WELCOME!
Welcome to The Princeton Review's thorough test preparation guide for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). In this book, you will find everything you need to prepare for the TOEFL information on the test format, test-taking strategies, drills, and, of course, a full-length practice exam.
Part I of this book gives a brief outline on how the test is organized. Part II helps you familiarize yourself with the basic concepts tested on the TOEFL. Part III presents you with strategies and tips for the questions and tasks on the test. Part IV provides you with a full-length practice exam with answers and explanations.
WHAT IS THE TOEFL?
The TOEFL is a test that assesses your proficiency in the type of English used in an academic environment. The test is administered on the Internet, which we'll explain in more detail on page 6.
The exam takes about four hours to complete and integrates four essential skills— reading, listening, writing, and speaking. This means that any given question or task may require you to use one or more of these skills. For example, before at- tempting a writing task on the TOEFL, you may have to first read a passage and listen to a lecture on the topic.
Fortunately, the TOEFL is not as daunting as it may seem because it tests each of the four skills in a fairly specific way. By working through this book in its entirety, you'll become comfortable with the type of writing, speaking, reading, and listen- ing skills that are required to get a good score on the exam.
The Structure of the Test
The TOEFL is broken down into four distinct sections, one each for the skills listed. However, each section may require you to use more than one of the above four skills. The structure of the test is as follows:
One Reading section, consisting of three to five passages that are roughly 550 to 700 words each. Each passage will be fol- lowed by 12 to 14 multiple-choice questions about the content of the passage. Most of these questions will be worth one point each, though a few toward the end of the section may be worth more. You will have 60 to 100 minutes to complete the entire section.One Listening section, consisting of six to nine audio selec- tions, each of which are three to five minutes long. The selec- tions will be either academic lectures or casual conversations. After each selection, there will be five to six multiple-choice questions about the content of the lecture or conversation. You will have 60 to 90 minutes to complete the entire section.One Speaking section, consisting of approximately six speak- ing tasks. Most speaking tasks will also require some listening and some reading. You will have to speak for 45 or 60 seconds, depending on the task, and you will have 20 minutes to com- plete the entire section.One Writing section, consisting of two writing assignments. As with the speaking section, the writing section also requires listening and reading. You will have 50 minutes to complete the entire section.
