You are planning on taking the TOEFL iBT after having gotten some courage and put some money together. This short list of questions and answers will help you to create an organized study plan that will help you to increase your score.



"How do I prepare for the reading section?" To score high, you need to improve your ability to understand university-level texts and reading passages. Therefore, frequently reading academic texts in natural sciences, social sciences, arts, and business provides excellent preparation. The Internet is a great resource for these materials; also, in libraries, you can check out books, magazines, and journals that are academic in style. Consequently, the more academic the reading material is, the more it will prepare you.

"How do I prepare for the listening section?" If you want to score higher on the TOEFL, you have to improve your general listening comprehension proficiency skills. Similarly to the reading section, you have to practice listening to several academic texts from natural sciences to business. By using the Internet or CD's as listening opportunities, concentrate on taking better notes as you listen, in order to capture the main ideas and critical supporting points.

"How do I prepare for the speaking section?" To score high on the speaking section on familiar topics, create a list of topics and practice speaking about them: "Describe your favorite vacation destination" and "Describe an important person who has influenced you" are representative of familiar speaking topics. Practice giving 1 minute voice-recorded responses to these types of speaking tasks.

In order for you to score high on the speaking section on topics based on reading passages and lectures, look for any college textbook that has discussion questions at the back of the chapter. Practice reading the chapter, taking notes, and orally answer the discussion questions. Also, you should read a lot of short 100-200 word articles. You can locate these articles on the Internet, in the library, or in a TOEFL E-book. After reading the article once, create a quick outline including the major points, then use the outline to orally capsulize the information, after that add more detail to the outline and orally capsulize again. Focusing on your listening skills, use the Internet, the library, or a TOEFL E-book to identify additional listening and reading texts on similar topics. it does not matter if the material provides similar or opposing points of view. After taking notes on the listening and the reading materials, you should orally capsulize and synthesize the information. Remember to practice giving 1 minute voice-recorded responses.

"How do I prepare for the writing section?" If you want to score higher on the writing section on familiar topics, start by creating a small list of familiar topics and practice writing about those topics: "Describe a favorite family vacation spot" and "Describe someone important in your life who influenced you as a child" are potential familiar Independent Writing topics for the TOEFL iBT Test. You should also practice by declaring some opinion or preference of anything and then offer clearly detailed reasons for your belief. "Which do you think is better: living on campus in dorms or off campus in apartments?" is another sample question of an opinion-preference writing topic. Remember, you should constantly practice planning, writing, and revising your essays during the 30 minute time period.

To score high on the writing section on topics based for reading passages and lectures; find a college textbook that includes discussion questions at the end of the chapter. Read the chapter, take notes, and practice writing answers to these questions. Additionally, read a 300 to 400 word article and then create an outline of the major points and important details. Using the outline, write a summary of the information and ideas of the article. Finally, be able to distinguish among the following methods of citation: quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing. Practice planning, writing, and revising each response within the 20 minute time limit.