Longman Preparation Course for the TOEFL Test: The Paper Test Providing both comprehensive skills practice as well as test preparation, the Preparation Course offers high-intermediate and advanced students clearly defined strategies for improving test performance.
This is even more true in the listening. The speakers make simple statements often, and repeat themselves too much. For example, here’s an excerpt from a lecture:Professor: Now, Nick, just how big is the Great Salt Lake?Student: Uhh, the present Salt Lake is much bigger than Lake Bonneville was.Professor: Are you sure? Do you wanna try again?Student: Oh, did I get it backward?
What did I say? I mean what I meant was that the Great Salt Lake is much smaller than Lake Bonneville. Lake Bonneville was much larger than the Great Salt Lake is today.Professor: You got it this time. The Great Salt Lake is much smaller than Lake Bonneville—less than 10% of the size of Lake Bonneville, in fact.Notice how they repeat the correct information a few times in that short conversation. And this excerpt happens after almost a full minute of the class already talking about how Lake Bonneville was bigger.
A fact like this on the real TOEFL would be said very quickly, in just a line or two, or it would provide more detail in more complicated language. Simply saying “bigger” and “smaller” is too simple. What’s more, a mistake like the student’s error above would be much less obvious. For comparison, look at a similar example forma real official TOEFL Listening track. You can find this example in the first three lines of dialogue on the transcript from page 32 of.In that part of the TOEFL Quick Prep V3 PDF, there is a small mistake (the student seems confused about the difference between ultrasound and echolocation), but they don’t spend a lot of time clarifying it. The topic moves quickly on. Soon, the professor is talking about how bats use echolocation, and more details come in.
They don’t simply repeat the same detail, as in Longman’s passage.Now, let’s consider the questions that come after the reading and listening. These are actually well written, mostly, but there are some with problems. Sometimes, the vocabulary questions have alternate meanings of the vocabulary word in the question. That forces you to look back at the text, even if you already know the word. The real TOEFL almost never includes answer choices like that: you can answer the questions correctly if you know the word, without looking at the text.There are also some inference questions that infer too much, making extreme statements that are “correct” but would not be correct on a real TOEFL. The questions which are good are very good, but these few questions with problems lower the total quality of the book.
In one example, there is a passage about sleep and dreaming. The passage says that the animals discussed in the lecture are only a fraction of the total number of animals that dream. In other words, there are many other animals that also dream. The “correct” answer to the inference question about this says that most animals dream.
That is a completely different statement. “Many” and “most” are not the same. A father with five children has “many children.” He is not the father of “most children.” That would be a very busy father. Skill Practice, Test Strategy, and AdviceThe skill-building exercises in Longman are not very obvious. They are mixed in with test-like practice, so it’s hard to tell the difference. However, there is other, more focused skill building in the online material. Skills like note-taking, vocabulary, combining sentences, pronunciation, and others are addressed, but in neither the book nor the website are they the focus.
In general, in the book those supporting skills are mentioned a couple of times, but there are few exercises to practice them individually. Online, there are more focused exercises, which really help—especially in grammar and vocabulary. But some skills should get more attention, especially note-taking. There is some good note-taking advice at the beginning of the book, but then most samples of notes are unrealistic, and there is very little continued guidance on how to take notes. The book just says “here is a recording; take notes.” Well, it doesn’t use those exact same words, but that’s the general feeling.Test strategy is also subtle, but it is all there, and it is generally good strategy.
It may be hard to actually see the good advice, because it is sometimes within large pieces of text, but if you read all of this book and pay attention to what it says, you will get most of the best ways to answer TOEFL questions. It would be better if each smaller skill or piece of advice had its own exercise, but there is little missing from this book—it’s just a bit boring or hard to find. ExplanationsAlthough there are very few explanations in the book, you receive access to an answer sheet online. That sheet has the reasons why each answer is correct and explains many of the incorrect answers. As is usually true of explanation sections, it’s not very thorough, but it’s enough for most students.The most notable problem with the explanations is that there are no scripts for most of the recordings.
Students who want to read while they listen to better understand lectures and conversations can’t do so.Besides that, the speaking response samples are mostly just in text form. There are a few mp3s of sample responses, but most of the questions in the book don’t offer samples that you can listen to, only read. The Final WordLongman TOEFL is expensive—the most expensive book I have reviewed yet. But it’s not the best.
It gives a ton of material, but the quality isn’t high enough. If you are interested in the large amount of material, try the Complete Guide instead. That book has both better material and better skill-building exercises. Longman is one of the top five TOEFL books I have seen, but I still recommend other books first.And if you’d rather study online with lesson videos and practice questions (like the real TOEFL iBT!), be sure to check out, of course.
Everything You Need to Know about TOEFL Introduction to TOEFLAre you looking for information about the TOEFL?If you are, then you need to be aware that this is an English test thatwill assess the ability of an individual in Academic English. Therewill be four sections in the examination that the candidate will haveto work on. The ETS has not just designed the test but they are alsoadministering it.
The highest score that a person can get in this testis 120 and generally, 90 is considered to be a good score. Colleges anduniversities located in English-speaking nations refer to the result ofthis test at the time of screening candidates from non-English speakingnations. There are two kinds of thistest. One is the Internet-based Test and the other is the Paper-basedTest. You can choose one that you would prefer, depending on thelocation you are in.
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Sections in TOEFL. Reading: This is one of the first sections that you willhave to work on. In the Internet-based Test (iBT), you will find thatthere will be 3 to 4 passages on academic topics and each of them willhave around 700 words. After each passage, you will find questionsrelating to the same that you will have to work on.
You need to finishthis section in 60 to 80 minutes. In the paper-based test (PBT), thereading comprehension will have 50 questions that you will have to workon and the time given to you to finish this is 55 minutes. To scorehigh, make sure you get a good idea about this section so that you will know how to handle the questions effectively. Listening: In the iBT, you will find there are six audiorecordings and questions relating to the same.
Each recording will havearound 5 to 6 questions that you will have to work on and you will begiven 60 to 90 minutes to complete these. In the PBT, the Listening section will have three parts with a total of 50 questions that you will have to answer in 30 to 40 minutes. Speaking: The speaking section is only found in the Internet-based Test (iBT) and not the Paper-based Test (PBT).
It consistsof six tasks where four are integrated and two are independent. Thecandidate will have to listen to conversation or lecture in the twointegrated tasks and then answer a question based on the recording. Inthe other two integrated tasks, he will have to either read a shortpassage or listen to a lecture or conversation before answering aquestion that will be asked.
Lastly, the independent tasks are thosewhere there will be opinion questions on common topics. Structure and Written Expression: This section is only foundin the PBT and here, the candidate will have to work on twenty-fiveexercises where he will have to point out errors. Additionally, therewill be fifteen more exercises where he will have to complete sentencescorrectly.
He will be given twenty-five minutes to work on this section. Writing: If you are collecting information regarding this test,you will know that this is the last section of this test. In iBT, thereare two tasks and these are the independent and integrated tasks. Inthe independent task, the candidate will have to write an essay thatwill support his opinion on a certain topic. In the integrated task, hewill have to read a passage and then listen to the speaker discuss thesame.
He will then have to write based on what he has heard. In PBT,the candidate will have to write an essay of 250 to 300 wordsapproximately. The total time in iBT for this section is 50 minutes andin PBT it is 30 minutes.Do Remember.With thousands of educational institutions around the world usingthe result of this test as a tool to screen the students at the time ofapplication, it is important that you get a high score. This is thereason why you need to know everything about this test so that you will be in the position to get a good score.