(This lesson was updated in March 2017.)

The TOEFL is one of the most difficult tests you will ever take in your life! You need to study hard to get a high score on the TOEFL. Here is a list of ten things that will help you get the highest score possible on the TOEFL iBT, and fulfill your dream of studying at an English-speaking university.

 

1. Make sure you understand the TOEFL!

The TOEFL is the Test of English as a Foreign Language. It is an English proficiency test produced by an American company called ETS. It measures your English reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills, and your ability to succeed at an English-speaking university.

Each section has a score out of 30, for a total overall score of 120. You don’t pass or fail the TOEFL. Each university requires a specific score. Sometimes universities require a specific score for each section of the test, for example 24 out of 30 in the speaking section. Before you begin studying for the TOEFL, research the universities you want to attend and find out what score you need.

You can read more about the test content here.

There are A LOT of resources available to help you learn about the test and help you study for the test. Here are some resources available on the ETS TOEFL website:
TOEFL Go Anywhere
TOEFL Tips
Sample TOEFL questions

 

2. Be prepared!

You should give yourself 6 months to 1 year to be fully prepared for the test, especially if you have never taken the test before.

When you sit down at the computer to take the test, nothing should be a surprise. You should know every reading question, every listening question, every speaking task, and every writing task on the test. You should know exactly what you have to do to answer every question properly.

You should also know the exact score you need to achieve for each university you want to apply to. Some schools require just an overall TOEFL score, but some schools require specific scores in each section. You should know exactly what you need to do get the required score.

Do not try to prepare for the test alone. Buy a textbook (see my recommended books in the Resources section below.) Work with a teacher, either in a course or in private lessons. You need someone to help you with your pronunciation, and to assess how you’re doing in the speaking and writing sections. Talk to friends who have taken the TOEFL. Who did they study with? What score did they get? What would they have done differently? Check at a university or college near you. Do they offer a TOEFL course? There are also several TOEFL instructors online. Do you know anyone who has studied with them?

 

3. Read Everything. Listen to Everything.

On the TOEFL you will read passages or listen to lectures on everything from astronomy and American history to psychology and biology!

When you are studying for the TOEFL, it is not good enough to just listen to and read things that you enjoy and are interested in. You need to build your vocabulary, so you need to read about a variety of topics.

Four excellent resources on the Internet are BBC News, NPR, Ted Talks, and VOANews. Many of the articles on the VOA and NPR websites also have .mp3 files, so you can listen at the same time.

Here are some resources to get you started:
Business: BBC, NPR, The Economist, TED Talks

Science, health, and the environment: NPR, BBC (Nature), BBC (Science & Environment), BBC (Health), VOA (Technology), VOA (Science & Health), TED Talks (Science), TED Talks (Technology)

Arts, entertainment, and history: BBC (Entertainment & Arts), BBC (History), NPR, VOA, TED Talks

If you have just started studying for the TOEFL and it is difficult for you to read (or listen to) some of the resources above, that’s OK! There are still lots of resources available to you:

The English Teacher Melanie Podcast – Each episode is a short story about something that happened in my daily listen. I use core vocabulary and I speak naturally with a standard American accent. Each episode also includes a short pronunciation lesson.

ESLPod – The episodes are short dialogues on a variety of topics. The dialogues include great vocabulary, phrases & idioms. Each episode includes a slow dialogue, a discussion of vocabulary, and a fast dialogue. The transcript is also provided on the website.

VOA Learning English – This section of the website has articles similar to the news section, but they are easier to read and the listening clips are much slower.

Listen a Minute – If you are still struggling with listening or vocabulary, this website will help you build up your skills.

The TOEFL has teamed up with a company called Lexile to help you find books at your reading level. If you have taken a TOEFL practice test or the actual TOEFL and you know your reading score, you can type in your score and Lexile will suggest books in the topic of your choice at your reading level.

 

4. Learn how to take good notes.

This is an essential skill you will need for the listening, speaking, and writing sections of the test, AND it is a skill you will need later on at an English-speaking university.

In each section where listening is required, you can only listen to the clip ONCE! You cannot go back and listen to it again and again. You will then have to answer questions on what you heard (listening section), speak about what you heard (speaking section), or write an essay based on what you heard (writing section). Therefore you will need to take good notes! People who take good notes get higher scores on the TOEFL.

This is a skill that takes a lot of practice.

• Don’t try to write down anything and everything you hear. Don’t just write down words that you understand. Write down the essential information that you will need to understand the lecture later
• Use symbols and shorthand. Everybody develops their own system for this. Here is a system that you can start with.
• Practice, practice, practice! Practice taking notes while listening to BBC, TED Talks, NPR, or VOA. Practice while watching TV. When you have finished listening, you can go back and compare your notes to the transcript.
• If NPR, VOA and TED Talks are too long for you, practice note-taking with the shorter clips from Listen a Minute.

When you sit down to take the test, you will get 3 sheets of paper. Every time you put up your hand, the proctors are supposed to give you 3 more sheets of paper, but that doesn’t always happen. It may take a while for a proctor to see your hand, if they are paying attention at all. Use your 3 sheets of paper wisely! Don’t use all 3 pages on a single lecture or conversation.

 

5. Make sure your pronunciation is clear.

For the TOEFL speaking section, it’s OK to speak English with an accent. Your pronunciation doesn’t have to be perfect, but you need to speak clearly and be understood.

The speaking section measures three things:

• how well you answer the question and complete the task
• the grammar and vocabulary you use
• how well the person scoring the test can understand you

Learn more: How to improve your pronunciation

This is one area where it is important to work with a teacher or instructor. You need someone to tell you what you’re doing right and what you can do better.

When you are practicing the speaking task on your own, record yourself. Most laptops and computers come with recording software. Recording yourself is important for two reasons:

• you can hear yourself speak and evaluate your response
• you can get used to speaking to a computer

It can feel weird talking to a computer if you have never done it before!

Learn more: Record yourself speaking English

Here are 3 videos from ETS about the different speaking tasks.

Tasks 1 and 2

 

Tasks 3 and 5

 

Tasks 4 and 6

 

6. Get Used to a QWERTY Keyboard

The final section on the TOEFL is the writing section. You will need to use a QWERTY keyboard to type your responses into the computer. This is the standard keyboard for all North American keyboards. (It’s called a QWERTY keyboard because the top row of letters starts from the left with the letters QWERTY.)

Here’s what a QWERTY keyboard looks like:

You should practice as much as possible with a QWERTY keyboard. You need to know where all the letters are, how to make a capital letter, and where all the punctuation symbols are.

Learn Touch Typing
Most people type by using the “hunt and peck” method: you hunt (look) for the letter you need on the keyboard, and then peck (hit it) with one finger. When you learn touch typing, you will learn how to use all your fingers to to type WITHOUT looking at the keyboard! It’s a much faster method of typing, but it takes a lot of practice. Touch typing is not essential for the TOEFL, but it definitely helps you type faster.

Here’s a short video that shows you where to put your fingers on the keyboard:

Once you learn the correct placement of your fingers, you can practice typing here:
Powertyping.com
Sense-lang.org

 

7. Learn how to write an English Essay

As I mentioned in tip #6, the last section of the TOEFL is the writing section. There are two writing tasks. The last task, and the very last thing you will do on the TOEFL, is type a 300-word essay within 30 minutes.

Practice this essay as much as possible!

An English essay has a very specific format, and this format may be different than the format that you are used to in your language. Essays in English follow this format:

• Introduction: The first paragraph introduces your essay, and tells the reader your opinion and what you are going to talk about in your essay.
• Body: The middle of the essay on the TOEFL is 2-3 paragraphs that support your opinion.
• Conclusion: The last paragraph summarizes your essay.

One paragraph is one thought. The first sentence of each paragraph explains what the paragraph is about, and the rest of the paragraph uses clear, specific examples to illustrate your opinion.

Understanding the traditional English style of writing an essay will help you in almost every section of the TOEFL. If you know that one paragraph = one thought, you can understand the structure of the reading passages better. You will also need to state an opinion and support your opinion with clear, specific examples in the speaking section.

Learn more: How to improve your English writing

The first writing task is an integrated essay. Here is a video from ETS that explains this task:

The second writing task is the independent essay. Here’s a video that explains how to structure the independent essay:

Here’s a video from ETS that explains more about the TOEFL independent essay:
(*I disagree with one thing in this video: don’t write your outline on paper! Type your outline directly into the space where you’re going to write your essay. You can build your essay around your outline.)

More writing tips:

• When you start practicing your essays, don’t worry about time. Begin by taking as long as necessary to write a good essay.
• Once you are able to write a good essay, start timing yourself and getting faster at it, until you can write a good 300-word essay within 30 minutes.
• Answer the question that you are asked! Don’t try to change the question. If it asks you to make a choice, make a clear choice – don’t try to argue both positions. There is no right or wrong answer. Your essay is scored on how well you answer the question.
• Type your outline in the essay space on the computer! You waste time if you write it by hand and then type it.
• Keep it simple and be specific!

 

8. Practice, practice, practice.

This is the best tip I can give you. Students are always looking for a trick or a secret they can learn to help them do better on the TOEFL. This is it! Once you know the TOEFL inside and out, the only thing that can help you get better at it is to keep practicing it!

I will repeat what I said in tip #2:

When you sit down at the computer to take the test, nothing should be a surprise. You should know every reading question, every listening question, every speaking task, and every writing task on the test. You should know exactly what you have to do to answer every question properly.

All the TOEFL books that I recommend in the Resources section below have practice tests. As well, there are 4 practice tests available on the ETS TOEFL website (http://toeflpractice.ets.org/). Do at least one of the tests on the ETS website before you take the TOEFL so you can get used to taking the test on a computer.

Try doing one or two practice tests with the radio or TV on. There are a lot of distractions in the TOEFL test centers! You might still be doing the listening section when the person next to you starts the speaking section. You might be trying to concentrate on the reading section while the person next to you needs help with her computer. You never know what might happen, so be prepared for everything!

 

9. Learn how to relax!

Don’t laugh, but this is very important! Let’s be honest: this is not an easy test! It is a very stressful test! It is important to remain calm and relaxed throughout the test.

Before the test:

• If possible, visit the testing centre ahead of time. Make sure you know where you’re going and how long it’s going to take you to get there. The last thing you want to do is get lost or stuck in a traffic jam on the way to the test!

• Don’t try to cram the day before the test. Just relax and rest.

• Get a good night’s sleep.

The day of the test:

• Eat a good breakfast!

• Before you leave your house and on your way to the test, make sure you warm up your brain! Read something in English for 30 minutes, preferably something you have read before. (You don’t want to stress yourself out before the test!) Listen to English. Make sure your brain is thinking in English before you start the test!

During the test:

• Take deep breaths throughout the test. Make sure your breathing is normal.

• There is a 10-minute break between the listening and speaking sections. Use this time to go to the bathroom if you need to, eat a snack, and do some stretching to relieve the tension in your back and shoulders!

• If you miss a question or you feel like you didn’t do well in a section, don’t worry about it. Just go onto the next section like it’s a new test. This is where being prepared for the test helps. For example, if you know how many questions you need to answer correctly to get your required score in the reading section, missing one question is not a problem.

Remember, you can always take the test again!

 

10. Take the test at least twice, if not more.

No one will ever know your TOEFL score unless you tell them. The university you want to attend won’t know if you’ve taken the test once or 10 times. They will only know the score you tell them. Don’t worry if you get a low score the first time – no one will ever know but you! You can keep taking the test as many times as you need to.

Students rarely get the score they need the first time they take the test.

Here are some things that might be a surprise the first time you take the test:

• The test goes by very, very fast!
• Some test centres are very large with lots of people taking the test at the same time. There is a lot of noise and a lot of distractions.
• Someone may have started the speaking section while you are still listening. You might be trying to write an essay while the person next to you is doing the speaking section.
• You may not be able to get the proctor’s attention to get more paper or to get help with your computer.

You can take the test as many times as you need to, but you must wait 12 days between tests. Here’s what the ETS website says:

You can read more frequently asked questions here on the ETS website. You must pay the full price each time you take the test.

More information from the ETS website:
what to bring on test day
what to expect on test day
TOEFL test day tips

 

Resources

Here are all the best resources that I recommend using if you want to get a high score on the TOEFL. For your convenience I have added links to Amazon.com.

Other places where you can look for these books:

• Amazon in your country
• university libraries
• your local library
• university book stores
• English book stores
• secondhand book stores & thrift stores

 

 

 

 

Have you taken the TOEFL? Please share some of your tips in the comments below!