Cramming for the TOEFL

Many of you may be preparing for the TOEFL on a short timeline. One of my clients prepared over 10 days while on vacation and successfully went from a 98 to a 112 through this approach. There’s also a useful bit of advice to keep in mind for the day of the test (in the event you are able to take it in person).

Hi Farrell,

First, I used the official TOEFL IBT test material. I purchased 1 volume (I guess there are 2 volumes) each includes 5 mock tests.

It is a simulation of the real test (some retired questions from the real thing) and I made sure to do every test in the morning so my mind will get used to that (my exam was set in the morning) since I am not a morning person.

For the speaking I relied on NoteFull from YouTube, it is a free resource and it is very helpful since it breaks down each of the 6 questions and provides the best strategy to answer any question in the TOEFL.

I made sure to do 1 mock test almost every day for one week, and that’s it.

One last advice, whenever she gets to the test center, let her make sure to come very early, so she can starts early as well and not get distracted by the noise (for example, when I had the listening part last time, some people had the speaking and it is kind of very distracting).