u/face-puller

Hey guys,

I recently gave my TOEFL exam and honestly I completely underestimated it. I didn’t prepare properly at all. On top of that, I travelled the whole night (around 300 km), barely slept, and had to give the exam in the afternoon while feeling totally exhausted.

Since I’m a working professional and regularly communicate with American clients, I thought the exam would be easy for me. Writing and Speaking went kinda okay because of my daily work communication and email writing, but Reading and Listening absolutely destroyed me.

Now I’ve booked another attempt after 20 days and this time I seriously want to prepare properly and improve my score.

Would really appreciate any genuine advice from people who have already taken TOEFL. What helped you the most in a short time? Any tips for:
- improving reading speed,
- staying focused in listening,
- speaking confidently,
- and managing time during the exam?

Also if anyone improved their score within a few weeks, please share your strategy/resources.

Thanks a lot guys.

I didn’t use to carry a wallet. Just a debit card and some cash and with metro card in my pocket.

Many times I got confused at the machine, which card to use. It became annoying.

So I decided to fix it. I closed my metro card and applied for a combo card from ICICI Bank. It worked as both a debit card and a metro card. One card for everything.

It made life easier. I used it for cash withdrawal, and for metro travel, office and weekends.
There was also auto recharge. If the balance went below ₹100, ₹200 was added automatically from my account. No need to stand in line, no manual recharge.
For the first 1–2 months, I saw the amount getting deducted. Then something strange happened. The card kept recharging, but no money was deducted.
Still I kept using it. Days passed then months then years. I even noted the recharge amounts in a notebook. Slowly, it added up to around 40k-50k
Later I called customer care and explained everything. They said it was likely a glitch. There was no record of any deduction, and I didn’t have to pay anything.

Honestly it felt like luck, free metro rides for more than 3 years.

Bad Score !!!!