Tips Para Toefl

TOEFL Tips

These are some simple strategies that I try to teach to my students who are going to present the TOEFL exam. For the majority of them, the strategies have worked and increased their score on the exam. I do not consider these strategies to be difficult, only logical. Please consider them, practice them, and try them – maybe they will work for you too!


Part I – Listening SectionThere are 3 parts to this section – short, medium and long conversations.

1. Short Conversations
➢ Remember, this is the Listening Section, so LISTEN – don’t read the exam (questions or answers)!
➢ When the speaker asks a question (example – “What can be inferred from the conversation?” or “What does Julie want to do?”), answer the question in your mind first!➢ When you have an answer in your mind, look for the most similar answer from the options available on the exam – this is probably the correct answer!
➢ If you can’t answer the question the speaker asks, try to eliminate the available options that you consider to be wrong, and then guess the best one!


2. Medium and Long Conversations
➢ In this part, you can use theexam to help you BEFORE the conversation begins.
➢ When the instructions for this section are being given by the speaker, quickly read the questions and available options – familiarize or get to know the context of the conversations.
➢ Try to imagine (after reading the questions and answers) what the conversation will be about – this is like having a map when you are goingto an unfamiliar place for the 1st time – a map always helps!
➢ Listen carefully to the conversations – there will be KEY WORDS that relate the conversations to the questions and answer choices you have previously read on the exam.
➢ When the speaker asks the questions, do the same as in the short conversations – try to answer the question in your mind first before lookingat the answers!

Part II – Grammar and Written Expression

There are normally two types of questions in this section – identify the correct part of the sentence, and identify the incorrect part of the sentence. The strategy for both these parts is the same.

➢ This is kind of like a formula you might see in math:
S + V + C = SENTENCE
(subject) (verb) (compliment)Just like in a math question, the variables (S,V,C) can be different words and phrases, and can appear in a different order to produce a sentence.
S + V + C = SENTENCE
OR
C + S + V = SENTENCE
OR
C + V + S = SENTENCE
etc.

➢ The idea is to identify each of these parts, so you know where everything is located. This willhelp you to check the parts of the sentence and to look for errors.
➢ For example, you might want to do something like this to start:
o Identify the subject –
▪ Is it singular or plural?
▪ Are there pronouns used in the sentence to identify the subject?
▪ Do they agree with the subject in number? (Subject singular = Pronoun singular, etc.)o Identify the verb or verbs in the sentence
▪ Which is the principle or main verb?
▪ Does it agree in number with the subject?
▪ What is the verb’s function (to report, to show action, describe human senses, etc.)
▪ When is the action taking place? (past, present, future, etc.)
▪ Is their verb parallelism? (are allthe related verbs in the same form? i.e. infinitive, -ing, participle, etc.)
o Identify the object
▪ Is it singular or plural?
▪ Is it a direct object (receives action) or indirect object?
▪ Are their pronouns that replace the object in other parts of the sentence? Do they agree in number with the object?
➢ Use PROCESS OF ELIMINATION...