, record your response, and listen to it again for finding room for improvement. Plus THINK, think about as many things as you can, ask your self a question and come up with reasons and examples for your answer. This will help you in W task 2 and S task 1 and 2, because you can panic at test time if you cannot come up with any reason and examples.
Lastly, all the best for your test. Let me know if you guys need templates for writing task 1 and 2.
NOTE: I am unable to post the links of videos and channels due to forum's new users policy. Therefore, I had mentioned the name of the resources. If you search the titles of videos/channels on YouTube, you will get to them.
Oh, and I forgot to mention why I took my test of 9th Dec, despite the registration date of 26th Nov. There was an unexpected holiday on 26th Nov, so the pro-metric center gave me the option to reschedule my test to another date free of charge. The next closest date available was 9th Dec. Althought these incidents are rare but can happen. So if you have some dead line to take your test, then try to take the test well before that deadline.
Edited: Templates attached