How to game the TOEFL system in four days?
If you have gone through the rigors of GRE then TOEFL is going to be a cakewalk for you. Don’t believe me. It is.
In my last post, I wrote about how to prepare for GRE but this time I am writing about how to prepare for TOEFL.
My TOEFL exam date was scheduled on 4th August 2018 (Saturday), exactly four days after my GRE. But, this time my situation had changed and I had only like 2 hours per day as I had started my full-time position from 1st August.
So again I evaluated myself by taking a mock test of TOEFL from the official website and made a list of strengths and weakness.
Strengths:-
1. Strong in writing because of GRE preparation
2. Strong in comprehension because of GRE preparation
Weakness:-
1. Difficulty in making notes while listening to listening audios.
2. Tardy in Speaking and not at all confident as I have never spoken into a microphone before.
Materials needed:-
- Notefull — Free Trial (https://www.notefull.com) and get down all the strategies from it.
Plan of Action:-
1st August 2018:- Learn note taking strategies from Notefull.
2nd August 2018:- Learn speaking strategies from Notefull.
3rd August 2018:- Revise the strategies I learned for the previous two days.
Strategies:-
- TOEFL is much easier compared to GRE. The passages may be long but the English is much more lucid compared to GRE passages. But the strategies which worked for GRE passages worked here as well.
- While listening to the audio, take notes of the flow of events and background of the people in abbreviation form which you can understand. There are more which I cannot remember.
- While speaking structure your answer in a point form, they want your answers to be structured and concise. They want to check your fluency and delivery through the questions. Nothing more.
- Stand in front of a mirror and hear your voice as you speak. This is just to make you less self-conscious. (This is important in the exam to build your confidence.)
Exam Day:-
Again I scheduled the exam in the morning slot as this is when I am fresh. I read the place an hour ahead of time and wore layered clothing (using strategies which worked for me in GRE). But this time, there were different external environment:-
- They were more than 120 examinees in a room and the cubicles were not secluded.
- The ambiance of a GRE center is completely different from a TOEFL center.
- Also, the chairs and the system were not ergonomics and also the speakers were of a type which I was not comfortable with.
- Also, there were other distracting criteria in my vicinity which I am not at liberty to discuss here.
So as scheduled the exam started and I used the strategies which I prepared for. Things went smoothly despite my continuous distractions for the first half.
After the break lay the speaking and the writing section. This is where things went awry as 120 people started speaking at the same time and with the distraction near me I could not execute my strategies as plan. So the speaking section went horribly as I was already nervous and had not prepared myself for this environment.
The writing section went smooth as GRE practice hold me in good stead here.
I left the exam hall scratching my head about how to tackle such situations in a much more better way soon. I did formulate some mechanism but I never got a chance to test them out.
Finally, after a fortnight I got my scores, with close to 8 hours of preparation I had gotten 112(with speaking being the lowest 26).
I was not happy but still, I had less time according to the timeline I was on I took it as my final score.
Always take learnings from your experiences and reflect what went wrong and prepare for it soon.
So, TOEFL can be a cakewalk if you have prepared well enough for GRE and have your strategies figure out. My friend did game the system in 2 days and got out with 118.
I hope this article helps you in some way.
All the best for TOEFL!!!
References:-
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