Finished my TOEFL iBT- Score 112

Hi friends,

I took the TOEFL iBT on the 5th of Aug and received my score on the 12th of Aug.

I scored a total of 112. R-29, L-28, S-26, W-29

Preparation for TOEFL:
I spent about 8-10 days for the preparations.
The books that I used were 1)Official guide for TOEFL 2) Cambridge's book for TOEFL
These were the only TOEFL books available in the public library in my area and I did not want to purchase books for TOEFL. So I picked these two books from the library.
I started my preparation by going through the Official Guide first. That gave me a clear idea about the different sections in the test and also about the type of questions that are generally encountered in each of these sections.

Then I started with the practice exercises from the OG and solved the tests that are given on the CD.
I did not go through the entire Cambrigde book. I just used its CD to solve tests. Cambridge has 7 tests on the CD. I solved 2 full tests. From the remaining tests I just practiced the speaking part.
In short, most of the practice that I did was for the speaking part of the test.

Also I saw some videos by Notefull on You tube. These videos helped me in preparing well for the speaking section.

On the test day:
My test was at 8.00 am. I had a good breakfast before my test. I would recommend everyone to eat well before the test since the test is so long and exhausting.

Once I reached the test center, I filled the form, put my stuff in the locker and went through the security check. Thereafter, I was provided with paper and pencils and escorted to my seat.

The reading section that I got was a little harder than the samples in TOEFL OG. It was more comparable to Cambridge reading sections maybe a little easier than Cambridge. Reading section went by pretty smoothly though I wasn't sure about atleast 3 questions. But I did not spend too much time on them. In the reading section it is important that you keep track of the time and don't get stuck on one particular question for too long.

In the listening section, I got an experimental section. Listening section too went by pretty well.

Then I took the 10 min break.

After the break, I started with the speaking section. I adjusted the volume so that I do not hear the voices of the people aroung me while listening to the speaking tasks and conversations.
While speaking, I could hear the people around me. But I had practiced in a noisy environment. So this was not an issue.

The writing section too went well. I managed to write decently with a word count of more than 400 in the integrated task and word count of more than 600 in the independent task.

So this was some information regarding my preparation and test day experience.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dana and other members for their posts. The posts were not only useful but also very inspiring and they definitely helped me a lot.

Also, I wish all TOEFL test takers good luck. May you all do well.

Thanks!

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