I recently received my toefl ibt score. As I am content with the result, I am not happy about the writing score. In all my toefl mock tests, I received 5.0 which makes me doubt this score. Has anyone had success with applying for a writing review? I’m applying for a university that requires 4.5 in score for every section. Thanks in advance.
Hi to all,
I need advice please!Im very frustrated because I got 3.5 all the time in my mock test and scored 70 in total. The worst score i had is the writing and speaking.
I need 85 score in order for me to pass.
I really need help.
I could only attempt 7 questions out of 10, and out of those 7, I only got 3 correct. I feel the time we get for 10 questions is not even close to being enough. How do I practice such questions? Is there any trick I'm not aware of?
I have not received scores from 16th May yet, 72 hours have passed, but I haven't received mine. The website says that it's because of administrative work, it can be revealed even in 2-4 weeks. What can I do since I need them in about a week? (Test-Center)
Did anyone get scores from 16th May TOEFL? 72 hours passed, but I didn't receive mine. People say it is because of administrative works, it can be revealed even in 4 weeks. Did anyone experience that?
lmk if you have any questions
I took the TOEFL last week and just got my score today so I thought I'd write about it since I couldn't find many posts like this when I was preparing.
So basically I decided to give TOEFL about a month before the exam which is honestly not a lot of time. When I went to register I saw the fee and genuinely just sat there for a minute. Nobody told me it was that expensive. That was the moment I realized okay I need to actually study for this because there's no way I'm paying that much and then failing.
I studied for a few weeks, mostly just doing practice tests and watching some YouTube videos. The integrated writing task was confusing at first because you have to read a passage and then listen to a lecture and then write about both of them at the same time. It took me a while to get the hang of it. Speaking was the part I was most scared about. Practicing alone out loud in your room feels really weird but it actually helps so just do it.
On exam day I reached early because I didn't want any extra stress. The exam is around 2 hours long and it goes reading, listening, speaking, writing in that order. Reading was fine. Listening was a bit stressful because you only hear the audio once so you really have to pay attention. Speaking felt nerve wracking in the moment but I just tried to stay organized and not panic. By writing I was pretty tired but I somehow got through it.
I got 5.5 out of 6. Honestly I just smiled when I saw it. It's not a perfect score but I worked hard for it especially given how little time I had. Also really glad the money didn't go to waste lol.
If you're preparing — the registration fee will surprise you so be ready for that. Other than that just get familiar with the format, practice speaking out loud even if it feels weird, and don't overthink it on the actual day. It's a long exam but it's doable. Good luck if you're giving it soon.
Honestly, i am tired of practicing and not getting results. All other sections are ok for me but "take an interview" task in the speaking section is the one that scares and prevents me from booking the test. Although i practiced it for more than enough and watched every single video that exists on YT but i still cannot generate a high scoring response immediately. I speak slow and less in number of words because my brain cannot handle idea generation, organization, word choice and grammer all together as i am not native speaker and it has been years that i haven't studied English. It is mostly grammer and sometimes word repetition that lowers my score (i know grammer but idk what happens in toefl questions). I think that i am practicing the wrong way and can't figure out the right one, so if u got any tip or advice, i would gladly consider it. Appreciate ur opinions
Hi everyone,
I always promised myself that I would also try to explain how my experience with TOEFL went as a non english speaker (i'm french) since many posts on reddit helped me a lot on reducing my stress level before the exam
First, if you know the deadlines of your application or whatever, book your exam as soon as you can! i didn't find anything related to this topic anywhere but i was trying to have my exam the latest I could since i wasn't prepared but booking your exam session within 7 days of the test will include some express fees! the exam is definitely not cheap as it is so if you can avoid these fees that i paid... do it
Plus, they say that you get the results in 3 days, which could be the case if you're lucky but I booked the exam on May 13, and got the results only today (May 19) since there was an administrative review and my deadline was today so all went well surprisingly, so please plan in advance and don't wait for the last minute like i did because i almost regretted it (i was telling myself that an english exam couldn't be that bad so I waited)
Also, I was (really) worried for the exam since it was mandatory for an exchange program and I wouldn't be able to go abroad if I didn't have the results needed, I would say that I understand english very well (reading in english became natural thanks to wattpad LOL and listening too since all the contents I watch online is in english) but i was quite nervous about the writing and speaking part (in france, it's really rare to write fulls essays in english if you're not specialized in this field, as for the speaking part you can easily guess that french people rarely speak english).
-> I had 3 full days of preparation and focused primarily on the writing part (i told myself that it was the best section where i could gain points since i couldn't magically improve my speaking in 3 days).
WRITING
-Once you understand the tasks, that's quite easy (i fortunately have no issue regarding grammar since i read a lot in english and words easily come to me), the Build a sentence part was really easy for me and I think (99.999% sure) that i got all of the sentences right which definitely helped me score 5 in writing.
-For the email part, it's quite easy too once you understand which topics usually come out (a request/a problem/express a concern/ask something related to school or work or housing) and i advise you to have a template (at least the formal things you need to have in your email)
-> MANAGE YOUR TIME!! i was way too confident for the write an email task before the exam, but I never tried to write one on my own (i didn't do any mock test or sample test in their full length) before and during the test, I was too stressed that i couldn't find my words or any ideas and i didn't even have the time to write my last sentence to finish the email (thank you blablabla best regards etc) but it seems that it didn't really affect my score in this section
-> for the academic task, my advice would be to NOT repeat any argument but try to find a simple argument on your own (my subject was something about environmental actions for the planet and i literally wrote that i try to recycle my plastic bottles lol) and always take into account both students' opinion or at least write their names once !
SPEAKING section: the worst part, i'm still a bit traumatized
-> to be honest, it was awful. First, i do NOT have a good memory so the listen and repeat task was HELL for me but i knew it before the exam so i didn't even try to train myself on this task since i knew it was just pure luck on the sentences (it was even HARDER than the few videos on youtube that i watched to be familiar with the task), all my sentences were quite long and I wasn't familiar at all with the subject so i know that i repeated for SURE only 2 sentences out of 7... (catastrophic at this point and i thought that my entire exam was no longer good enough to target a good score) so honestly i do not have any advice here, just try to do your best and maybe change the words a bit but keep the meaning if you can..
-> the INTERVIEW part: horrible, probably the worst minutes of the exam. First, note that the subjects are quite similar to those for the academic discussion in my opinion so you could reuse some examples from that part! For example, it could be technology related, environment related, work or school or habits related. I once again had a topic related to the environment that i found quite technical (renewable energies...)
-> when i listened to the 1st question, i knew i was cooked so i didn't even try to come up with good ideas or opinions or any elaborate sentences haha but when the microphone was up, i just knew that i had to talk and keep talking and avoid any blanks or silence so i just spoke like if i was in front of a mirror and i said everything that came up naturally in my mind (for example, they asked me the initiatives taken in my country for renewable energies and i literally answered that i lived in Paris and therefore there wasn't any big initiatives possible for solar panels or whatever lol..). So, probably don't follow my example and try to give examples if you can and that can really answer the question but i would say just talk if you panic, i assume they didn't care the content but listened to how i spoke and if it was fluid. I didn't use a structure or a template for my answers and sometimes, be prepared for 2 questions in one so don't forget to answer both of them (i forgot and partially answered the questions so i think i got really lucky on this one). I used a lot of fillers ("um..", "like") but my score is surprisingly good!
CONCLUSION: i'm really really happy for my results and now i'm just waiting for my school to tell me where i could go (it will depends on others scores too so let's see!).
I was reading every SINGLE posts on reddit and facebook groups to reduce my stress and have a few tips so i hope this post will help others too, i would be happy to answer any questions, do not hesitate, my head is still focused on the toefl exam so i will gladly help you!
Reading part had 50 questions and an additional 33-35 questions in the second part, as opposed to TST’s mock which has just 33 questions.
Listening was almost the same. There were some confusing option in the “academic talk” section, but trust your instinct and go with the option which “you heard” and has the closest meaning.
I made a typo while editing the academic discussion part in the writing section, but from what I heard, it doesn’t really matter much.
Speaking was pretty daunting at first. I just tried to relax and paid attention to the listen and repeat section. And to my knowledge, I remember getting the most part right. That gave me enough confidence to yap during the interview section.
For the interview section, I just used TST’s prep materials to get an idea and practiced talking for 45 seconds. I believe, it is crucial not to panic and keep the flow going. I’d suggest when speaking, tell a statement, follow it up with a reason and give an example, one or more. That was pretty much it. I just yapped to be honest. I WAS NOT EXPECTING 6/6 In speaking. But here I am.
Resources used: TST prep
Specifically, TST under-predicted my speaking and writing scores in the TST mock tests. Ended up scoring pretty much above the predicted score in the real deal.
I did not purchase any mock from TOEFL official before my actual exam
I’m not a native speaker of english, but most of my formal education was in english which helped.
And thank you to the people in this sub, it really helped me what to expect and what not to.
I want to do toefl exam in about a month, i dont know what to study what resources i should use. Please help
I recently uploaded a thread here commenting that my writing wasn’t satisfactory at all for me, because I couldn’t finish properly writing an email. But fortunately my scores were fine, just posting here for someone in the future.
R: 6
L: 6
W: 5
S: 4.5
I struggled with speaking part because I couldn’t focus the way I’m used to, since I got this bad feeling about writing. In official mock tests speaking was 5-5.5. But yeah, listen and repeat probably downgraded me because of anxiety.
However, if I could give my 2 cents: stay focused on the test, and when switching to other tasks, don’t think about those that are already gone. You will manage to score well. I used TestGlider, scoring a mean of 4.5 initially, but improved to 5.0 on the later 4 exams. If you have any questions, please leave in the comments. I’m not a teacher, far from their capacity, but I’m a student that can help a bit — I guess. 🙂
it’s been 5 days and i haven’t received my scores yet… should i email them? cuz i’ve heard that the new technical issues they’re experiencing might affect the scores
Is the new version of TOEFL since Jan easier or harder than the older one before Jan?
I would like to know whether the unofficial Reading and Listening scores that appear immediately after the test are fixed, or if they can change later in the official score report.
genuinely just did one of their official mock tests to just get familiar with the structure and that’s it! so happy
also did home edition which didn’t go very smoothly, the proctor could barely speak english himself and didn’t answer during the test when i had technical problems😭😭
thinking abt filing a formal complaint but w all the bureaucracy they have im genuinely tired
Honestly my English is not that good or is it!? Idk. Originally i was planning on taking the older version of TOEFL test but there was an internet blackout an all the tests were postponed and i ended up with the new version and i was freaking out since it was new. But, it was such an easy test, it was almost like school English tests! Short straightforward and the good thing is it goes on with your own pace unlike IELTS where everything happens at the same time for everyone. The listen and repeat was cool but nerve-wracking ! Because after a while it feels like you're just saying made up words and i was so scared that my mic might be broken but everything went well, got my score real fast and honestly i thought i was gonna land a 4.5 or something and i was kinda shocked with my results! What I'm saying don't be stressed and as for resources there was this YouTube playlist with test examples for each skill all i did was watching those videos and preparing for the test.
I haven’t practiced for either the TOEFL or the IELTS yet, but I did read the general overviews of both.
I once did CELPIP and got L10 R9 W8 S9.
Obviously, writing is my greatest weakness. I was leaning towards IELTS since last year because I hear it often from my colleagues and don’t hear much about TOEFL from them.
After research, I found out that the TOEFL exam has changed. They reduced the exam duration to 90 minutes and updated the score scaling.
For TOEFL, I originally needed 27 in speaking, 24 in writing, and 23 for both reading and listening, which is 97 in total. The institution where I’m applying hasn’t changed its minimum criteria just yet so I’m assuming that I need at least 5.5 in speaking, and 5 in the other areas. I’m still waiting for their reply.
And then for IELTS, I need a Band 7 for speaking and 6.5 for LRW. The biggest problem is the IELTS writing.
If you were me, would you switch to TOEFL or stick with IELTS?
