General

The TOEFL is a test that will take up to 3 ½ to 4 hours to complete. 40 minutes are reserved for the tutorial. Tip 1: Make sure you make good use of the time for the tutorial. By this I mean that this time can be used to your advantage. If you prepare and do the tutorial beforehand, this is less time you will spend in front of the computer and you will be less tired when the real questions begin. If you have a computer available to you before the test, you can download and do the tutorial ahead of time.

The test itself, being administered with the help of a computer, adapts the next block of questions depending on how well you do a block of questions. For example, if you do really well on one block, the difficulty of the next questions will be increased, to be able to further evaluate your performance. Do not assume that if a block is more difficult to you that in fact you did very well on the previous block. Questions may appear more difficult, and there is no way for you to know where the difficulty level is. So do not worry about that, focus on the questions only. Also, several questions will be included in your test that will not be scored. Questions are constantly being updated, and before they make it to the test they have to be evaluated first. Again, there is no way to know which of the questions are the research ones, so do not worry about that and treat all questions as if they are scored. Tip 2: Assume all questions are scored.

Listening

This is often the most feared area. The number of questions varies from 30-49 and there will be anywhere from 40-60 minutes for you to finish the whole session.
Sometimes the center administering the test does not have the perfect environment. There will be people walking in and out, and some people may ask for assistance, make noise and such. Tip 3: close your eyes when listening to the conversation, but read the question at the same time they are being read to you. This will help you get comfortable with the headphones, and adapt to the tone of voice. Also, it will avoid distracters.

Reading

You have 70-90 minutes to finish this section. The best way to excel in this part is if you quickly scan the text first. Read the first sentence of each paragraph. With that, you will have an idea about what the text is about. Some idea about whom is writing it. In the conclusion paragraph you can know what the point of the text is. With that information, move on to the questions, and read them quickly, again to get an idea of what the test is looking for: is it the subject of the text? The writer’s opinion? Others? Next go back to the text. Now read carefully through each paragraph and move on to answer the questions. By following this sequence, you will do a more focused reading and concentrate what the questions want. Tip 4: for the Reading part, scan the text, scan the questions, read the text and answer the questions, in this sequence.

Writing

If you are a good typist, definitely take the writing test in the computer. Otherwise, use the standard paper method.
Start by looking at the topic and add one word for each paragraph you will write.

OR

4 paragraphs are enough for you to pass. Then put your ideas together and add 1 more word or short sentence to each paragraph:

Now that you have your 4 paragraphs with the content of each paragraph, write the sentences. This approach is very efficient and easy to master. Tip 5: use the structured approach to writing an essay.


Summary of tips