MY TOEFL JOURNEY

Abstract

The passage is a brief summary of my half-year torfl learning. I will take in my last toefl examination three days later, on 15/4/2023. At the meantime, I hope to overview the four parts of toefl knowledge, as well as tricks, including reading, listening, speaking and writing in the article.

The tricks and tips for each part

1. Reading

2. Listening

Listening is the most difficult part for me to learn. I scored 28 last examination and I believe that I will not be higher than this score.

Here are some important tricks below:

lecture

  1. It is the most important to know the framework of an article, regardless of the topic. 6 questions will be seperated in different paragraphs, leading to the wrong answer if the choice is in a repeated paragraph. Here are some hints when the professor is going to talk about the next topic or a deeper insight:
    OK, alright, on the other hand, …
    Focusing on these key words are important as well, to know where ETS is going to raise questions:
    but, however; what’s more, moreover; ‘words that represent personal thoughts: surprisely, undoubtedly, unfortunately’; to be more specific, specifically; because, …
  2. Focus on the listening, instead of writing a lot of details, which you do not have deep understandings.

Conversation

  1. Notice that the redundant expressions of key information is far less than that of lecture, sometimes the key sentence only appears once in the listening section;
  2. So, paying more attention to listen and comprehend! Don’t write too much information on the A4 paper. This writing action it self is not wrong, but the my results turn out that it leads to a lower rate to choose the right answer.

3. Speaking

​ Speak more, and halt less! It is this section that is quited by me. It is god-damn so difficult to improve!

​ But, wait a minute, here is still some useful patterns for exams:

  1. T1
    (404 not found)

  2. T2
    In the reading, we know that the university has decided to …. First, it claims that …; Second, …

    ​ / In the reading, the students suggest that the university should (not) do …; first, …; second, …
    The woman/man in the conversation disagrees with the plan/letter for two reasons. First,…; Second,

  3. T3
    In this set of material, the reading passage talks about …(topic), which means …
    In the listening, the professor uses an example of … to explain this concept. …(detail)

  4. T4
    In the __ lecture, the professor talks about 2 __ why __ do ___

4. Writing

This part is my concentration after my last exam, since I only have 20 points in the part. Here are the patterns:

  1. Integrated writing

    …(N-clause) is the focus of both the writer and professor. In the writing, three …, including A, B and C, have been elaborated. The professor, however, claims that …

    As opposed to the writer’s idea that …, the professor argues that …. He/she advances the theory by saying that …

    The professor continues to discredit the writer’s assertion by examining the fact that … In detail, the professor states that …

    It is the professor’s third argument that …, which contradicts the writer’s opinion that … To explore deeper, the professor points out that …

    An apparent divide exists between the writer and the professor on …(N)

  2. Independent writing (3+5+5+3 = 16 sentences)
    …, an important aspect of the …, has been vauled and even triggers a heated discussion over …. In some people’s views, (the opposite of your topic). Contrary to these people’s opinions is my perspective that …

    What must be prioritized is that …. To begin, …. Specifically, ….; however, …. What’s more, …. To be more specific, …; in contrast, …

    What should be equally worth discussing is that …. Initially, …. In detail, ….; on the contrary, … Moreover, …. To explain it further, …; on the other hand.

    A. B. To conclude, ….

Here are tricks, which you have to do on integrated writing:
  1. tricks: 3+3’:
    n, doing n, it is adj for sb to do
  2. tricks: speical sentence form(5):
    it is(emphasis); only/never; the more, the more; not only, but also; how could

Good phases

  1. funtion as/ serve as
  2. place sb as beneficiaries
  3. reap and harvest benefits from …
  4. … from different culture and backgrounds
  5. distract sb from