TOEFL experience (from ordering the test to getting scores)
Hey guys!
I never post on reddit but I’ve been lurking this subreddit so much (and got some great tips!) that I figured I might as well share my experience, in case I can help someone else!
Background
I planned my TOEFL exam about 2 weeks out, because I learned pretty late that my university required me to get a test.
I had already completed a different English language test 4 years ago, scoring C2 there. So I figured I would be okay.
However, I was completely unfamiliar with TOEFL. When I did the first practice free run the short time limits made me a little worried. Mostly, the speaking was an issue for me. I’d always done speaking with a real person and I kept forgetting the ‘listen and repeat’ sentences halfway through.
Preparation
So, I started preparing, about a week in advance. I won’t say that’s the best advice (lol), but this is what I did:
- I wrote down every bit advice from the “unofficial TOEFL resources website” to understand the structure, and do a brief exercise per segment. That was great to see what I would need to focus on.
- Once I learned TOEFL is AI graded, I got a paid subscription for Prepex. This seemed to help me a lot at first - endless practice. However, I started realising certain practice exercises were way more complicated than the actual test would be. For example, listening or writing segments were always twice as long. Also, I at some point had ‘form a sentence’ exercises of like 23 words?!
- On Prepex I did poorly in the interview section, so I started focussing on that. I started watching YouTube videos for tips, which were helpful.
- Through there I got recommended MySpeakingScore, so I bought a handful of credits there too, just to be sure. To my surprise, on this website my speaking got graded the opposite of Prepex; interviews were great, repeat not so much.
*I think both Prepex and MySpeakingScore have free alternatives, I just needed things quick and scored so I did pay :’)
By then it was test time, so I figured we’d see what the real test would do. Make of this what you will about the usefulness of paid or AI practice.
Testing
During the test, I went through reading, listening, and writing quite fast.
I find the writing part to be very doable if you’re a university student, since it’s likely you have to write things like emails or discussions in your daily life.
Speaking was the toughest for sure. Because I was the first one in my entire exam room that had finished writing, I had to speak up first. I couldn’t pause to wait either. My nerves (I didn’t want to bother any other test takers!) definitely made me fumble some sentences in the listen and repeat section. The interviews did end up going alright.
I’m not sure if speaking with a group would have been preferable either, though. When we had to test our mics, the room got incredibly noisy. So keep that in mind. I saw someone write on here to practice speaking with distractions (like YouTube videos in the background); I wish I’d done that.
Scoring
My scores ended up being a day late; some administrative issue (‘scores unavailable’) that were pretty easily clarified after a quick email exchange with customer support.
Since I thought I butchered speaking (which was a problem, because I needed C2), I was surprised by the results.
Also; my 5.5 in listening (the score they gave me there) changed into a 6.0! So that can actually happen.
I guess I can reassure other former C2 speakers not to worry too much, then. But I do advise even fluent speakers to at least study the structure of the TOEFL test to know what you’re getting into.
Happy to answer any questions!