39421688 toefl now ebook 2011 edition preview

8/6/2019 39421688 TOEFL Now eBook 2011 Edition Preview

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TOEFL NOW!2011 Edition

An Insiders Guide with tips, strategies, and extensive onlineresources to help you raise your TOEFL iBT score ast!

Written by a TOEFL IBT Exam GraderSarah Menkedick, TESOL

www.toefnow.com
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COPYRIGHT 1

TOEFL NOW IS PUBLISHED BY LENGUAJERO PRESS

COPYRIGHT 2010

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED OR TRANSMITTED

IN ANYFORM OR ANY MANNER, ELECTRONIC OR MECHANICAL,INCLUDING PHOTOCOPYING, RECORDING OR BY ANY INFORMATION

STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRITING

FROM THE PUBLISHER.

TOEFL IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF EDUCATIONAL TESTING

SERVICE


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TABLE OF CONTENTS 2Foreword 4

Introduction 6Fast-Forward to Fluency - Tip 1 8

Reading 10

Tips and Strategies 10

A) Main Idea Questions 15

B) Tone/Attitude Questions 15

C) Reers to Questions 16

D) Closest in meaning to Questions 16

E) Connecting Inormation Questions 17

F) Highlighted Sentence Questions 18

G) Except Questions 20

H) Iner Questions 21

I) Add a Sentence 22

J) Summary Questions 23

Reading: How to Practice 24

Reading: Online Resources 25

Fast-orward to Fluency - Tip 2 27

Listening 29


Understanding the Listening Lecture 31

Understanding the Listening Conversation 39

Listening: Online Resources 44



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TABLE OF CONTENTS 3Speaking 47


Speaking Independent: Task 1 52Speaking Independent: Task 2 55

Speaking Integrated: Reading and Listening 57

Speaking Integrated: Listening Only 60

Speaking: How to Practice 63

Speaking: Online Resources 65


Writing 67


Writing Independent Task 70

Writing Integrated Task 73

First Essay Structure: One side/Other side 75

Second Essay Structure: Point by Point 76

Contrasting Essay Vocabulary 77

How to grade your independent essay 79

How to grade your integrated essay 81

Writing: How to Practice 84

Writing: Online Resources 85


TOEFL Tips and Strategies: QUIZ 87


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Dear Readers,

Welcome to the 2011 edition o TOEFL Now - TOEFL iBT Tips andStrategies. This book is a culmination o three years o my experiencewriting and grading TOEFL iBT exams. I have learned a lot about theTOEFL iBT over the last three years, specically how the test is designed,and what key things you need to do in order to achieve an excellent scoreon the exam. I have also seen many, many students repeat the samemistakes over and over again, and I want to help you prepare or theTOEFL so that you can avoid making these mistakes yoursel.

I you have just started studying or the TOEFL iBT the process mightseem a bit overwhelming. There is a lot to do, and many o the tasks, likespeaking about a random topic or one ull minute without any preparation,can seem rightening. Luckily, everyone else who is preparing or theTOEFL is in the same situation you are, and the act that you are readingthis means you are already working hard to prepare or the exam. Good

job!

Having seen many o the same mistakes repeated time and time again Ihave developed this guide to teach students specically how to prepare oreach o the our sections o the TOEFL iBT (Reading, Writing, Listening, andSpeaking). Some o the key things I will teach you are:

How to quickly structure your Writing and Speaking responses to

include everything the exam graders are looking or. How to identiy and answer all 10 types o Reading questions.

The dierence between responses that receive a 3 and ones that willreceive a 4 or a 5, and how you can easily improve your responses justby adding a ew key words and phrases.

Remember, the TOEFL iBT is hard. As ar as exams go this might be themost dicult one you have ever taken. Thats OK, it just means that you will

FOREWORD 4


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have to put in a bit o hard work to get a good score.

Ater you have gone through this guide you will have a much better

understanding o how to prepare or the exam, what the exam questionswill be like, and how you should structure your answers or the Writing,Listening, and Speaking sections. I am excited or you, and the skills thatyou are going to develop as you prepare or the test. The reward o a greatscore will be well worth the eort.

Study hard, practice, and good luck!

Best,Sarah MenkedickTESOL

FOREWORD 5


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This guide can be used in dierent ways depending on how much time youhave to prepare.

1 Day:Focus on the reading section, and getting amiliar with the 10 dierentquestion types. I you review these a couple o times, and study theexample questions you will be able to recognize and correctly answersimilar questions on the test tomorrow.

Review how you should be ormatting your writing and speaking responses

and try to give our or ve responses or the list o practice questions.

These are the things you can do to improve your score without reallyimproving your English.

1 Week:

In one week you have time to review all the advice in this guide. You

should spend three or our hours getting comortable with the strategiespresented under each section o the book. Each night spend betweenthree and our hours on the ollowing.

Reading Section

Review the dierent question types and strategies on how to answer them.

Take at least one sample reading test and review the answers. On eachquestion ask yoursel What type o question is this? What is my strategyor answering this question? These sample reading tests are listed in thesection Reading: Online Resources.

Writing Section

Review the sample essays daily and make sure that you understand exactly

INTRODUCTION 6


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how to structure your writing responses or each o the two tasks. Practiceat least two writing tasks per day and compare the structure o yourresponses to the structure diagram provided in this book.Listening Section

Review the listening section o this guide to solidiy what types o thingsyou should be listening or and then spend at least 15 minutes listening toone native English conversation and one lecture.

Take a sample listening test and ater you have nished write down whattypes o questions you encountered, and what types you ound the mostdicult. Spend extra time studying these question types and ormulatingyour strategy. Sample listening tests are listed in the section Listening:Online Resources.

Speaking Section

Each night give two responses or each type o speaking prompt. Practicespeaking in ront o the mirror and trying to ollow the response structureprovided in this book.

1 Month Or More:

The good news is that you havelots o time to prepare, but thatdoesnt mean that you can put ito until the very end.

Set aside daily time to study.

Everyday do at least one o thethings that you will be doingevery night when you have oneweek let (see above). In additionto doing those exercises try eacho the Fast-orward to Fluencytips.

INTRODUCTION 7


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Fast-Forward to Fluency - Tip 1

The TOEFL iBT is a measure o whether you are capable o studying and/or working in the United States. It is meant to test your ability to takeuniversity-level classes and to unction at the level o a native speaker in theUnited States and/or other English-speaking countries.

It is NOT a test o grammar skills, so do not go into the TOEFL expectingto ll in blanks with the correct verb or vocabulary word. You will need tohave a solid grasp o grammar and vocabulary to do well on the TOEFL,but those skills are not what the test is testing.

Rather, the TOEFL is testing your English fuency much more than youraccuracy.

It will require you to have a high level o fuency - the ability to speakwithout constant pauses and hesitations, the ability to iner meaning romcontext (or example, the ability to guess the meaning o a word rom thesentence it is used in), the ability to compare and contrast viewpoints, andthe ability to grasp both the gist (basic meaning) o a lecture or readingpassage and its key points.

In order to prepare or this test, you need to ocus muchmore on developing fuency than accuracy.

How can you do this? Throughout this guide youll nd Fast-orward tofuency tips that will help you enhance your English fuency.

Now, here is your tip. Practice speaking alone in ront o the mirror.

This will help you speak by yoursel or long stretches o time withoutpausing or using a lot o ller words. On the TOEFL you will need to speakor around a minute without stopping. I you dont practice, you might ndyoursel leaving lots o blank spaces in your response. I heard many, manystudents do this when I was grading TOEFL exams. Practice speaking ortwo or three minutes about a subject without stopping and without saying

FAST-FORWARD TO FLUENCY 8


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uh and um too oten. This will greatly increase your fuency and yourspeaking score.

FAST-FORWARD TO FLUENCY 9


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The reading section contains: 3-5 passages and 36-70 questions (12-15questions per passage). You will have 60-100 minutes to complete theentire section.

The reading comprehension section tests your ability to understand brieacademic passages like those you would be asked to read in a universitycourse in the United States.

Tips and Strategies

Now lets take a ew minutes to outline and discuss your strategy on the

Reading section o the TOEFL iBT. Then well look at the various questiontypes that you are going to ace along the way, and discuss how to answerthose question.

Every passage that we encounter on the reading section isgoing to be approached in the same way.

READING 10

Tip: One o the most important things to keep in mind whenstudying the reading section is that the answer to every questioncan be ound in the reading passage. This means you simply need

to fnd the answer, or, depending on the question type, makea logical conclusion based on the inormation provided in thepassage.

1. Scan the passage looking or each o theollowing: Main Idea, Purpose, and Structure.

2. Answer questions based on the easiestquestion types rst.

3. Find the answer by examining the question.

4. Eliminate wrong answers rst.


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WANT MORE? 11Youve reached the end o the TOEFLNOW book preview! As you can seewe have just started to cover the rst

o the our sections o the TOEFL indetail.

The rest o the book is lled withtips and strategies, as well as realTOEFL exam questions, essays, andSpeaking prompts.

To get the rest o the book visit

www.toefnow.com/ebook
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39421688 toefl now ebook 2011 edition preview

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