Hi everyone, I am back after very long. As any other undergrad might (or might not) say, I've been caught up in the day to day grind of classes, assignments, research and tests. I thought however, I might pop back in for a short while to share with all of you my experience taking the TOEFL iBT test. I took the test in March 2024 and I scored a 111/120, with a section-wise cutoff as follows - 25/30 in reading, 30/30 in listening, 28/30 in speaking and 28/30 in writing. Except for my reading score, I was pretty happy with all my section-wise scores. Both the individual section scores and overall total score are acceptable by Ivy Leagues for a PhD in the Biological Sciences.
Let me be honest, I struggled during the preparation phase. I did quite badly on practice tests/sample questions (I'll discuss what these are shortly) and my confidence was very low. I have spent my entire life conversing in English in personal and academic settings, and have never found it difficult to converse or comprehend. This fact further reduced my morale because here I was unable to understand why this test was causing me so much trouble. So tip #1 is as follows, I had a lot of people tell me that just a week or even a couple of days is enough to prepare. It might jolly well be the case for other people, but make sure to assess yourself and your ability to perform well in this test (of which your English command may not really be a good correlate) and accordingly figure out a plan that works for you. Don't go blindly by other people's advice just because they had a great score.
I decided one fine day that I was going to take the TOEFL in a month and that's approximately the time I had to prepare for the test. I took the newer format of the test that is only two hours long and had the new writing task that involved writing as part of an academic discussion. My first step was to talk to people who had taken the test. So here comes tip #2, talk to people who have taken the test before, you can learn a lot of things that you had no idea about. For instance, you need your passport for the test. Since I had a month to go for the test, I had ample time for my folks at home to send me my passport at college. People also told me about different resources, their experiences, etc and it helped me build my study plan.
I had TOEFL preparatory books from 2017 and 2018 by Princeton Review and Kaplan. I was however unsure if I could use these since some portions of the test have been modified since these publications came out. I was suggested to buy the official ETS book, which you can buy when you register for the test and it costs around INR2500. The physical version was unavailable and I bought the online version. I realised that this did not have the updated questions. So what did this come with? Format of question types and example questions for the four sections as well as four ungraded practice tests on a similar interface as the real exam. So here is tip #3, it might be more cost-effective to get an older book from a college senior or purchase the same on Amazon (INR1000) as compared to buying it on the ETS website until a guide with the new question types comes out. From my understanding, the books on Amazon also come with the full-length practice tests and CD that contains relevant audio tracks for the listening, writing and speaking sections.
I realised that using a template for the writing section (and maybe even the speaking section) can come in handy. What is this template? If you google, you will find blogs by people who scored 110/115+ and they share their templates. I looked at 2-3 such blogs and kind of made a version myself, for the biggest reason being I learnt about the need for a writing template 4 days before the exam and did not have time to memorize a format verbatim. So tip #4, have a template for the writing section.
I spent INR2500 buying a TOEFL practice test package from TCY online, that had ten graded section-wise practice tests and 3 full-length graded practice tests. I very much benefitted from this. Their portal was very similar to the actual test and this helped me be prepared during the exam day. I think that their grading for the writing and speaking sections might be a little more strict that the real test but it was here that I noticed a template-based answer for the writing section got me a better score. The first few times I attempted the speaking prompts, it was eye-opening. If not for the scoring, the timed-sessions and exam-like portal helped me out. The reading and listening sections seemed to be more or less at par with the real test. So there goes tip #5.
When I was taking the test, there were 30 free prompts online on the TOEFL website for the academic discussion portion of the writing section. I think this might however not be around anymore. They still have a TOEFL Go app (with a new name) that has one free practice test and regular practice tasks that are reset on a daily basis (I think) and scored by AI. Make use of all the free resources you can get because these things end up costing a lot. Another free resource I used was TST-Prep. They have two free practice tests that you can download if you signup with your email and some free practice questions. That's tip #6.
Tip #7, take the exam during an off-season time. My exam center had no one else taking the test other than me. This comes very handy for the speaking session because then, either you need to be faster in the preceding sections to not have any chatter around you or you will have to mentally block out other people next to you talking. I personally prepared to complete reading and listening five minutes quicker, but I barely had extra time left after both of them.
Finally, look out for fee waivers of different sorts. At IISER Mohali, from our E-Cell I got a INR2500 waiver on my test fees. Some of my friends who took the test after me got a waiver to send eight test scores for free from ETS. You have to be on the lookout a little bit, but it helps the pocket a lot :)
That's my two cents, and feel free to reach out if you have any specific queries!
Comments
Post a Comment