Andrei Neculau

Opinions

Both the Reading and Listening are tricky, or at least I found them to be. While they seem to be so helpful (providing the text, highlighting the paragraph that the question references, multiple choice, etc), the right answer is a bit tricky to find. I mean it’s like having that angel and devil on each of your shoulder… which one to choose, flip a coin.. The multiple choices are really really close sometimes, and you basically need a lot of… English spirit, I would call it. Lots of reading, lots of movies, lots of socializing to get to know all the right nuances and synonyms.

Now don’t worry, ya! There’s plenty of that during Speaking. Now how the hell are you supposed to answer to some quite complex questions in 30 seconds. I personally found myself really cornered! During those 30 seconds of thinking before each answer, I was only jogging down words… not day-to-day words, but a bit over-the-hand words just so I can say what’s on my mind, the way I want it, while still being correct and exact in only 30 seconds.

Writing was the easiest part. All you had to do was to follow the guidelines that you can find out in the online demo. Just follow that specific structure, and you’re ok.

So basically, I think TOEFL was a course with obstacles. It was not the regular.. lets see what you know. Instead it felt more like… lets see how tough you are.

I got 108 out of 120, a score of which I’m quite proud. But what was weird was that I lost points at Speaking and Writing because… wait to hear this.. because I used phrases or words that were too colloquial. Well, blow me for trying to do the best I could!

Anyway… my advice for TOEFL, just hold still and treat it as if you were the best English speaker ever. Just prepare your mind to think that you’ve got 150 points at your disposal, and you only need half of them.