An Overview of the TOEFL iBT Exam and Skills.

Most TOEFL books are great materials and provide awesome strategies to prepare students for exams; however, you may make a big mistake if you think the test is all strategy. Either books or teachers will eventually become boring and repetitive, especially, when you start reading or listening to the same advices repeatedly. These are all necessary, though. Other than that, get in touch with English experiences own your own. You must practice your English skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing without using TOEFL books or having a tutor; and, of course, keep using the TOEFL book to support your preparation journey. These attitudes may substantially help you improve all your skills. That is exactly how you will surely get your best TOEFL test score.

All in all, there are some similarities and differences among sections, especially, between writing and speaking tasks. They both include two types of questions, for instance, “independent” questions and “integrated” questions. The integrated TOEFL speaking topics are about academic topics while independent speaking topics are about personal experiences, opinions, and ideas. The “integrated” topics do integrate reading and listening with speaking. In contrast, the independent tasks are only about how well you can speak, rather than how well you absorb and digest incoming information. In the Independent Tasks, you do the job while in Integrated Tasks, you have everything, so you just need to use sources and language skills to provide expected responses.

Questions 1 and 2 in the Speaking Tasks ask about your favorite type of music or anything else. For example, questions about relatives, family members, a hobby, or an accomplishment). See some examples.

First Question:

Where would you prefer to study, if you could choose from any type of location? Provide details, give examples and explain (why) your preference.

The first place to study that comes to mind, maybe the best place, is home. In my opinion, when you need to study, you need the quietest place and a comfortable chair or sofa. That is exactly what my home provides. Modern times allows you to have any information we need in one click. I have my computer with me, and, with internet connection, we do not need to find a library to study. Then home is the best place to do it. Moreover, most of what I need is at home. If I am hungry, I just open the refrigerator or call a food delivery service. In short, home is my favorite place to study.

Second Question:

Some people prefer playing team sports. Others prefer physical activities that you do alone, such as swimming or running. Which do you prefer? Explain why.

Between team sports and ​exercising alone, I would rather exercise alone. First, it is better because you can do it any time. For example, if I want to do exercise, I just do it in a park, at home or anywhere else. I do not need to call friends or find a group of people to so. If I want to go running, I can just go any time. ​I can also listen to music while running in a park or at home. When you play a team sport, you cannot do that, you cannot listen to music at all. Overall, I believe if you know how to do it, exercising alone is much better.

Work on Question 1 and Question 2 – Exercises:

One – Talk about a purchase you’ve made that you are happy with. Describe what you purchased and explain why you are happy about it.

Two – Talk about a time when you found a task harder to accomplish than you expected. What were you trying to accomplish? Why did it become difficult?

Three – Talk about something that a friend a family member of yours did that you were proud of. Describe what they did, and explain why you were proud.

Four – Choose a famous person who you think would be enjoyable to have a conversation with. Explain why you would like to talk with them, using specific details and reasons.

Five – Choose a subject that students study in school but you think is not important. Explain why you feel it is not important to study. Use details and examples in your response.

Six – What type of long-distance transportation do you think is most enjoyable? Explain why you like it with specific details and examples.

Seven – Think of a movie you have not seen but would like to see. Explain why you expect to like the movie. Give specific details and reasons in your response.

Questions 3 and 4 are a bit more difficult.  Both questions include a text and a recording. Everything is similar to the integrated writing task. Either in writing or speaking, test-takers must summarize what is stated in reading as well as what he or she heard in the audio. Whether you are speaking or writing, it is important to use phrases that explain which passage you are summarizing. That means, you make sure you refer to text or audio in your responses. What do you do exactly? Quickly report in your summary what was written and recorded, however, keep everything in the present tense if you can. It might be easy to do this task because tense changes in reported speech. If you use different tenses, the task can be more difficult for you because it requires more elaborated language structures such as phrases and sentences and the time is short for this all.

Questions 5 and 6take the test to another level because it is easy for some students, though, they are a bit hard for others. Likewise in writing, those question are for independent speaking tasks. In this last part of the speaking section, you have to speak for 60 seconds to show your understanding of a problem and suggest a solution. Listen to a conversation, audio/mp3, and then check a sample Independent Speaking task response below. 

“The male student is worried about his course schedule. He has two required classes, but he cannot take both because they meet at the same time. Because of this conflict, he is anxious about the beginning of the semester.  The student’s professor has given him several good suggestions, but I think the best one is to take the class as an independent study. That way, the student will cover the exact material he is supposed to, which might not be the case if he took the class at another university. In addition, the one-on-one conversations with the professor are a great opportunity to learn more about the material, as long as the student is prepared for each meeting. The student is worried about being able to motivate himself, so I think he should set a certain time and place every week to do his work for the independent study. If he treats the independent study course work just like a class, he shouldn’t have a problem with getting everything done.”

Now it is your turn. Do the exercise on Questions 5 and 6 format. for each task in this last part, you have to speak for 60 seconds to show your understanding of a problem and suggest a solution. Listen to the audio file: Audio. Speaking task: Briefly summarize the man’s two options for the holidays. Then state which solution you would recommend. Explain the reasons for your recommendation.

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Some tips are always very welcome when you are taking tests. Use pieces of paper and make quick notes if you wish. You are allowed to do it during test. Some students trust their brain more than their notes, so do what best apply for you. On academic integrated speaking tasks, avoid stating personal experiences. Do it only if they are relevant to the topic and if you have time to answer the question completely. The time provided, one minute, does not last forever. After taking some tests (exercises) with a teacher or a studying peer, you may realize that the most important thing: preparing for TOEFL exam is not just learning all of the topics or strategies. 

Our final considerations about preparation for TOEFL iBT are the strategies and techniques, tips provided by most specialists, and your possible findings about the best out of the whole package. Practice and develop major language skills because everything is important. See your weaknesses and improve where is needed. Last but not least, do lots of exercises on fully providing several responses in very short times and under pressure in order to get accustomed with the test format through real-like experiences  and break down each task smoothly.