TOEFL 104 Debrief
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08 Nov 2011, 16:14
First of all thank you for all the good advices on this board. The informations here are invaluable.
I took the TOEFL test 2 weeks ago and I got a 104. I know that on this page it isn't an awesome score but I'm more than happy with that.
Split:
R: 24
L: 28
S: 24
W: 28
For everyone who's afraid of this test, I'd like to give some suggestions. My English knowledge is pretty bad because I never had English classes in my life and I only learned English by watching TV, reading in English and doing a summer internship in the USA this summer. So it is possible to do a good grade even though your English isn't that great. My preperation time was 2 weeks and I basically learned the templates from this board by heart and worked through the purple Longman TOEFL Prep book.
Some usefull advices:
1. In my opinion the most difficult part is the reading section. Therefore, work through as much reading as you can. It also seemed to me as the time was moving a lot faster during the real test... so you should be familiar with this part of the test.
2. Listening is easy, just write down the main points and don't pay too much attention to the details.
2. Learn the templates for the speaking and writting section by heart.
3. Use the break to write down the template from the speaking and prepare already your scratch paper.
4. A good strategy choose my exam's neighbor. She listen to my whole speaking part, wrote down my arguements and could shine with a very good speaking. Furthermore, she was the last who was on the speaking part and hence it was silent on her writing section. In my view, even though it's not a very social act to listen to the whole speaking of your neigbor, it helps to increase your score significantly... and seriously, in this test, just think about you!;-)
If you have any question, please let me know and I will answer asap.
Fone