By: Joel Lee
Submitted: 2010-01-03 23:19:05 | Word Count: 574
Scoring at least a 110 for Testing of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is not an impossible task. You simply need to start preparing early by first coming up with an effective study plan that will help you ace the test on your first try. But what exactly is the most effective way to prepare for your TOEFL? Read on for 4 easy tricks to score well for your TOEFL test.
1) Choose the best TOEFL self help guides for you
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If you are unfamiliar with TOEFL, it’s important that you start becoming familiar with the test questions and structure. The best way to achieve this is simply by practising. Although this step might sound easy, you might initially feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of TOEFL self help guides available these days. You can choose to get self help books, CD ROMs and even tapes. Don’t be easily swayed by advertising or nice covers. Take some time to think about which method will best help you absorb information. For example, if you get motion sickness easily from reading books on the bus or train, you might want to consider getting tapes so you can listen to them when you are travelling from one place to the other.
2) Consider enrolling in a preparation course
Taking up a TOEFL preparation course will definitely cost a lot more than simply getting some self help guides. However, the help given during your prep course is generally more effective and valuable. This is because you’ll have the opportunity to personally raise any doubts or questions you have regarding a particular question. However, before immediately signing up for the cheapest prep course in town, ensure that your teacher is familiar with the TOEFL test and he or she can explain answers to difficult questions in a way that you can understand. Consider asking the school for permission to observe the class before signing up.
3) Learn some strategies to save time
You will see such similar answer choices often in TOEFL:
A) to destroy
B) destroying
C) destroyed
D) was destroyed
When you see such a question, take note that 90 of the time, the answer is either B or C. Since TOEFL generally tests on active voice ( ing form) and passive voice ( ed form), when you see both –ed form and –ing form in a set of answer choices, the answer is highly likely to be one of the two.
That is only one of the many strategies you can find out either from your prep course, or from intense practices.
4) Ask yourself if it sounds right
Everyone has the ability to think in real language without using our voice. That means that we can have a conversation in our mind as if the words have real sound. Our mind reacts to this virtual sound, not to grammar rules. In other words, we will be able to tell if a certain sentence sounds right simply by thinking it out loud.
Knowing this fact will come in very handy when you are stumped by a question. Consider taking turns substituting the choices given into the sentence and see if it sounds right. If it sounds good, more often than not, you have found the correct answer.
Although employing these four simple tricks will go far in helping you get beyond 110 for your TOEFL test, keep in mind that regular practice will always remain the key factor in acing any test.
Author Resource:-
Joel Lee is an independent test preparation consultant (http://www.icon-plus.com/) specialising in TOEFL preparation, with over 8 years of experience. Apart from helping candidates to improve their scores through a customised TOEFL course, he actively contributes to websites related to TOEFL.
