My experience with TOEFL

This is by far the costliest exam I have written. 170 dollars is roughly a 10500 Indian rupees. This bought a certain curiousness in me. How come this exam is so costly? Are they giving some gold coins during the test which makes it so costly? 

Before the test- be there on time and relax a bit. There is a confirmation which you have to sign stating that you won't cheat in the exam. After that they will ask you to surrender all your belongings. There is a kit and a token system. Nothing is allowed inside the exam centre. Watches, purses, pens are also prohibited and not just mobiles. At your desk you will find the necessary papers and two pencils. After surrendering everything and possessing only your ID card, you will be asked to stand in front of a camera and your picture will be taken. This is immediately synced with your work station and you will find your photo on the screen. Kind of cool eh? The earphones and keyboards were of good quality and there is nothing to be worried of on that aspect. You will have access to toilet and drinking water at your exam centre. So there is no need to carry drinking water. 

As you all might have figured out by now, the first session is reading, then listening, speaking and finally writing. Each session carries 30 marks making the total 120 marks. Any mark above 90 is considered good. 110 and above is exceptional. Each section may carry each mark but there are varying number of questions. So the questions in each section are worth different. For example, there are 14 questions per passage in reading. There are a total of 4 passages thus making it 56 questions and the total marks is 30. Hence half (0.5) mark per question. Compare this with 2 questions in writing which makes it 15 marks for each question. One interesting part which TOEFL does is the marks per question increases as you go from first question to last question. This is possible by reducing the number of questions in each section. The below table shows the number of questions in each section and their marks.

marks	Time for each section	Number of questions
30	100 mins	reading 3-5 passages, 14 questions each
30	90 mins	listening 4-6 lectures, 6 Questions each
30	20 mins	speaking 6 Questions
30	60 mins	writing - 2 Questions

Reading doesn't require you to read the full passage. You have to just read the title and starting of each para thereby getting an overall idea of the passage. You thus have to scroll through the passage and then only proceed to the questions. The system does not allow us to skip scrolling and move to the questions. There will be a pop up error which can be closed. The question and the passage from which it is taken is given side by side so you can read and comprehend it then and there. The first 13 questions are a mix of deductive, interpretative, meaning etc.. The final question which carriers 2 marks is a summary question. You will be asked to add 3 out of 6 options which is indicated in the passage. 30 marks for reading makes 7.5 marks per passage. 2 marks for the last question leaves you with 5.5 marks for 13 questions. So the mark per question is very less. So please don't spend so much time on first 13 trivial questions and loose on the 14th question. 

Listening. Don't close your eyes and concentrate while listening. Please take extensive notes. I just had to keep on writing. I missed so many things due to my poor note taking speed. Please make sure that you concentrate on the passage to write what is necessary. Make sure to register each sentence in your mind. The written notes should only act as a way to recollect. The answers once given are final and there is no chance of a review. In the reading section, I could skip some question and come back to it. Here that is not possible. In the end I was left with 2 minutes of time because I rushed through the answers.

Speaking. This was the toughest part for me. I can speak fluently but I require 30 seconds to stabilize my tone and content. With only 45 seconds of speaking it was very difficult to cope up. U just have 15 seconds to prepare your answer so there is no scope for a rehearsal. I stumbled completely on a question. There are 6 questions and section is of 30 marks, a question is worth 5 marks. There are plenty of on-line websites and you tube guides which helps you in getting the fodder of the speech. All you have to do is fill these gaps with your ideas or listening. This is a good way ahead but requires tremendous practice and preparation, else you will mess up at the exam centre.

Writing- as mentioned earlier there are just 2 questions. One is based on a reading and listening while other is just a composition on any topic under the sun. This will not be technical or requiring vast knowledge just to create an equal platform for all. The first question requires you to answer in 220 words while the second requires 320 words. Please write more words than required because the word content matter. There is a word content in the interface which makes things easy.

NOTE - TOEFL is not widely accepted in UK institutions. They have shifted to IELTS. I got a mail from TOEFL on the day before exam making me aware of this. By then, my time for cancellation and redemption of fee was over and I had to write the exam anyway. Please double check whether your university approves TOEFL.