English Language Tests

Hi! My name is Niels, I come from Germany and I want to take the TOEFL next year (in order to be able to apply for int. grad schools). The problem is that my BA classes are in German and I only had English classes in high school. I watch most movies in English though and I'm relatively fluent. Can you say sth about my chances? With a prep book I should make it, right ^^? Thx!!!

any recommendations for prep books? would be really thankful:)

no:(?

Hey,

I´m from Germany, too. I took the IELTS and not the TOEFL but I heard from friends that TOEFL shouldn´t be a problem if you are used to hearing english (e.g. because of watching movies).
Do you read a lot in english? I have been reading english books for years now and that really came in handy when I did the reading comprehension part of my language test.

Hi Cabritilla! Thanks for the response/ danke für die Antwort;)

I do read lots of English magazines and newspapers...mostly online, so that should be an advantage. You really encouraged me!

If you are relatively fluent, then your chances of getting a good score are relatively good!

You just need to study every day. Some study notes:

1. Build up your vocabulary. Use vocabulary flashcards. As many as possible. Build up a stack of vocab cards to use every day. Quiz yourself and when you've mastered words, replace them with some new words.

2. Practice listening. BBC has an ESL page with 6 minute news podcasts which are nice. CNN has a "student news" page which is also nice. You can even try the audio versions of wikipedia articles (do a search... they have a big list of articles that have been recorded) if you want to practice listening to very academic English.

3. Get a TOEFL textbook. Any will do... honestly they are all the same. Just make sure you get one from at least 2006 so it isn't full of the old style questions.

4. I've written a short website with some step-by-step guides and an essay evaluation service (free). Maybe it can help a bit? TOEFL Resource. It will give you a sense of what sort of questions you might face on the test, and how to structure your essays.

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I referred two books from my TOEFL prep.

1. The OG to the TOEFL (by the test makers ETS)
2. Barrons.

I liked Barrons because it had plenty of practice tests. You can also refer to free videos on youtube. There are plenty of videos which give you tips on Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. (I loved notefull.com's videos).

If you are relatively fluent in English, you should be able to make it.

Practice reading English essays, newspapers, scholarly articles. Practice speaking in English (You should be able to speak for at least 30 seconds on any given topic without long pauses, hemming and hawing). Listen to free English lectures online. This should give you the practice you need for the English section. Watching English movies will help but aren't great practice material IMO(Movies are fun and you have the visuals to aid you in your understanding of whats being said.) Practice essay writing. You can write your essays in simple, easy to understand, grammatically correct English. You need not use flowery language to get a high score. I kept my essay simple.

I scored 117.
R-30,L-28,S-29,W-30.