TOEFL Café

TOEFL Speaking Templates - Question Type #3

2010-10-10T09:25:00.000-07:00

Structure of Answer

Part #1 : Summarize the announcement
Part #2 : Mention the man/woman's opinion

Part #1 : Summarize the announcement

• according to the announcement
• apparently due to ... {reasons why a decision was made}... {mention the main point of the announcement}

Part #2 : Mention the man/woman's opinion

• The woman completely endorses this announcement because ... In addition to that she thinks that ...
• The woman disagrees completely with this decision... because she believes that... the second reason against the proposal is that she believes that ...
• The woman definitely agrees with this new announcement, she primarily states that... secondly she points out that ...
• The man is completely in favor/not in favor of this announcement, he says that ... finally he emphasizes the fact that ...
• The man does not feel in agreement with this new policy because .. secondly he claims that...
• Both man and woman regret this announcement... first she says... additionally she states that... finally she points out that ...

Sample Answers for Question type #3

TOEFL Speaking Templates - Question type #5

2010-09-26T06:02:00.000-07:00

Structure of Answer

Part #1 : Mention the problem the man or woman is having
Part #2 : Mention the friend's solution to the problem
Part #3 : Say what would you do and why

You can :
• chose one of the friend's suggestions
• come up with your own
You should always support your choices with arguments

Part #1 : Mention the problem the man or woman is having

• The man/woman is having problems with
• The man/woman would like to ... but he/she can't because...
• The man/woman cannot ... because...
• The man/woman is worried because ...
• The situation is that the man/woman ...

Part #2 : Mention the friend's solution to the problem

• ...the man/woman advices him/her either to..., or to ...
• ...therefore his/her friend advices hime/her to ..., or to ...
• ...the man/woman advices he/she might ..., or to ...
• ...the man/woman advices him/her to ..., the second option would be ...

Part #3 : Say what would you do and why

• ...if I were in the man's/woman's shoes I would definitely go for the first/second option ... primarily because ... moreover ...
• ...personally i would ... because in that way... in addition to that she/he can also ...
• ...personally speaking i would advice the man/woman to try ... because in that way he/she can ... and also he/she can... for instance when I was ... I always ...

Sample Answers for Question type #5

Speaking Station now directly on our Facebook page

2010-09-20T10:07:00.000-07:00

In order to make it easy for you to access our speaking tool for practicing the speaking section online, we have included our Speaking Station tool directly on our Facebook start page. All you have to do is to go to our Facebook page. Like it! then start practicing, simple isn't it!!

Here is the link: http://bit.ly/dzpnLu

Here are some screenshots :

4 Reasons why succeeding TOEFL is all about practice

2010-09-05T05:58:00.000-07:00

No matter how good you are in English, succeeding in the TOEFL exam requires more than basic English skills. It requires specific skills and reflections in order to handle the different question types of TOEFL. In this post I'm wrapping up 4 main skills you should build while preparing for your TOEFL exam. These skills are essential :

1) Calibrating your time awareness

Also can be referred to as time management.While passing the TOEFL exam you should be the Master of time. You should be playing with time as drummers play with their drums. In other words you should build a mechanism in your brain that automatically manages time according to the exam real-time circumstances.

How can you do that ? Practice !

In the reading section you should know how much time you should spend reading, understanding then answering the question. What if you passed a question and will return to it later, what if you spend much time than you should on a certain question. You should practice to handle such situations, they will surely occur!
In the listening and the speaking sections taking notes is King. The next point talks about why you should practice taking notes.

2 ) Taking notes

   Taking notes is an art. But you only have a month or less to master it. At first you will write notes that you're not going to be able to decode right after. Don't get frustrated. Practice and you'll nail it!

   Here is the trick: you should think keyword-wise, and don't look outside for keywords, use intuition, since you are writing notes for yourself and no one is going to read them but you. When you hear a key idea in a conversation or a lecture in the speaking or the listening section see what word or short sentence pops-up in you mind and write it down, that is your own keyword. Believe me it works! That way you will have the whole conversation or lecture summed up in lines of keywords.

   One last note : don't try to write keywords in your native language. You'll get lost in translation and you'll waste time doing it. Stick to English and if you feel like you are falling into a shortage of vocabulary and keywords than you should rethink of building up your basic English in the first place.

3 ) Building up speaking confidence

Speaking English fluently can be difficult. Speaking in public can also be difficult. Speaking English fluently in public in a noisy environment is definitely difficult. However to get high score in the speaking section you should be able to speak up confidently in a crowded environment.

Confidence only comes with practice, confidence is sweet, it makes you want to practice more.
To be confident you should train your mouth, your body posture and your brain. Many people lose their confidence when they make a mistake out loud, it is totally normal, everybody make mistakes the most important thing is that you don't let it affect your confidence, ignore it and keep talking. And believe it or not it is only with intensive practice sessions that you are going to be able to simply ignore your mistakes.
So remember the more you practice speaking the more confident you get about speaking in public.

4 ) Creating a mental database of link-words and expressions :

Repeating words and sentences is essential for learning a language. Practice makes you brain repeat words with engagement for memorization. The idea is that the process of speaking uses both a conscious and an unconscious mechanism in your brain.
What we want to create is a database of words, link-words and sentences to feed the unconscious mechanism during the speaking process. That is because the conscious part of your brain is going to be busy doing other things like time management and ignoring distractions. This can be achieved by, again, practice speaking!
This point is well elaborated in my previous post about practicing speaking by listening to others speak.

Conclusion

Succeeding the TOEFL exam is a an important thing, it requires training and engagement and no matter how skilled you are in English, practice is your only gate to success.

The Speaking Station - v.1 - Free Online Practice Tool

2010-09-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

I'm very pleased to announce the release the first version of this great new tool I called THE SPEAKING STATION. The SPEAKING STATION is an online tool that allows everyone to practice the 6 question types of the the speaking section of the TOEFL exam, for FREE !

The SPEAKING STATION has an intuitive simple user interface that will allow you to practice speaking without any complications of download or installation. It is a new era. It is the era of web 2.0. Now, grab a cup of coffee and set yourself to excel in the most difficult section of the TOEFL exam. And yes I would like to hear your feedback.

Here are some screenshot :

Simple strategy tips for better score in Listening and Reading sections in TOEFL

2010-08-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

Here are few tips while taking TOEFL. Hope these are helpful for all those aspiring to be successful in the test.
Listening

1. Set the volume one level higher than required. As you do not get a chance to do that later.
2. Don't pay too much attention on the pictures shown during conversations. Test takers will try to confuse by showing the same picture for a different conversation. They are quite smart you know!!!
3. In a two people conversation, pay extra attention to what the second person says. Mostly the question is based on that.
4. In long lectures and conversations, make sure you take a mental note of the conversation when the lecturer lays some emphasis on a particular word. It indicates that a question from this part will be asked. So don't sleep.

Reading

The biggest advantage you have in this is that you can go back to the previous questions anytime.
1. Read the first question before you start reading the passage. This will give you an idea of what to look for while you read.
2. If you can't figure out the answer of any question, move on and don't forget to come back to it later. In my experience when you answer other simpler questions, you get a better grasp on the passage and then you can answer the tougher question that you had to guess on.
3. While practicing and general reading, whenever you come across a new word, look the word up in the dictionary. For your convenience all the words in the dictionary are in alphabetical order.

notice At least 5-6 questions are based on meaning of the word asked, you won't even have to refer to the passage if you know the right meaning.

All the best!

4 Tips for better time management during the Speaking Section in Toefl

2010-08-27T06:06:00.000-07:00

1) You do not get deducted for short pauses, one or to hmmm's or even accent! Even though a good accent is a plus, but it is not necessary to achieve an excellent score.

2) Fluency is important but you have to put in mind not to be too quick nor to slow. Be moderate so that u won't lose a lot of time without making your points clear and full because you were too slow. Also, being too quick results in more mistakes, unclear language and maybe even you'll finish your reply before time.

3) If you've finished you reply 10 seconds for example before the time is over, try to fill in something. But if you are sure that you're answer was full so it's better not to fill in because it's better to finish before time than not to finish before the beep. ( P.S It happened to me, so this is from personal experience).

4) I recommend you to practice by reading or listening to the question then answering while recording your answer. Doing this allows you to know if your tone sounds confident, clear and what kinds of errors you keep doing. You've got to also time yourself. Timing is very important here, you MUST time over and over again. This will help you know how many points you can make within a specific period of time, and how much you can actually talk.

Practice makes perfect. I did it. Many people did it. YOU can do it.

Speaking Tips from a test taker - SPEAK OUT MORE

2010-08-26T17:42:00.000-07:00

My score is 105 totally. i would like to give my opinion to u all, who are suffering without getting 26 in speaking. don't lose your heart, be confident ,prepare well, do hard work.......don't take things easy........

1) just don't follow the formula. Speak as much as u can in the given time. The more u speak. The more marks u get.

2) prepare the speaking answers for all the 185 writing topics of the official guide. if u are able to speak out for these 185 topics, i am pretty much sure that u can attack any kind of independent question. speak out speak out. speak out

3) if you prepare for 1 type of question. you sure can change or modulate the question being asked accordingly. for eg, if the question is : what are the good qualities that u like in your friend? you can star saying: positive attitude, hard work. these 2 good qualities, u can attribute to any person, like room mate, life partner, role model.

4) it is eay to get good in independent tasks, try to get 1 more good in either of the remaining 2 sections, that's it. you get 26.

5) coming to campus questions, you have to speak as much as u can. i used to never give full description of what i read & what i heard. i used to get less score. but that is not good. u have to speak as much as u can. for example, in the 5 th problem question, just don't speak only the problem, 1 st solution, 2 nd solution & ur preference in just 4 sentencs. Be elaborative, speak much, use the whole time. concentrate well on the topic, write as much as u speak while listening, try to put the whole thing while speaking.

6) in the 3 rd question, just don't tell the reading passage( university decision ) in 1 sentence. they will give u 2 or 3 reasons, why they are doing so. i mean, cutting down the lab hours or increasing the tuition fee. You are suppossed to tell these 2 reasons. Now u have to tell why the man/woman opposes the university's decision by giving the man/woman's 2 reasons. So, it is very important to elaborate the answer more than just telling university's opinion & just man/woman's 2 reasons.

7) coming to academic topics, u can speak well, if u get related or familiar topics. I generally get 4 th question in psycology/sociology & 6 th question in biology. In biology, the questions that i got are much from the prey-predator relationship questions & how the insects,birds or other preys protect themselves from predators.

SPEAK OUT MORE EXTENSIVELY, ELABORATIVELY, DESCRIPTIVELY & AS MUCH AS U CAN

I wish you all the best.

Some tricks for the TOEFL iBT speaking section

2010-08-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

Advice 1 :

There will be massive aural interference from other test takers. Try and practice in a noisy ambiance. A co-test taker, who was fairly fluent in our pre-test conversations, cupped big time in the test, purportedly on account of the disturbance caused by the other test takers.

To make things worse the center instructor had advised every one to 'speak loud' because some of the mikes had a few 'signal attenuation issues'. This had a catastrophic effect on the bustards who did not bother to analyze and conclude that at the end of the day , it is the Signal to Noise+interference ratio (SINR) that matters and by croaking hard, you will only end up prompting your neighbor to croak harder,which coupled with the ensuing snow-balling effect will result in only help bring down your own SINR. The noise-insulation provide by the headphones, will not , I repeat, WILL NOT help you that much. So be mentally prepared to counter this.

I guess it does not take a genius to figure out a suitable strategy to counter this. [ For those initiated in to Game theory, or at-least the movie 'A beautiful mind', think 'Nash equilibrium', or, that, "The best result will come from everyone in the group doing what's best for himself and the group."]

Advice 2:
To the best of my knowledge, all the test takers in a center will get the same question set (At least for the speaking section). I can personally vouch for this fact at least with regard to the instance and center in which I took the test.

Hey wait a sec.Does this mean, that if I don't take a break and check out after the Listening section, I can just sit there and listen to the other test takers grapple over topics that you , yourself will be getting in a few minutes from now ?? Apparently YES.

So my advice is:
You are paying $170, and you are entitled to adopt any strategy that is within the realm of the laid out rules.
So, sit tight in your place (after the listening section) and concentrate on what the other test takers are speaking about and infer the topics. This is pretty easy as most of them state the topic somewhere in their 'speech'. If possible, prolong attainment of the Speaking section. This can be done by not choosing to voluntarily continue to the next section/set of questions until the complete time for that section/set runs out and the software automatically takes you to the next section/set :-).
Feel strongly discouraged to pursue the race to be the first guy/gal to complete the test in your center. You ain't getting no brownies for that ..

My TOEFL Experience - July 11, 2008

2010-08-26T07:16:00.000-07:00

I want to tell you about my Experience. Maybe it could help other Test Takers

    I was the first that arrived to the Test Center (about 8AM, 1 hour before the Test) and I think it was beneficial because the Test Administrator registered myself in a computer located in a quietly corner. So, first tip try to arrived early to the Test Center.

    After confirming my personal information, the Test started. The Reading Part was a little bit difficult because at first I felt quite nervous. Then, I breath deeply and try to focus on the passage. Also, I was one of the "lucky candidates" that got 5 passages instead of 3. Anyway, I spent 45 seconds scanning each passage, reading the first line of each paragraph and the last line of the whole passage, and then started with Question 1 as quickly as I can. There were Questions that I can answer in 30 seconds, and also Questions on which I spent 2 minutes. But all the Questions refereed to a specific paragraph. So, second tip keep concentrated on the paragraph that is related to the Question and try to read it all.

    Then, the Listening Part has an average level. I understood all the conversations and lectures but I had doubts on answering at least one Question for the final lectures because I wrote a lot in my notes. So, third tip try to write necessary things when you are taking notes. Also, it could help you if you use abbreviations of words that you understand.

    Finally, I had a ten-minute break. I went to the restrooms and then ate a chocolate because I read that chocolate could help my brain. After that, I took the Speaking Part, which is the difficult one for me. I thought that I probably were felt uncomfortable talking to a computer, but I was not. I focus on each Question and tried to give the best answer that I could. I repeated part of each Question when I started to talk, either if the Question is for a familiar topic or if it is for a lecture. I have to admit that I felt nervous in two Questions because of the time and the organization of my speech. So, fourth tip stay calm and try to use efficiently the seconds of preparation time, specially when you have heard lectures previously.

    After the Speaking Part, immediately appears the Writing Part. The Integrated Question was about systems of recycling and how the lecture contradicts it. I could understand the lecture and took good notes because the audio was not so fast. The Independent Question was if you agree or disagree with the statement that parents do not understand their children today as well as they did years ago. In both essays, I organize a brain-storm on the computer instead of the scratch paper and I also reserved at least 5 minutes to review all my answer and correct any grammar mistakes. So, fifth tip try to organize your ideas on the computer as a part of your answer and do not forget to review your writing few minutes before the time ends.

10 Tips - TOEFL Listening Section

2010-08-26T07:13:00.000-07:00

Definitely a must for all TOEFL takers

Tips for the exam day

2010-08-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

Timing
Reach the test center at least 45 mins before the reporting time. My test was scheduled at 4 PM and the reporting time was 3.30 PM. So reaching say by 2.45-3.00 would be good. You have to fill up confidentiality agreement form and brief instruction session for 5-10 mins is conducted by the prometric people. You are allowed in the exam room on first come first serve basis. So it makes sense to be early and grab a seat. Actually it doesn't make much difference, but it might help you when you reach the Speaking section. You'll be among the first few people who would start answering.

Things to carry with you
Confirmation ticket print out - to confirm ur presence for the test.[It is not required, once you have made an entry in the attendance register]
Carry your primary identification - Your passport.
Secondary identification proof(It is a must !!!) - PAN card, Driving License or a similar document with your signed photograph.
Remember Employee ids/credit cards are not acceptable.
A dude was not allowed to take the test as he did not carry the sufficient docs.

Things NOT to carry
Rough sheets/stationary,Water bottle,Cell phones.You wouldn't be allowed anything inside. Not even your wallet and watch!!!You would be alloted a Locker, where you'll have to keep all your belongings.Rough sheets and pencils are provided at the test center itself.

Reading section
RC is easier as compared to GRE. There are 3 reading passages, each 20 mins.Each RC has approx. 13-14 questions.The last question in all the three passages is the trickiest of all. It is to select the best inferences from the given passage.It is worth 2 points.Plan your time in such a way that u have atleast 4-5 mins to answer this last question.

Listening section
Isn't difficult at all. All you have to do is concentrate and take some notes here and there. Don't get distracted with noises of people who have already started their speaking section. So listening section has some 6 -8 odd tasks. Few conversations(mostly among university students who discuss their problems on campus etc and few lectures on various academic topics like biology, eco. etc followed by some questions on these discussions. This section is easily manageable.

There is a 10 min. mandatory break after the two sections. You will have to leave your place and go out. [You can eat something if you have got something from home.Its a 4 hour long test after all !!]Remember, you are not supposed to touch your mobiles during this break.

Speaking Section
isn't difficult if you know how to respond in the given time frame.

Sincere Advise : KAPLAN's latest book on TOEFL iBT comes with practice cd, which has 4 practise tests. Trust me it is worth going through that !! It'll give u a hang of the entire speaking pattern.It has similar timed conditions and almost similar question pattern.

After a 4 hour struggle..you are finally through!!

[P.S - Don't wait for the range of your scores to pop up. I waited for 4-5 mins. When nothing showed up, I knew its time to go out. Your scores will be sent to you after 15 days. You will be able to view them online on your TOEFL account.]

Hope any of this helps.

Practice the speaking section by listening to others practice

2010-08-26T06:14:00.000-07:00

Voxopop is such a great site. In Voxopop you can record or listen to diverse audio discussions recorded by people like you and me.

Voxopop played a major role in having my pretty satisfying result in the TOEFL exam speaking section (I had 27). First i was very confused with the huge amount of recordings i had to go through and at i wasn't really sure how can i benefit from them, and to be honest much of the time the recordings were rubbish; either badly recorded or contained really poor English. But then I settled on a very nice group that contained a decent amount of useful recordings. It was a group created by a Croatian girl that recorded her self practicing on different speaking topics. The reasons for which i have liked her recordings are summed-up here:

Clear voice and pronunciation
Examples of templates for different kind of questions
Keywords for correcting pronunciation mistakes, handling forgetting a word, linking ideas, etc...

After carefully listening to many of the recordings in that group i found myself familiar with different speaking techniques, articulation words and an interesting speaking tone and confidence that practice makes perfect.

Here is the group link : speaking Ibt practice on VOXOPOP