Hello! I can’t say I had a strategy, but I used what I learnt on writing and Reading comprehension for GRE from the Magoosh premium GRE account and adapted it to TOEFL. Also for reading comprehension, in the shorter passages I didn’t read the whole passage, I rather started looking for answers for each question because I was quite pressed for time. And a lot of the questions were about the meaning of words in the context of the passage, but not big GRE words but more basic common words.

Preparing for TOEFL Listening and Speaking

For listening I practiced using Magoosh TOEFL videos on YouTube and did the practice test on ets and sample question set from ets.

For speaking, I practiced using the sample test set from ets and MagooshTOEFL videos. In the exam I used the preparation time before speaking (after hearing the question) to quickly jot down my main points for my response. That ensured I had a bit of clarity and wasn’t all over the place. So I jotted down about 3 points and a key word as a cue for an example I was going to cite. (This is for the first two speaking tasks I think). But for some of the tasks the time was very short I gave 2 points only.

For task 3 and 4, I was paying specific attention to the purpose of the passage (e.g to recap on the discussion from the previous lecture) and then note the main idea and the major points and examples. For the lecture I would take note of how the speaker would define and explain concepts as well as their tone, for instance there were 2 questions about what you think the lecturer thinks about the poetry genre, and to get it you’d have to have paid attention to how he spoke rather than what he said (hope that makes sense).

The main challenge for me in the speaking was time management because I’m not very good at short hand so sometimes I’d miss a point.

TOEFL Writing preparation

For the writing I also looked at the rubric to see what was expected as a good essay. And again I sort of borrowed from the knowledge from the GRE. When reading I skimmed through to the passage because time is short to really delve into it, just to get an idea of the main points. Then when listening to the lecture I noted the points and examples it made that contradicted the main points of the passage. It’s important to look at the main claim or position of the passage and it’s supporting points vs what the lecture states. I will be honest and say I didn’t necessarily note every word of the lecture but those that I did, I put them down word for word, those I didn’t, I just paraphrased what I thought would still state the same point. I relied on MagooshTOEFL for a basic outline of the integrated essay.
Introduction: here you show that you understood the task, mine went something like- While the passage states that the pest blah blah can be contained through various strategies, the lecture present a contrasting view, indicating the limitations and challenges of these strategies thus supporting the view that the blah blah of the pest will always remain a challenge. Below are the points raised in the passage and the lecture. (I don’t quite remember what the topic was but it was about controlling of pests).

Body structure- Firstly, the passage states that the pests can be eradicated by using blah blah, however, the lecture presents a limitation of this strategy as it blah blah blah, therefore cannot blah blah blah. ( I followed the Same for the 2 other paragraphs, just showing contrast between the 2).

Conclusion: In conclusion, while the passage posits that the blah blah pest can be eradicated, the lecture holds a different opinion, citing the limitations of these strategies thereby demonstrating why the blah blah pest will always be a challenge.

The independent essay was similar to GRE format, but I don’t remember what it was about at all but I remember for every point or reason I raised I also gave an example to show that I was deriving from my personal knowledge/experience.

That is all I can say, and I don’t know if it’s any help. But the sample set and Magoosh TOEFL YouTube channel videos are what I used. I bought 2 ets practice tests that I didn’t use because of time.

-- A post by BoiKay Molf