Sunday, April 12, 2015

TOEFL iBT Experience

I want to talk about my TOEFL experience. The TOEFL or the Test of English as a Foreign Language is usually taken by international students who want to apply to US universities. I however needed to take it as a requirement for my NCLEX or the National Council for Licensure Exam for Nurses which I'm currently preparing to take.

More info on their official site.

REGISTRATION

The first step is to actually register for the test, which I did via their site and paid the fee of $225 with a credit card. A very important thing you should do is to register with the exact name that is on your passport or any other official ID you're planning to present. When you are registering for the test, you will be presented with the option of sending your test results to a University or any other institution that requires you to take a TOEFL.

You will get to pick the date and place of your test. I picked the date a month away because I figure that would give me enough time to review and study. Or so I thought but more on that later. After registering, you would receive an email with the subject "TICKET CONFIRMATION". This email would basically contain your profile information and the confirmation of the date and location of the test.

PREPARATION

To tell you what my preparations are or lack thereof I should tell you that I actually lazed out big time. My plans were to study at least an hour everyday after work and more on weekends. But the truth is I didn't do any of that. What actually happened was I downloaded one program called the Barron test prep online a month early, didn't open it until a couple of days before the actual exam and then proceeded to watch videos online containing tips and tricks for the TOEFL. I practiced the Reading part on the test prep, found it incredibly easy and then proceeded to the Listening part, which again I found very easy. And that's how I lazed out. I'm not bragging when I said I found the test prep easy. I read a few books in my life, not a lot but quite a few and I watched a lot and I mean a LOT of American TV shows and films, it's all I do actually, so maybe that's why I found the Reading and Listening section easy on the test prep.

Now regarding the Speaking and Writing part I didn't get to practice it at all. I think the test prep had Speaking and Writing practice test but I didn't see the point of doing that because unlike Reading and Listening, the correct answer wouldn't be in multiple choice and a computer program wouldn't be able to score it anyway. So I just relied on watching videos to prepare myself. Which now I kind of regret. The videos were a big help but I wished I practiced more on the Speaking part.

The videos I watched, like 4 or 5 videos, can be found on this youtube channel.

ACTUAL EXAM

As per my ticket confirmation in my email, the reporting time is 9:30 am and the actual test begins at 10:00 am. I set my alarm for 7:00 am. I don't know exactly where the test center was but I know the area, which is like 25 minutes from my house without traffic. I planned to have an early start in case of traffic or if the test center would be difficult to find. But fortunately it was an early Saturday so there wasn't any traffic and the test center was very easy to find and the directions in my ticket confirmation is accurate. I think I left the house at 8:30 and arrived at the test center quarter to 9:00

The moment I stepped inside the test center, I saw two ladies sitting in the information area and before I even sat down, a lady came out and told us to follow her into another room. When I asked the lady escorting us about the reporting time, she said it was actually at 9:00 instead of 9:30.  So you better arrive early, at least an hour before your testing time would be my advice.

Now seated in the other room we were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. You have to copy a statement in cursive (a MUST) and then sign it. The confidentiality agreement basically states that you're not going to leak the content of the exam and stuff relating to that.

As me and the other 2 girls were signing the confidentiality agreement, more test takers started arriving. Within 15 minutes of being in the room, the lady who escorted us called me and the other 2 girls to another room where we were asked to place all our belongings in a big and clear plastic bag (imagine a huge ziplock bag). Inside the next room we were ask to only bring our ID.

This room is where the exam will take place. There are about 30 or so computers each one labeled and separated with dividers. But before being allowed to start the exam. They asked for our ID to confirm our registration. Then we were asked to pose for a photograph holding the label assigned to the computer we were going to use.

Finally I was allowed to go to my seat. Once in my seat I found a pencil, a pencil sharpener and scratch paper at my desk. Also at the desk was a headphone with a microphone attached to it. You will have to test the volume of the headphone and check if your voice is going to be detected by the microphone before starting your test.

Reading

The first part of the test is the Reading section. The Reading section is divided into three separate articles and I was given 60 minutes to finish this section. You will be presented with one article at a time before the multiple questions. In my first article, I read the entire thing before entering continue to get to the questions. I regretted this choice later because reading the entire thing took up a lot of my time and the article stays up on the screen the entire time you're answering the questions. My advice is to not waste time reading the whole article and simply press continue to  answer the questions. All of the questions were in multiple choice. The last question for each article is a summary and it is worth two point. The Reading section has 40-42 questions in total, if I remember correctly. Like the test prep, I did not find the questions challenging except maybe for the summary which I though was a little tricky.

Listening

The second section is the Listening. Again, I was given 60 minutes to finish this section. The Listening section was also divided into three parts. Each part contains 2 lectures and 1 conversation accompanied by 5-8 questions. This is when the scratch paper and pencil came in handy. I took notes while listening to the lectures and conversations. I think it helped me quite a bit but as long as you get the gist and understand what's being said you will be able to answer the multiple questions without difficulty.

Speaking

The Speaking part of the test is the part that I found to be the most challenging. I had 20 minutes to finish this section. A lot shorter than previous ones. I was asked about 6 questions. Each question gave me 15 seconds to prepare and about 45 seconds to response. Now the countdown part was what really did me in. I got nervous and mostly stumble upon my answers, if I remember correctly. I did however use a strategy that I got from the video below during the test and it helped me somewhat


Writing

The final section was the Writing one. I actually found this one easier than Speaking. There were two tasks you need to complete for the Writing part of the TOEFL. In the first task, I was presented with a passage to read then a lecture to listen to. The lecture contradicted or disproved what the passage said. The video below really really helped me out. I mean if I have to recommend a video you need to watch for the TOEFL it would be this.


I followed his note taking strategy to the tee.

For the second task, I was presented with a statement and I have to write a 300+ worded essay on whether I agree or disagree with it. I think I finished the Writing section in under an hour.

RESULTS

I took the exam March 28, 2015 and last week on April 7, TOEFL sent me an email stating the my scores are ready. I went to my TOEFL iBT account online, click on check scores and was presented with this:



This are above the score required for the NCLEX so I'm pretty satisfied about that. Although, if I'm being honest I expected a higher score on Listening and a lower score on Speaking.

Overall, the TOEFL iBT is a lot easier than other English tests I've taken during High School and even College. If I have to do it all over again, I would prepare myself a little bit more specially for Speaking part.

I hope this helps anyone who is planning to take the TOEFL iBT. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me via the comments below.