hey guys welcome to lingo Marina today we're going to talk about the TOEFL test as you know I've taken it twice the first time was in 2015 the second time was in 2020 and I scored over 110 each time I took it the first time I scored 117 the second time was a little bit less I think it was 115 or 114 anyways in this video you'll find comprehensive practice tests for the listening and speaking sections and we'll also talk about preparing for TOEFL in less than a month and by the way guys TOEFL prep is not really about learning a language TOEFL prep is all about making sure you understand how the test Works making sure you understand the tasks making sure you actually take a practice test because you need to be able to function when you're stressed when there is a time constraint whenever everyone around you if you're taking the offline version everyone around is freaking out they're taking the test I've been there I know that you know the actual test is so different from everything you do at home but everything you do at home is actually really really helpful so let's dive right into it please welcome the toe full test if you have four weeks until your toal test watch this video carefully because these four weeks can change the whole trajectory you have to be wise about them you have to do things that I'm going to talk about in this video to make sure you feel great during the exam to make sure you're confident during the exam because all of this is really important for you to pass the TOEFL test and score whatever you need to score now your situation is better than mine because when I found out that I had to take tol I also found out that I had to take GMAT and the GMAT test is much more complicated than tol so my study plan looked like this get ready for gmad and if you have some time left get ready for TOEFL so I only had 10 days to prepare for the TOEFL test but the good news is even if you only have two weeks if you only have one week this video is still going to be very useful for you now let's talk about the plan that worked for me worked for the students who watched this Channel and worked for the students who took a tol course week number one you have six items on the list item number one get acquainted with a test make sure you know that it has four parts that they're going to check your Reading Writing listening and speaking skills that there are different types of questions in every section that there are several types of essays that you're going to write that there are several things that you should pay attention to when you're doing the listening section so this is your chance to make sure that you you understand what the TOEFL test looks like task number two and this is super important get acquainted with a strategies that would help you answer questions in the tol test the thing is there are strategies for every section for example the reading section includes three four passages with 10 questions each and you have 54 to 72 minutes depending on how lucky you are depending on how many questions you got to answer all of them and there are different types of questions purpose reference vocabulary and so on and there are different strategies for each question for example to answer rhetorical purpose questions you read the question first you don't really look at the answers you go and find the paragraph in the reading section you start looking for the keyword that's in the question then you read one or two sentences that come before the sentence with that keyword and those sentences would normally con contain the answer the thing is the tofl test is like maths you need to know the strategies you need to know how to answer each type of question because sometimes the texts are so complicated and you just get lost like for me those strategies were game changers my English was pretty good at the time I took the TOEFL test and I was able to score 117 out of 120 but what I think is that without those strategies my grade could have been 100 or even 90 because this is how much knowing those strategies affects your performance task number three find someone who's going to give you feedback now getting ready for the to full test by watching videos on YouTube is a really good strategy and I've made over 10 videos about this test myself however the problem is with the videos you're not getting any feedback for example if you're doing your speaking section there's no one to rate your answer or if you're writing an essay there there is no one to read your essay When I Was preparing for my to full test I actually asked my American friend to look over my essays and he found some mistakes but because he wasn't trained to check tol essays he couldn't give me feedback regarding structure regarding usage of more advanced vocabulary and this is why I would recommend finding a teacher who specializes in the tofl test at lingua trip we have a tol course where Anastasia a profession English language teacher who actually scored 119 on the test she can provide feedback on all of your tasks she has been preparing students for this exam for over 10 years so she knows nearly everything about tol this course has 30 video lessons that are dedicated to each section reading listening writing and speaking and in those videos we share exam hacks we share strategies we give you templates and provide you with different approaches to dealing with each exam task so if you want personal feedback on your speaking and writing section please make sure to select the guru package where Anastasia is going to provide personal feedback and don't forget to use the promo code lingua Marina to get a special discount the link is down in the description box task number four is for you to take a practice test I recommend you take it in one sitting just like on your TOEFL test day just because the exam lasts for 3 hours with a short break between the listening and the speaking sections and things get stressful you need to make sure you had enough to eat you use the restroom like all of that stuff but also you need to learn how to stay focused for 3 hours straight and again I am glad the reading section comes first because this is where you have to be as sharp as possible if you can regulate this but it is just so hard you need to be really focused on your reading section like pay attention to every single word cuz it's super intense it it gets easier with listening but it's still kind of intense and then I think writing is more about your creativity and being attentive versus you know paying attention to every single thing that's going on it's it's more relaxing so I'm actually glad that the test flows the way it flows starts with a reading section then goes on to the listening section then short break then speaking and writing and then you're done number five analyze your weaknesses and strengths after you take your practice test and by the way you can take it on the website ets.org this is the official organization behind the TOEFL test and um what they're going to do they're actually going to show you all of the questions that you got right or wrong so you would actually get your points for the reading and for the listening sections and the maximum that you can get on those sections is 30 so you will see whether it's like 20 out of 30 or 15 out of 30 unfortunately if you don't have a teacher or if you're not enrolled in the course there won't be any feedback on your writing and speaking sections but at least you will be able to practice doing all of them in one sitting now after the practice test I want you to analyze your feelings what was the most difficult thing if you're striving for 100 out of 120 on your toold test then you would need to score at least 25 points on each section right what if you scored 15 out of 30 on your reading section this is where you draw conclusions about what was the most difficult thing for you and then you build the whole preparation process around focusing on the most difficult part first so if reading was the most difficult part then you start every day every class with the Reading part and then you move on to the sections that were easier for you and this is basically task number six start focusing on your weaknesses if your weakness is the reading section and then do it over and over again find more practice tests find more exercises just do them over and over again now week two is all about practicing and working on your weaknesses task number one dedicate one day to each section and start with your weakness take at least two practice tests for that specific section for reading and listening review the wrong answers and practice the types of questions where you made mistakes for speaking and writing pay attention to how much extra help you need with grammar and vocabulary for example if you think about a word during your writing section and you're like I really want to use this word but I forgot its spelling and I actually need to use my dictionary now this is what you pay attention to because you can't use a dictionary during your tol test you rely on your memory and so you do this every day Monday two reading sections Tuesday two listening sections uh Wednesday two speaking sections Thursday two writing sections Friday two reading sections and I will still work on the weekend um so that you have more practice When I Was preparing for my TOEFL those 10 days oh my God they were so intense I think I spent maybe four to 5 hours each day just working on my tol test during this week you would also need to start working on your vocabulary My Philosophy here is that you won't be able to learn English in a month right you just can't so tol will reflect your current knowledge of English but what I also want you to do is to brush up some idioms and vocabulary that you could potentially use in your writing section just because when they check that section they specifically look for more advanced vocabulary I was never able to score 30 out of 30 on my writing section just because I I'm more on the careful side I only try to use words uh that I'm 150% sure of like I know their meaning I know how to spell them and if something sounds a bit unfamiliar to me I wouldn't just use it you can just Google like top 100 words for tol writing or TOEFL speaking select 10 words every day those could be words and phrases that you know already uh it's just for you to brush them up and uh make sure that you use some of them in your writing section we actually asked a couple of native speakers to take the TOEFL test and uh I don't I know anyone who scored 30 out of 30 on writing so our teacher who's a native speaker scored 29 out of 30 this is how tricky it is like for me reading listening and speaking they're like maths writing is a little bit more creative so it's just really hard for a student to get 30 out of 30 but still possible people do that then the next task is for you to create your templates and to learn them to memorize them so that you can use them during your test and there are templates for each question uh in the speaking section and there are templates for the essays in the writing section and task number 10 in our overall list of tasks is to again review your wrong answers figure out why you got it wrong and what you could do to avoid answering those types of questions incorrectly in the future Wick three TOEFL is coming so this week it's all about practice practice and practice one day one section and this is where you also start timing yourself you only have 18 minutes to complete every passage in the reading section so 18 minutes no more no less and I say no less because if you do everything in 15 minutes then go back and check your answers that strategy saved me on my TOEFL test because when I went back I realized I actually answered one question incorrectly and I changed my answer and this is is what got me to 30 out of 30 on the reading section so timing yourself is what you're focusing on during your third week of to full prep and again you focus on your weaknesses and more vocabulary 10 words and phrases each day try to make sentences with them try to select your favorite words and phrases and make sure that you actually use them in your writing and in your speaking sections and week number four I actually recommend you go to the place where you're going to take your tol just to figure out the whole Transportation situation how busy it gets with the traffic how long it takes you to get there um what's the parking situation all of that now this week you stop learning the new vocabulary you just review what you've learned because you don't want to learn any new words that you don't have time to practice because they can actually distract you during your tol test take a couple of full practice steps tests in two sittings so one sitting per test just to mimic the whole experience but don't do that a day before your actual test the day before your actual test you rest you watch a movie in English kind of surround yourself with the atmosphere because I also remember I was taking my I took my TOEFL in Russia so I was surrounded by the Russian language every single day and I wanted to get into those English language uh Vibes just before the test so watched movies I started uh speaking English to myself just to switch on this English speaking mode in my head now I just want to repeat this you need to rest the day before the test because if you're nervous if you didn't sleep well if you didn't eat well this is going to affect you because this is a really high stress environment and you need to be as calm as possible because this is the only way you can focus and again you won't be able to learn English in four weeks you won't be able to learn English in a week but during four weeks you're able to get acquainted with a test get into the right mindset relax and also remember that this is not the end of your life if you don't score what you need to score you can take the test as many times as you want yes it is not free but life is not over if you didn't score whatever you needed but I am pretty sure you're going to do well on the first attempt fingers crossed for you guys all of the resources that I mentioned are going to be linked Down Below in the description box quick addition I think you need a list of phrasal verbs phrasal verbs the ones that you cannot translate so you have to learn them and uh in tol Not only would you hear them in every single section but the test makers expect you to use them in the writing section so you really need to be good with phrasal verbs you need to know what they are how to use them when to to use them and not mix them up so we created a free pdf with phrasal verbs that are useful for tofl and not just for TOEFL cuz we're not learning English just to take TOEFL we learn English to improve our lives the PDF is down below is completely free please download it please take notes of all the phrasal verbs that are new for you print it out highlight the phrasal verbs with a highlighter the ones that you don't know and learn them and start using them the PDF is free the link is down below feel free to download it and start practicing right away today I'm excited to go through the listening part together with you so one of the most important things in the listening section is that you are allowed to take notes and this is a GameChanger you have to take notes and uh the skill that you need to practice like a lot of people are like oh I need to prepare for my listening section Etc the number one skill that you need to work on when you're preparing for your tool full test is actually note taking if you can write down all the details that you hear during the listening section then there is 100% chance you can answer all the questions taking notes so first of all there is this home test toal home test experience and it's in terms of like note taking it was the worst for me because when you're actually taking a test in a test center you are using a real piece of paper with a real pencil so you can write things down when you're at home you need to put your piece of paper into a folder like a transparent file and write with a marker on it and because with a marker your font tends to be bigger you just run out of space and you're not really used to writing on this slippery surface with a marker so that was like one of the disadvantages of taking the test from home they want you to use this transparent file because they want you to erase everything after the test and you can only have one transparent file so you can only use two of the sides without like erasing stuff during the ex them without erasing stuff constantly no that was really hard for me cuz I couldn't take all the notes I wanted to take just because I was running out of space so if you're taking your tofl test from home get yourself a really thin marker um to just have more space there and um not taking is about really taking notes of every single detail like first time uh when I scored 30 out of 30 on listening I took notes of everything every color that they named every student every date and that helped me so much because the questions that you see after the text they're like they're asking for such small things that the author mentioned and I was like how was I supposed to memorize all of that you need to take notes during listening and the more notes you take the more successful you are during your listening section so try to write everything that was my Approach but you can only do that if you're a good note taker if you're not a good note taker that would only distract you so if you feel that you can't really take notes quickly then don't take a lot of notes just uh write down some dates but the best strategy that worked for me is basically writing down the whole text I use some contractions like I I studied mathematics at the University and for any we had this sign and more less like all of the mathematical signs I use them all the time and uh if you practice note taking at home you can come up with some signs for yourself that you can use if you're a mathematician then uh congrats you will know a lot of signs that you can use in your note taking if you study to be a journalist you probably have this skill as well maybe watch some videos on note taking watch some videos on how you can contract well you're writing cuz again this skill it helps in listening it helps in speaking because in speaking you would also listen to someone talking about a topic and then you will need to give your opinion in writing they don't help too much cuz you're typing in writing something that really helps if you're taking the examine a test center just getting used to different keyboards cuz they use really old keyboards in those test centers with like those huge hug I'm I'm just used to my laptop and it's like very thin uh but anyways you need to learn how to take notes in English and going back to the keyboard if you could learn how to type faster if you could learn how to touch type without looking at your keyboard that would also be really useful and this skill would stay with you for your whole life cuz sometimes I feel like when I'm talking about all of those exams I just feel that well it's just it just takes too much time to fair but then I realize like no taking skill is a great skill touch typing skill is a great skill it's going to stay with you throughout your life so learn that as well and if you have plenty of time before your TOEFL test start with those two skills because they would enhance your day-to-day life as well the way the TOEFL works you enter the classroom you do your reading section which is going to exhaust you I promise it is a very intense section so take your time before the listening section take a couple of deep breaths you know forget about your reading session Let It Go stop thinking about the answers that you might have gotten wrong it is fine it's okay you probably got everything right you're doing great now is the time to let everything go and focus in your listening section so breathe in breathe out before we start guys please make sure you have paper and please make sure you have a pen or a pencil so we can practice together for this video I'm using an official free practice listening section on um ets.org website ETS is the company that created to so you're going to be given directions at the beginning of your listening section these directions are available online read them before the test so that again you can take these two minutes while they're reading them out loud and breathe and relax and make sure you're you know you're all ready to to take notes and then we're going to click continue listen to a conversation between a student and a professor hi professor Mason do you have a minute yes of course Eric I think there was something I wanted to talk to you about too probably my late essay ah that must have been it I thought maybe I'd lost it no I'm sorry actually it was my computer that lost it the first draft of it and well anyway I finally put it in your mailbox yesterday oh and I haven't checked the mailbox yet today well I'm glad it's there I'll read it this weekend well sorry again say I can send it to you by email too if you like great I'll be interested to see how it all came out right now um I just overheard some graduate students talking something about a party for Dean Adams retirement party yes all students are invited wasn't there a notice on the anthropology Department's bulletin board uh I don't know but I wanted offer to help out with it you know whatever you need Dean Adams well I took a few anthropology classes with her and they were great inspiring and well I just wanted to pitch in oh that's very thoughtful of you Eric but it'll be pretty lowkey nothing flashy that's not her style so there's nothing no we'll have coffee and cookies maybe a cake but actually a couple of the administrative assistants are working on that you could ask them but I think they've got it covered okay actually oh no never mind what is it well it's nothing to do with a party and I'm sure there are more exciting ways you could spend your time but we do need some help with something we're compiling a database of Articles the anthropology faculty has published there's not much glory in it but we're looking for someone with some knowledge of anthropology who can enter the articles I hesitate to mention it but I don't suppose this is something you would no that sounds kind of cool I'd like to see what they're writing about wonderful and there are also some unpublished studies did you know Dean Adams did a lot of field research in Indonesia most of it hasn't been published yet no like what well she's really versatile she just spent spent several months studying social interactions in Indonesia and she's been influential in ethnology oh and she's also done work in South America that's closer to biology especially with speciation uh not to seem uninformed well how species form you know how two distinct species form from one like when populations of the same species are isolated from each other and then develop in two different directions and end up as two distinct species interesting yes and while she was there in South America she collected a lot of linguistic information and songs really fascinating well I hate to see her leave don't worry she'll still be around she's got lots of projects that she's still in the middle of that was hard why does the man go to see the professor did you answer number one is super tempting uh because the conversation starts with handing in the assignment but actually this is a conversation starter cuz he mentions it and he mentions it's already in the mailbox Etc it's just a small talk then he starts talking about wanting to help with Dean's where are my notes with Dean's retirement party so the right answer here is actually to volunteer to help I organize the event so this is the thing with tofl listening they can try to confuse you so make sure while taking notes and I took um two sheets of notes very you know very basic trying to catch some words that I might forget but it's also important to catch the overall detail of the conversation and this is the question about the overall detail how did the man learn about Dean Adams's retirement actually wrote it down he said something about um students discussing this event so he heard other students discussing it okay next again that was this is kind of clear so this is a very clear um why does the professor refuse the man's offer to help with the party okay here we need two answers two people are already working on it she didn't mention the number actually she prefers that he spent his time the project the party doesn't require much preparation there remember they had this phrase it's going to be a very low key event uh lowkey event means nothing special is going to happen and you know they try to insert those edms in your TOEFL test to make sure you understand them but they also kind of explained the slow key they said it's going to be just coffee and cookies so don't be afraid that you need to know all the idioms for your TOEFL because normally they would have some kind of explanation that you would just need to catch Dean Adams is not permanently leaving the department this is true but this is not why she didn't want to help his help I don't remember about two people but this answer here like I think this this answer number four they're trying to confuse us okay this is hard I would say two people are already working on it because when the professor mentioned that Dean Adams is not permanently living the department she was like because the the student said I'm going to miss her but she's like no don't don't worry she's not permanently leaving the department so it wasn't about the party okay yay we're correct that was tricky I'm glad we had this discussion with you regarding the right answer CU this is how you you know this is how you think because I wasn't sure about the two people I don't remember I remember she said administrate of assistance all working on it maybe she said a couple I don't remember I didn't write that down either but I remember that you know they never discussed him spending time on another project and I'm pretty sure it's not before so I'm glad we did that okay the next question why does the professor talk about speciation oh that was hard because there was so much terminology and so many words that I don't really use in my normal life but the thing is the question asks General about the general information like why they actually talked about it it doesn't ask you what speciation means okay spe to describe the main focus of the work she needs help with no to tell a man the man about a new research area no okay to explain what Dean Adams chose to work on in Indonesia to demonstrate how varied um Dean Adams research has been again number three and number four seem legit now let's talk about what we're going to choose so I remember from the conversation that this is what Dean Adams used to work on in Indonesia but the whole conversation about speciation in Indonesia actually started because she wanted to show the student how different how exciting the work of the professor was cuz she was initially like I don't want you to help with the database CU it's going to be you know just uh manually entering articles in the database but then she's like by the way she did this amazing research research in Indonesia that wasn't published so again the general the more general idea was to demonstrate how varied Dean Adam's research has been like there was no need to explain what she was doing in Indonesia because it was part of this explanation how very Dean Adams research has been again this is a very very tricky question because number three is still right so she expl she was explaining what um Dean Adams was doing in Indonesia but again the purpose was not to explain because the student never never asked for it the purpose was to excite him about helping them with the database oh my God complicated listen again to part of the conversation then answer the question there's not much glory in it but we're looking for someone with some knowledge of anthropology who can enter the articles I hesitate to mention it but I don't suppose this is something you would why does the professor say this I hesitate to mention it but I don't suppose this is something you would well let's answer this question without reading the options why does she say that because she thinks this project is not too exciting she's kind of apologizing and the next phrase would be she she's asking him to join the project interesting to express doubt no to ask the man if he would be willing to work on the project yes this this was the starting phrase to ask him to ask the mentor recommend someone for the project did she ask I don't think so it wasn't even in this part okay to apologize for not being able to off no to ask the man if you would be willing to join correct okay so how was the first part difficult doable the thing is when we talk about tofl prep there are certain tactics and mechanics that you learn then make the whole experience easier you won't really learn English while preparing for the test because you know it's it's a different conversation it's a different topic but test prep is actually super important because you know what to expect you know all the Mind TXS that will help you now let's move on to the next task listen to part of a lecture in a biology class so that's how elephants use infrasound now let's talk about the other end of the acoustical Spectrum sound that's too high for humans to hear ultrasound ultrasound is used by many animals that detect and some of them send out very high frequency sounds so what's a good example yes Carol well bats since they're all blind bats have to use sound for uh you know to keep from flying into things that's echolocation echol location is pretty self-explanatory using Echo reflected soundwaves to locate things as Carol said bats use it for navigation and orientation and what else Mike well finding food is always important and uh I guess not becoming food for other animals right on both counts avoiding other predators and locating prey um typically insects that fly around at night now before I go on let me just respond to something Carol was saying this idea that bats are blind actually there are some species of bats the ones that don't use echolocation that do rely on their vision for navigation but it is true that for many bats their vision is too weak to count on okay so quick summary of how echolocation works the bat emits these ultrasonic pulses very high-pitch sound waves that we can't hear and then they analyze the Echoes how the waves bounce back uh here let me finish this diagram I started before class so the bat sends out these pulses very focused bursts of sound and Echoes bounce back you know I don't think I need to draw in the Echo you're you're reading assignment for the next class it has a diagram that shows this very clearly so anyway as I was saying by analyzing these Echoes the bat can determine say if there's a wall in a cave that it needs to avoid and how far away it is another thing it uses ultrasound to detect is the size and shape of objects for example one Echo they'd quickly identify is the one they associate with a moth which is common prey for a bat particularly a moth beating its wings however moths happen to have a major advantage over most other insects they can detect ultrasound this means that when a bat approaches The Moth can detect the bat's presence so it has time to escape to safety or else they can just remain motionless since um when they stop beating their wings they'd be much harder for the bat to distinguish from oh a leaf or or some other object now we've tended to underestimate just how sophisticated the abilities of animal animals that use ultrasound are in fact we kind of assumed that they were filtering a lot out um the way a sophisticated radar system can ignore Echoes from stationary objects on the ground radar does this to remove ground clutter information about um Hills or buildings that it doesn't need but bats we thought they were filtering out this kind of information because they simply couldn't analyze it but it looks as if we were wrong recently there was this experiment with trees and a specific species of bats a bat called the Lesser spear noosed bat now a tree should be a huge acoustical challenge for a bat right I mean it's got all kinds of surfaces with different shapes and angles so well The Echoes from a tree are going to be a massive chaotic acoustic Reflections right not like the echo from a moth so we thought for a long time that bats stopped their evaluation at simply that's a tree yet it turns out that that bats or at least this particular species can not only tell that it's a tree but can also distinguish between say a pine tree and a deciduous tree like a maple or an oak tree just by their leaves and when I say leaves I mean pine needles too any ideas on how it would know that well like with the moth could it be their shape you're on the right track it's actually the echo off all the leaves as a whole that matters now think a pine tree with all those little densely packed needles those produce a large number of faint Reflections in what's what's called as a smooth Echo the waveform is very even but an oak which has fewer but bigger leaves with stronger Reflections produces a jagged waveform or what we call a rough Echo and these bats can distinguish between the two and not just with trees but with any Echo that comes in a smooth or rough shape what is the lecture mainly about oh my God okay how animals emit ultrasonic pulses how bad use acoustic signals canar some of echolocation radar no variations am bats and use of no again the general question here what is the lecture mainly about pay attention to mainly guys one quick thing when you're doing your listening test you have to be 150% present like if you're thinking about a chocolate if you're thinking about lunch or something else you're going to miss details and you're going to to miss key words in a question now here we're looking at a question what is the lecture mainly about so in general the lecture is about ultrasound and how animals communicate they talk about bats and they also mention elephants but again we're talking about mainly what is the lecture mainly about and mainly we heard about bats using acoustical sounds why does the Professor decide not to add more information to the diagram on the board I knew they going to ask this the thing is when they have this small conversation that is not related to the topic that is about something general like oh I'm not going to show you this diagram cuz you're going to get this assignment try to write that down because and I did it like next assignment show that diagram and she's not going to do it cuz there is 100% chance there's going to be a question about it so why does the professor decide not to add more information to the diagram she stents to complete the diagram that's themselves in assignment she needs to look up some information in order to complete the diagram no the additional information is not relevant to the topic I say this um I was kind of hesitant about this because uh I don't really quite remember the details again if you don't have a clear answer right away try to go through every option and um eliminate the options that you don't like I'm glad we have all the time in the world when we're doing the test practice um again just practice those skills she wants students to complete the diagram themselves as an assignment I don't remember that I think she she said that there was something in the textbook she needs to look up some information no this not true additional information is not relevant to the topic that she wants to discuss next not really so four would be the right answer okay next next according to the professor what are two ways in which a moth might react when it detects the presence of a bat okay the moth might stop beating its wings yes she didn't mention that the moth might emit high frequencies that sounds No The Moth might leave the area yes the moth might change its color to match the I think it's pretty clear yeah okay that was easy right because they do not emit high frequency sounds and The Moth might change its color nothing about that okay what surprising information did a recent experiment reveal about lesser spear noosed bats oh lesser spear noosed bats they went ahead and they talked about there we go they also try to numerate your papers cuz I did numerate them and I don't know which comes first but I think this was one this was two this this was this was two this was three anyway just to know where you are with your notes okay they filter out Echoes they can analyze Echoes from stationary objects with complex surfaces they can't analyze jaged Echoes that's not true they cannot analyze Echoes from certain types of SM no the the whole thing was about they can analyze Echoes from stationary objects with complex surfaces because they can Sur surfaces cuz they can yeah tell what kind of tree they have in front of them according to the Professor why does a pine tree produce a smooth Echo cuz there are many Pines because it has smooth trunk no it has large branches spaced at regular interval no yeah it has many small densely packed needles correct listen again to part of the lecture then answer the question now now before I go on let me just respond to something Carol was saying this idea that bats are blind why does the professor say this now before I go on let me just respond to something Carol was saying that was the moment when I kind of faded away um so here I would choose the second one cuz I remember she was like oh not every not all bats are blind something like that and that is correct okay listen to a conversation between a student and a registar h hi I'd like to drop off my graduation form I understand you need this in order to process my diploma okay I'll take that um before you leave let me check our computer uh looks like you're okay for graduation and H actually I'm getting a warning flag on your academic record here really yeah let's let's see what's what okay are you familiar with our graduation requirements uh I think so well then you know you need 48 credits in your Major Field to graduate and at least 24 credits at the intermediate level or higher also after your second year you have to meet with your department chair to outline a plan for the rest of your time here in the past we also issued letters before a students final year began to let them know what they needed to take in their final year to be okay but we don't do that anymore I definitely met with my chairperson two years ago uh he told me that I needed 8 more courses at the intermediate level or higher in the last two years to be okay so I'm not sure what the problem is I made sure I got those credits unfortunately the computer's usually pretty reliable so I'm not sure what's going on here it could be that I've taken two basic courses but coupled both of them with uh field experiences what do you mean well I could only take intro courses because there were no intermediate level courses available for those particular topics my chairperson told me that if I did independent field Research In addition to the assigned work in each course they would count as intermediate level courses my classmates um well some of my classmates did this for an easy way to meet their intermediate course requirement uh but I did it to get the kind of depth in those topics I was going for as it turned out I really enjoyed the field workor it was a nice supplement to just sitting and listening to lectures I'm sure that's true but the computer's still showing them as basic level courses despite the fieldwork I'm not sure what to do then I mean should I cancel my graduation party no no reason to get worried like that just contact your chairperson immediately okay uh tell them to call me as soon as possible so that we can verify your fieldwork Arrangement and certify those credits right away it's not like there's an actual deadline today or anything but if more than a few weeks go by we might have a real problem that would be very difficult to fix in time for you to graduate in fact there probably would be nothing we could do I'll get on that okay to drop off The Graduate form yeah to submit a document required for graduation I just wanted to tell you guys then whenever it's um a conversation that is not a lecture when it's like oh when is my graduation party or some it's super relaxed like convers General conversation about student life so it's when you relax I'm glad um we got it last okay yes according to the registar what step is currently taken to ensure that students fulfill their graduation requirements crackers are checked no okay students meet with the Department chairperson to plan their C course work yes academic recers are regularly checked by the regist office I don't think so students receive letters listing the courses and they te Le toate now this is important that she I actually wrote this down that there used to be letters but they don't do it anymore always when they give some unnecessary detail about what happened in the past and is no longer happening there's going to be a question or like one of the answers that is wrong um so no this is not true warning letters are sent no so student meet with a department chairperson correct um why does the man mention his classmates oh remember he wanted to say that some of his classmates use field work uh in order to make it easier for them uh to qualify for intermediate to show that it's difficult to get intermediate level credits to emphasize as a motivation to do okay now remember this whole conversation he mentions classmates in order to show that some people do field work in order to qualify for intermediate level but still take basic courses right let's think two basic courses field experience I'm looking through my notes he did it for the depth he mentioned not to make it easier okay let's go through every answer to explain how he obtained information about field research he met with a department chair and uh I think he this this is the way he found out to point out that many students like to do field research no to show that it is difficult to get intermediate level credits he didn't talk about difficulty to emphasize his motivation to do field research in two of his courses yeah he's like other people are doing it because it's easy but I I am doing doing this for the science this answer okay why does the registar tell the man to contact his chairperson immediately if I remember the conversation I try to answer the question in my head and then read the options uh because uh the chairperson needs to call the registar and explain that uh field work actually qualifies for intermediate level the men has a limited oh and they talking about the man first needs to find out of share No issuing a new grade might take longer than expected and yeah I think the whole thing was the man has a limited time to resolve his problem because she mentions that if he takes longer than a few weeks uh they might have a big problem yep listen again to part of the conversation then answer the question I'm not sure what the problem is I made sure I got those cred credits unfortunately the computer's usually pretty reliable so I'm not sure what's going on here what does the registar imply when she says this unfortunately the computer's usually pretty reliable so I'm not sure what's going on here uh she needs more information about man's credits uh because she's concerned about the Rel reliability of the computer no she will approve the man's form despite her doubts about it no three is right she needs to call someone to help her fix computer errors errors no okay so how was it after this listening part you're going to go on a break and you're going to relax and you're going to forget about everything you're going to breathe you're going to eat your chocolate uh then you're going to come back earlier and you're going to get ready for your speaking part because you need those templates but this is um a different conversation we actually have all the templates uh in our tol course it's if you want to take that the link will be down below thank you so much guys for joining me for this test experience today I really enjoyed it uh I love these like if you're taking your TOEFL test soon let me know what is your main problem what is your main struggle so I could focus on it in my next videos again I love taking tests and I'm glad you're watching this channel to take your TOEFL test speaking is something that you know a lot of people are afraid of but hopefully this video will put you at ease hopefully this video will make you're more confident in your speech because there are a few things uh that you can learn before the test and if you spent enough time preparing even just by watching this video it will be a lot easier for you to take the test now we're going to go through actual TOEFL speaking questions um but before we dig deeper into the actual questions I want to work with your mindset I don't know um but anyways I want you to stop and uh realize that if you're starting this tol prep that means you're done with actually learning English your TOEFL prep has nothing to do with learning grammar learning new words yes you might refresh some itms in your memory because you want to use them during your writing part because this is where they really pay attention to your beautiful language and also during your speaking part if you say things like oh this trip was good my friends thought it was good and I thought it was good of course that sounds a little bit boring and of course test makers want you to speak using different words now what you also need to remember that test makers don't want you to fail I want to tell you the story uh I actually freaked out during my first tol test because you know my life depend kind of depended on it because I needed to score 106 to get into my dream University and during the speaking part there was a question like talk about you city or something something really basic and you have 45 seconds to speak and I was looking at the screen and I was talking and when I was just wrapping up my answer my brain was like oh let's said this thing but then my brain was also like let's just you know stop here and then I ran out of time so the way I wrapped up that answer was uh and know was it and my first thought was you know I failed because I thought they were going to punish me for not finishing my answer with a conclusion turns out that didn't really matter and I got 30 out of 30 so I want you to realize is that the structure of the test is super predictable we're going to go through it you're going to know exactly how the questions look and you're going to know exactly how to structure your answer and it's okay if you don't finish your question number one with a conclusion it's totally fine but it's not okay if you use the word good good 15 times in your answer try to think of Alternatives right also test makers want you to sound as natural as possible so if you pause if you think for a couple seconds that's totally okay they don't want all the students to become robots who speak as if their are voices generated by Ai No mistakes no bosses everything is super nice and clean no they don't want that they want real humans so just again relax because when we're relaxed our language just flows out of us you just sound more natural oh and another thing I wanted to add is that I took my toe full test before starting this Channel and my speech was so much worse anyways let's get into it let's um please get ready uh I need you to take a piece of paper and want you to take a pen because this is something you're allowed to do during the exam and I really want you to take advantage of that because you're going to write things down now I'm going to use a link that's in my description so you can go ahead and check it out later after this video so there is a website called ets.org ETS is a company behind the tol test and they have a free practice test on their website this is exactly what we're going to use for this video we're going to go and take the actual practice test now in this video I will give you some templates some phrases that you can learn so you can start your answers to different questions and you can also find all of the templates that I use that my teachers have created um on the website called lingua trip which is my company where professional teachers will help you prepare for tofl and I've also recorded some classes for you about my own experience but anyways what I want you to do is I want you to take those templates or whatever templates you have and when TOEFL starts you're going to see this screen I'm going to look at my computer so don't get confused and they're going to give you some directions for the speaking section now they are the same all the time nothing changes so basically this is your free time if you read the if you read the speaking section directions before the test then during the test I want you to use your paper to write down templates for four questions and this is exactly what I did during my tests for the first question you don't have templates for the other questions you do have templates so we're not going to do this now just because um Also regarding templates um use the ones that are more natural for you don't try to use something really sophisticated just because you saw it on our list of templates don't do it because again you want to sound as natural as possible and they're going to read you all of these directions and you're going to write down your templates okay now let's start with question number one it's a question about a familiar topic I was asked about my city or something and I always ask about something really you know something really familiar something you encounter in your daily life and here you just speak clearly speak your heart out no structure just just talk okay State whether you agree or disagree with the following statement then explain your reasons using specific details in your explanation learning through online courses is more effective than learning in the traditional classroom setting If This Were an actual test question you would have 15 seconds to prepare your response and 45 seconds to record your response now let's answer this question together uh there are definitely pros and cons to both right I can argue that online learning is better you can argue that offline education is something that you strive for anyways it doesn't matter doesn't matter what you just answer okay in my opinion online learning is more effective than learning in the traditional environment for several reasons reason number one is that you can learn anything from home you don't have to travel you don't have to apply for a Visa you don't have to move to another country everything is accessible from your computer your laptop or your phone the second reason is that online classes tend to be more affordable compared to offline learning that means you can learn a lot more for the same amount of money and reason number three is that online education is more accessible for moms if they have to stay home with their kid they could potentially learn something new at the same time and this is where you can wrap up you can say this is why I think um online education is better or you can just stop right there that's it this is your answer okay by the way it's not just me providing these answers I also asked our teacher Anastasia to give feedback about my answer whether it was well structured whether I made some mistakes and overall to grade me according to toal grades she has helped so many students get over 100 so I am excited to see what she thinks about my answers Marina's answer is effective as she responded directly to the question in her opening thesis and presented clear arguments that support her main idea there were no serious grammar errors and her pronunciation and intonation were good rather than using reason number one it's more natural to Simply say first you can't providing two well elaborated reasons is better than giving three Rush reasons for example Marina could have elaborated on one of the examples by sharing a personal experience of successful online learning repetition is another issue Marina repeated learn six times online three times and reason four times which will be reflected in the AI report having two reasons here would have helped to to avoid excessive repetition I also recommend avoiding repetitive sentences such as you don't have to do this you don't have to do that and using well-developed sentences instead finally Marina should avoid taking long pauses as they will heard the AI score the things that I wrote down for myself in my opinion this is like my super small template in my opinion and then one to three three reasons again you only have 15 seconds so you don't really have time to write down your reasons just maybe think of them okay reason number one affordable reason number two saves time reason number three I'm a mom so yeah let's uh let's say that it's it's better for a mom that's it and then you just um uh speak your heart out so this is the way you answer question number one I highly highly highly highly recommend you to practice um if you can just uh switch on uh timer on your phone and just talk about like anything uh a book that you've read a movie that you want why is it a good movie why is it a bad movie movie Give two or three reasons why you think travel is good why you think travel is bad like whatever just practice those 45 second answers to time yourself and get comfortable with the overall time pressure again this exam kind of has nothing to do with real life but it's a stressful situation it's something that you train and something that you get good at if you practice now let's move on to the second question in the second question you're going to read an article and you're going to listen to a conversation and then you have to report on what you've heard now here I strongly suggest that you take notes and something I strongly suggest as well is that you practice taking notes in a stressful environment sometimes you create your own contractions for Words some sometimes people create their own symbols I don't know whatever you're going to do just do it before the exam so that it's easier for you to take those notes you have 30 seconds to prepare and 60 seconds to answer read the article from a University newspaper you will have 50 seconds to read the article begin reading now now listen to a conversation between two students hey Sue did you see this article yeah I did I don't think that's a very good idea really you don't think it's a safety hazard like they said No at least not during the day I'm pretty sure both of those accidents happened at night when it's harder to see cyclists they didn't say that in the article oh that does make a difference sure it does maybe at night with low visibility there's a safety hazard but I don't think there's any danger in the daytime which is when most people need to move around and get to classes yeah that makes sense besides it's such a big campus if they do this it's going to be really hard to get around well we can always take the bus I guess but the buses only run once an hour that's true they're not very convenient no not at all if people have to take the bus we'll end up sitting around waiting for the next one all the time and we're all too busy to waste our time doing that the woman expresses her opinion of the proposed policy change State her opinion and explain the reason she gives for holding that opinion if this were an actual test question you would have 30 seconds to prepare your response and 60 seconds to record your response now when you're listening pay attentions to the reasons for the speaker's opinions I made some notes uh when I read the article and also also made some notes uh when Sue was talking now you need to write down some key words in phrases opinions and why someone had this or that opinion now all of this sounds like a typical American college You Know M us for some reason uh well no one wants to be liable for anything I'm going to start a timer for 60 seconds and we're going to answer this question according to the article the university management is going to ban bicycles on campus because there have been minor accidents and the management believes that bicycles can threat students safety on campus and they suggest that students start using buses instead of bicycles one of the students however disagrees with this new policy and she has several reasons for that reason number one is that she thinks those accidents have happen during the night when visibility is low and she states that when students can see everything during daytime there are no accidents so why ban the bicycles another reason why she disagrees with this new policy is that the solution that the university suggests doesn't really work for her she mentions that buses only run once an hour and the campus is huge which means there will be a lot of waiting and a lot of time wasted this is why Sue doesn't does like the new policy okay should be good so here you actually have the structure did you notice that uh I mentioned what we've read in the article I mentioned that Sue disagreed and I also gave a couple of reasons why she disagreed and then I wrap Top This is why Sue doesn't like this new policy that's it it's important to keep the reading summary to about 15 seconds for question type two most of the score comes from summarizing the listening task so it would have been better to say according to the announcement the university will soon ban the use of bikes on campus since they are a safety hazard and the free Campus bus service is an alternative way to get around it's also possible to shorten the transition too the woman disagrees with this policy short and sweet as in question one we don't need reason number one let's change it to first she thinks that there is no need to introduce a conclusion Marina could have used this time to add more details she could have mentioned that people really need to get around during the day and the campus is really big these are both details from the woman's first reason that weren't included in the answer she could have also added they're too busy to sit around waiting to the woman's second reason so it's all about introducing more details from the audio other than that the organization is good the grammar and delivery are excellent okay question number how are you doing by the way if it sounds complicated it's okay you practice all right and also something that you need to remember is that if your English is intermediate but you want to score over 100 which means Advanced on tofl it is not a very realistic goal if you only have a couple of weeks right if your English is intermediate but you need over 100 you need to stop your toal prep now take a general English course improve your speaking in general improve your vocabulary improve your grammar and then come back and do the TOEFL prep if your English is Advanced and you need to score over 100 all you need is like a couple weeks to prepare for to cuz you just need to get acquainted with the structure of the test you need to get acquainted with what it looks like with the topics with the language like and and then that's it you just take the test okay we're moving on to questions three and four they're more academic and they might cover topics that you're not familiar with like psychology economics biology biology has always been hard for me or like ancient history I've never really studied ancient history and when it's in English it's like a double threat uh for me anyways we're all students here so we're going to move on to question number three and four what I suggest for these questions and for tofl in general read as many academic articles as possible uh watch BBC YouTube videos watch TED Talks just to get acquainted with uh terminology in question three you're going to read a passage about an academic term or concept then you listen to a lecture about the same topic you'll have 30 seconds to prepare and 60 seconds for speaking they're not generous with their timing at all well here please take notes like this is where things get a little bit complicated not as complicated as in reading reading is the hardest part for me because it's super stressful you know your test just starts speaking is easier but if you hear some terms write them down if you hear some facts numbers write them down and remember this is an English language test test not a chemistry test not a psychology test they do not expect you to know everything on the topic they just expect you to speak good English that's it all right and next Now read the passage from a psychology textbook psychology you have 45 seconds to read the passage begin reading now now listen to part of a lecture on the topic in a psychology class this happens all the time with kids in schools say there's a little boy or girl who's just starting school well they're not really used to the rules about proper behavior for a classroom so at the beginning they might I don't know interrupt the teacher walk around the classroom when they're supposed to be sitting down you know just misbehaving in general okay but what happens well the teacher gets angry with them when they act this way they might get punished they have to sit at their desks when everyone else is allowed to go outside and play and they certainly don't like that soon they'll learn that this kind of behavior gets them in trouble they'll also learn that when they raise their hand to talk to the teacher and sit quietly and pay attention during class they're rewarded the teacher tells the she's proud of them and maybe puts little happy face stickers on their homework now that their behavior gets a good reaction from the teacher the kids learn to always act this way in class and not behave the way they used to using the example from the lecture explain what behavior modification is and how it works if this were an actual test question you would have 30 seconds to prepare your response and 60 seconds to to record your response the text introduces the concept of behavior modification it states that if after some action a person experiences positive reaction then the person will continue with these actions however if he or she receives negative reaction they will modify their behavior in order to maximize positive reaction the professor explains this concept with an example of kids who just start at school if kids start walking around when they're not allowed to if they start interrupting the teacher they get negative consequences and they don't like it so they eventually modify their behavior however if they listen to the teacher if they raise their hand when they want to answer they get a sticker with a happy face from the teacher they get a positive reaction and this way they learn how to always act in a way that gets a positive reaction from a teacher this is how the the professor explains the concept described in the article my notes as always regarding question three the summary of the reading text is way too long Maria spent about 25 seconds on that when 15 is the recommended amount it's better to say the reading is about behavior modification which is when we change our Behavior based on our knowledge of its consequences I liked the transition to the lecture summary also nice use of so as a conjunction and however as a transition there is no need for a conclusion at the end instead it's better to just include additional details from the lecture for instance Marina could have said the teacher gets angry and students are punished instead of just saying there are negative consequences she could have mentioned that when they act nicely the teacher says he or she's proud of them basically a few more straight details could have been added if Marina cut the conclusion and short in the reading summary that would increase her topic development score from the human Raider and probably improve the vocabulary score from the AI the delivery remains fantastic but it's important to watch out for pauses they are infrequent but if your target score is high every bid matters the AI score will definitely be way lower than the human score for this question and it's entirely because of vocabulary marinas should avoid repeating they and if they it's possible to say when it's not permitted instead of when they're not allowed to or start interrupting instead of if they interrupt and raise their hand instead of If they raise their hand our last question and then we're done listen to part of a lecture in a business class if a consumer has to choose between two products what determines the choice assume that someone a purchaser is choosing between two products that cost the same okay if people have a choice between two identically priced products which one will they choose they choose the one they think is of higher quality of course but what does it mean for a product to be a highquality product well business analysts usually speak of two major factors of quality one factor is reliability and the other is what we call features so reliability what's reliability well a product is reliable if it works the way we expect it to work if it can go a reasonable amount of time without needing repairs if a product a car for example doesn't work the way it should and needs repairs too soon we say it's unreliable so product reliability means basically the absence of defects or problems that you weren't expecting it used to be that when people thought about product quality they thought mainly about reliability today it's different people do still care about reliabil ility don't get me wrong it's just that manufacturing standards are now so high that we'll take cars for example today today's cars are very reliable so reliability is important but it's not going to be the deciding factor so if reliability isn't the deciding factor anymore what is features all those extras the things a product has that aren't really necessary but that make it easier to use or that make it cool for example new cars today are loaded with features like electric windows sunroofs air conditioning stereos and so forth when people are comparing products today they look at features because reliability is pretty much equal across the board and that's why manufacturers include so many features in their products using points and examples from the lecture explained the two major factors of product quality and how their role in consumer decision making has changed if this were an actual test question you would have 20 seconds to prepare your response and 60 seconds to record your response at the beginning of the lecture Professor describes what determines consumer's choice if the cost of two products is the same of course if the cost is the same the consumer is going to choose a high quality product and she says that a higher quality product product is characterized by reliability and features by reliability she means that the product works the way we expect it to work by features she means that the product is cool however the professor mentions that today things have changed and she provides examples from the car industry cars in general became very reliable because of manufacturing process this is why most of consumers make their choices based on features whether the car has a stereo or any other things that make it cool all in all the professor mentioned mentions that cars are more reliable nowadays so reliability is no longer a deciding feature in terms of the structure I think Bina wasted too much time at the beginning introducing the general theme I recommend saying the lecture describes two things that help customers choose between two similar products first and go into detail the score is based on your ability to summarize the two things from the lecture so it's important to focus on those test takers who waste too much time at the beginning won't be able to include many details related to those two things which is what happened in this answer because of the poor structure Marina wasn't able to include many details she barely talked about what makes a car reliable how a reliable car doesn't need many repairs and about the kinds of features that make a car great so the key to this question is to focus almost exclusively on the two things mentioned in the lecture the things I liked about this answer are an effective use of this is why as a transition solid delivery and good grammar to get a high score for this question type it's important to use transitional phrases like as a result consequently moreover for example and therefore Focus mostly on the examples and use a mix of simple and compound sentences overall this will score a solid 25 it's important to keep in mind that your toal speaking score May fluctuate depending on the question topics you get this attempt was non Marina's best however with more practice she can easily achieve a score of 30 which she has accomplished previously here are a few tips for those who want a high score number one speak fluently and without hesitation to maximize your score this will really please the automated scoring software number two use descriptive words and avoid redundancy to increase the vocabulary score given by the AI number three when answering integrated questions provide as much detail as possible from the listening tasks for questions 3 and four spend 15 seconds summarizing the reading and then move on to discuss discussing the listening task and number four speak clearly and with good intonation make sure your pronunciation and intonation do not hinder comprehension Marina does not have a problem with this but I know many students who lose points due to poor pronunciation thank you guys so much for watching this video up to the very end thank you so much Anastasia for providing feedback if you're interested in watching more classes that can help you prepare for the test please check out the link in the description and please once you take the test you know once you get your results come back and share them in the comment section I'd love to hear back from you bye