117 in 1 week... my debrief

Hi friends,
Writing a debrief for TOEFL is a little difficult than it is for GMAT as there's no point writing a debrief without mentioning the scores and ETS declares the scores only after 10 days or so. Anyways, I got my scores yesterday and so here I am, sharing with you all my experiences of preparing for and performing in the TOEFL.
I took my GMAT on 12/11/2010 (Friday) and started preparing for TOEFL on Saturday the 13th! First, I registered for the exam on the ETS website and selected 21/11/2010 as the exam date. I feel it is better if you know a specific date on which you are going to take the test as you can plan your preparations accordingly. Next, I visited the TOEFL forum in gmatclub.com and read some of the articles in details, including the replies. In this context, I feel it is imperative that you go through the threads by rid82 namely “Everything You Need to Prepare for the TOEFL” and “TOEFL Speaking and Writing templates “. Also, do not forget to download the tips for TOEFL offered by ETS in their website. It is free, and gives you a comprehensive description of all the sections in the test. There is a chance that you might run out of patience and want to get into the real “action” of preparation( if you know what I mean), but it will only take about 2-3 hours to do all this, and once completed you will in all probability know all there is to know about the test.
I was most relaxed about the writing and reading part. It was partly because I had taken the GMAT only a few days back and knew all the templates by heart, and partly because in I knew that in TOEFL I will be getting more time to think and easier topics to write on. Also, the questions for RC are very straight forward and easier to answer than in GMAT. The only practice I did was by watching a few Hollywood movies (without subtitles !) and making sure I can understand the gist of something being spoken about, since listening would be needed in the first essay. If you do not understand the templates I am talking about, visit the AWA forum in this website and go through the templates given by Chineseburned. Even if you write only decent English with common grammatical errors, my guess is you will manage to get high scores if you follow the templates.
For listening, I downloaded the free prep material available in the ETS website. Though I was helped by a very good Apple earphone that I borrowed from my room- mate, in general I thought my comprehension abilities were good enough to follow what was being said. Other than that, there were a few listening passages that I Google helped me find and brush up my listening skills with. I think it is pertinent to mention here that I had worked in BPO for two months after college and since I had to talk to Australian customers there I was confident of doing ok with foreign accent. Also, the conversations are very easy paced and a little concentration is all you need to understand what is being said. The advice I can give you from my practical experience is that try and listen more and worry about taking down points later. Most conversations are contextual and easy to remember. Moreover, you do NOT need to remember everything. I did the mistake of concentrating on the wrong aspect and it reflected in my score as well as you’ll see later!
Speaking is the section I was worried about most. I was under the impression that following Rid82’s templates would be enough to get a good score. But when I started speaking on the topics in the downloaded material from the ETS website, I realized that I was nowhere near as good as I supposed myself to be( !) ! So, first thing I did was download about 100 speaking topics (mostly for the first 2 subsections) from various sources in the net. I also watched the immensely helpful videos in TOEFL Instructional videos - Speaking & Writing Very useful by resh in this forum. Then, with the help of my colleagues’ cell phones (stopwatch) and my cell phone (recorder) I started speaking on the various and even random topics (for example: my favorite manager! ). I was so concerned that I spoke in office and even in the bathroom (wonder what my roommate would have thought! ). In due course, I adopted my own speaking templates; modifications of the originals by rid82! Even with the practice, I never could do as well as I hoped, but nevertheless, I did realize the improvement within a few days. Two advices here:
1. Always practice with a stopwatch to get a hang of the time limit (would seem too less in the beginning but ok as you go on)
2. Know when to end a sentence and move on. You won’t score more for a couple of flowery adjectives and would be much better off expressing a different idea or perspective. The only practice I could manage for the last 4 subsections in speaking was by speaking on the topics in the ETS software. One last very important point, please listen carefully to the sample responses in this software. They come with individual ratings, and can be very useful to give you a realistic idea on what and how to speak.
Coming to D-Day, I reached the centre at 9 and although the exam was from 10, I saw that many people were present there already. To be honest, it is better if you reach the centre a maximum of 30 minutes before the commencement as, like I found out, sitting there and waiting for the test to begin with nothing else to do and no one willing to talk can be really boring! Anyways, after the formalities like passport check etc. they assigned me to my PC and the reading section began. The first passage was for 20 minutes, followed by 4 passages grouped in two with a time limit of 40 minutes each. The good thing was that I did not need to read the passage before attacking the questions. Also, the questions were sequential in that questions from the 2nd paragraph always followed questions from the 1st paragraph and so on; so I could easily relate first few questions to the initial paragraphs and the following questions from the end of the passages. Overall, I do not think I got more than a couple of answers wrong at most.
Listening was the part I had trouble with. The reason for that was the RC section was very time consuming and by the time the Listening section started, I was starting to lose my concentration. In fact, by the time I realized I should regain my focus, two passages had already gone. I guess I made most of the mistakes in the first two articles. The rest of the section was ok. The questions were not as straight forward as in the RCs but with proper analysis of the options the answer did ultimately stand out. That is why I think it is very important to listen and not concentrate on taking notes because with this approach the answers would seem much easier. Otherwise, even with lots of notes the answers might not seem obvious if you have not listened properly.
After the break, the speaking section started. To my surprise, the topics seemed easier than the ones I practiced. It could have been because I have practiced with so many random topics. Although, in few, I could not end as I would have liked and had to hurry to end speaking in time, I covered the points I wanted to cover and had a reasonably good feeling with this section. My advice would be to concentrate more on WHAT you say and not HOW you say it. Of course, one should have proper pronunciation etc. but all of us who have been seriously thinking about getting into schools abroad already have the requisite speaking skills. Also, if you practice speaking, these things would come automatically. Hence, the content is what you should concentrate on while practicing speaking for TOEFL.
Finally, I had the writing part. As I mentioned before this was more of a comfort zone for me and hence, frankly speaking even though I did not put in as much effort in writing the essays as I did in the AWA section of GMAT, I had a feeling I did well. I took notes for the listening passage by just writing down in short the three or so points used by the speaker to refute the points made in the article. Overall, just by following the templates and mentioning suitable points, I completed the essays well within the time limit.
After returning home, I was worried that I might get below 25 in listening and not too good in speaking too. But I was surprised when I saw my marks:
Reading: 30
Listening: 27
Speaking: 30
Writing: 30
Total: 117

Hence, my advice is that do not over emphasize the importance of the test. It is important only to judge if you can manage as a student abroad when it comes to communicating with others and since most of us can, most of us will score high in TOEFL too. What's more, ETS ignores small and insignificant mistakes while marking. So go out there and do what you have been doing since you were a kid; read, write, listen and speak. For any queries, feel free to contact me and I’ll be more than happy to help you out, although there are loads of people here who are sheer geniuses and was it not for their help, it would have been difficult for me to understand what TOEFL is even. So please visit this website often. And please consider giving some KUDOS if you like my post.