Louis Mercier; a French dramatist and writer once said,

"What we learn with pleasure we never forget." This was

my problem for a long time; if I did not enjoy what I was
studying, I would not be able to understand it at all. That
why I'm always spending a lot of time searching for the
perfect source rather than studying itself!
Hi, I'm Abdalrahman Almeligy, a 6th year medical student
at Ain Shams University. I took my TOEFL test on 4 th
August, 2012 and received a score of 93. My Score
breakdown is: parametric modeling
Reading 26
Listening 28
Speaking 19
Writing 20
You are probably wondering why I scored fine in the
selective portion of the exam (reading and listening) and
failed to get a better score in the constructive portion of
the exam (speaking and writing). This is mainly due to the
mistakes committed during my preparation, which will be
mentioned throughout this note.
During my preparation, I went through 21 steps, made a
lot of mistakes and had a closer look at different materials
made for TOEFL preparation. I will present them for you to
compare and help you choose the most efficient, effective
and enjoyable source. Also, I uploaded some of the
materials which were hard to find online.
Bear in mind that this note contains a lot of personal/my
own thoughts that may not suit your study habits, English
proficiency level or time table. So, it is not necessary to do
every step exactly but it is about identifying your weak
areas and working on it.

Step 1: Know why!

 If you are a senior medical student (like me) who

decided to pursue a residency position in US, you will
probably need to start searching for USCE (United
States clinical experience) as soon as possible. In
order to increase your chances in securing a clinical
elective spot, the very first move is to take a TOEFL
test. It will increase your chances tremendously since
it opens the way to many places. Hence, you should
make a list of all the places that require or prefer
TOEFL to know exactly your target.
The following list I knew about before my test:
1. University of Alabama (Can be waived).
2. West Virginia University-Charleston campus
(Can be waived).
3. University of Kansas Medical Center (Score of
23 minimum on the selective components of
the exam, Score of 19 minimum on Writing, NO
minimum Score required regarding the
speaking section and 400 $ application fee).
4. University of Louisville, School Of Medicine
(Minimum total score of 100 or higher).
5. National Institute of Health (Minimum total
score of 86 with a minimum score of 26 on the
speaking section).
6. Jefferson Medical College (Can be waived if you
have passed one of the USMLE exams, tuition
fee of 750$ per month).
7. Northwestern University, Feinberg School of
Medicine (Minimum total score of 84 with a
minimum score of 24 on the speaking section,
tuition fee of 1200$ per month).
8. Yale School of Medicine (Tuition fee of 3100$
per month)
9. Mount Sinai School of Medicine (Minimum score
of 22 on each section, 1000$ application fee,
100$ health fee, and tuition fee of 2000$ per
month)

 Also, you should realize that job interviews are

about two things: your personality and your
communication skills. Thus, you need to work
on your spoken English since it is a
fundamental part of job interviews, and TOEFL
is the best start to do that.

Step 2: Register right away!

WHY: You should book your slot the minute you
decide to take the exam. Since there is always a
huge demand from test takers, you need to move
fast to find an available position at the time you
choose. Furthermore, you will not start studying
seriously until you pay money!

>>Mistake 1<<
I postponed my registration till I was finished
with my collage exams, searching and
downloading study materials and waiting for
issuing of my passport. I made a decision to
take the test in late April; book my exam on
12th June aiming for mid-July and I ended up
with 4th August. This mistake wasted a lot of
time; forced me to study in Ramadan (which
was very stressful) and had a Detrimental
impact on my score.
WHEN: The paper score card reaches your home
usually 4 weeks after the day your e-copy of scores
are available (which usually are posted in 10 days of
the test date). This means, approximately 6 weeks
after you take the test. You want to have your
paper score card in hand before you apply for

electives, so you should plan carefully when to take

the exam.
HOW: I registered my exam online. In order to do
this, you need to have a valid passport, a national ID
and a method of payment. If you don't have a credit
card, you need to issue a "Visa Net". Back then I
googled different types of visa net and found this
useful comparison, you should take a look
http://misrstars.com/vb/showthread.php?t=136678
After you finish preparing the above-mentioned
documents, you should read the "ETS Registration
Step by Step Tutorial"
http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/TOEFL/pdf/4677_TOEF
L_Reg_Guide.pdf
WHERE: You should find out about local test centers
before you choose one. You need to make sure that
the place you choose have available transportation,
fine facilities and good sound isolation to ensure
minimum distractions during the exam. I took my
exam in Amideast; easy to reach (5 minutes walking
from El Bohooth metro station) and a nice place to
take the test at. However, I did have some
distractions during my exam. Thus, I think that there
is no 100% soundproof place to take the exam at,
and you should put that in mind while practicing.

Step 3: Know what you are dealing

with!
The description from ETS website says, "The TOEFL
IBT test measures your ability to use and understand
English at the university level. And it evaluates how
well you combine your listening, reading, speaking
and writing skills to perform academic tasks."
It is essential to understand that the test doesn't
only assess your English, but also estimate your
ability to work under pressure, take running notes,

paraphrase, summarize, synthesize, communicate

and type on a computer. Hence, you can perform well
at the education institution that you purse. So, you
should work on improving these skills beside your
English in order to score higher.
The test has 4 sections, READING, LISTENING,
SPEAKING & WRITING. Youll face these 4 sections in
that same order. For further description, I suggest
you visit the link below
http://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/about/content/
Before you begin your preparation, you need to fully
understand the scoring criteria of the exam. You
should visit the following link
http://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/scores/ and for the
speaking and writing sections (in the same order)
http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/TOEFL/pdf/Speaking_R
ubrics.pdf
http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/TOEFL/pdf/Writing_Ru
brics.pdf

Step 4: Imbibe previous test takers

experience.
If I have seen further it is by standing on the
shoulders of giants predecessors. Sir Isaac
Newton.
Reading a lot of test takers experience helped me to
see the big picture there, find the perfect strategy to
each step and avoid a lot of mistakes. Simply, I typed
"TOEFL" in the Google search bar and stayed for days
reading and understanding each saying of each
person who have taken the exam before.
Here are some useful groups and forums I went
through:
1. http://www.urch.com/forums/toefl/

2. http://www.4englishexams.com/englishtest/toefl/toefl-forum.htm
3. http://gmatclub.com/forum/toefl-ielts-pte-143/?
sid=c950f1e6e625aad00846020fd7dd7d87
4. http://www.facebook.com/groups/219416964805
021/
5. http://www.expenglish.com/vb/forumdisplay.php
?f=44
During my readings, I made a series of Word files,
containing the best experience I have encounter. This
helped me to take a quick second look whenever I
need to make a decision about something. In fact, I
used all of them while proofreading this note.

Step 5: Trial exam.

"The best way to learn how to swim is to throw yourself
into water." I thought that this also works with any exam,
to take a trial one before you begin to study. This will help
you familiarize yourself with the test format, evaluate your
strengths and weaknesses and identify which section to
spend more time on.
>>Mistake 2<<
The first day of my preparation, I took a full exam
from "Kaplan practice CD"; however i did not finish
it. I reached halfway of the writing section and get
bored. So, I miss the chance to identify one of my
weaknesses; slow typing, early enough to work on
it.

Step 6: Vocabulary
Having good vocabulary is a cardinal factor to ace all
of the four sections of the exam; however it is very

boring step in your preparation. Thus you need to

carefully choose a source which is not too much to
take and serve all four sections of the exam.
It is important to know how to study vocabulary; it is
not only about memorization but HOW to memorize
it. The following aspects should be fulfilled:
1. Meaning: to serve the selective sections
(Reading and listening).You should know both,
the meaning in your native language and the
definition in English to fully understand the
word. You can get the first one from Google
translator and the second from your chosen
source.
2. Synonymous: to serve the reading section and
paraphrasing skill. Moreover, knowing the
connections between words will definitely build
up your vocabulary faster. Again, this should be
provided by the source. If not, you can use
Google translator.
3. Pronunciation: to serve the listening and
speaking section. Don't use Google translator to
provide you with pronunciation; instead, use this
website
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/
4. Spelling: to serve the writing section. This one
should be easy after you know how to break the
word into Syllables using the above-mentioned
website.
5. Parts of speech: To know the noun, verb and
adjective of each word you study. This will come
in handy during your constructive sections of
the exam (writing and speaking)
6. Put it in a sentence: After you read the
examples provided by the source, you should
come up with your own sentence. This will
improve your ability to handle the constructive
sections tremendously. If the source doesn't

provide enough examples, use this amazing

website: http://sentence.yourdictionary.com/
In order to accomplish that, I went through a lot of
sources, here is my review of them:
1. 400 must have words for TOEFL: The most
famous and the most exam-oriented but i
didn't like it, yet it has 40 lessons and I finished
22 lessons. In a lot of cases, it doesn't provide a
synonymous to the word; it illustrates the word
with only one sentence and it gives a poor
exercise at the end of each lesson.
Here is a link to download it
http://www.mediafire.com/?
vd11uh30o7diqk8
2. Barron's 504 Absolutely Essential Words
3rd Edition: Unlike the above-mentioned
book, it always gives you a synonymous to the
word; it always provides three sentences to
illustrate the word in different aspects and
meanings and end the lesson with diversity of
exercises.
In addition, it repeats words that have been
taught in previous lesson throughout the
upcoming lesson which will make you master
the word eventually. Moreover, I found a
channel on YouTube which provide a
pronunciation to the whole book by a native
speaker which helped me a lot. Here is the link
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?
list=PLADE9DB68E6511CBA&feature=plcp
I really enjoyed studying this book and finished
17 lessons of it. However, it is not examoriented and not sufficient for TOEFL. It
provides essential simple words for you if you
need to improve your English but lacks
academic words needed for the exam.
Here is a link to download it
http://www.mediafire.com/?y2tz1jsaxnaew7u

3. Word Master: Audio cd containing 500

vocabulary words in 100 lessons. Each lesson is
about 5 minutes long. Each word is
pronounced, spelled, defined and used in two
different sentences. Also, each word comes with
3 synonyms which eventually will expose you to
over 1500 more words. I was fascinated by the
idea that I can build up my vocabulary with that
minimum time and effort just by listening! I
finished like half of the lessons and enjoyed it.
Yet, it contains a lot of complicated words that
surpass the level wanted for TOEFL. Thus, not
exam-oriented.
Here are the links to download it
Part 1: http://www.mediafire.com/?
5qs5c055muktdbc
Part 2: http://www.mediafire.com/?
xb57a7fx7v88c65
4. Nova's 500 Words, Phrases, Idioms for the
TOEFL iBT Plus Typing Strategies:
Simply, the perfect source! I found about it 4
days before my exam date, so I did not use it.
However, it fulfill every aspect needed to
master the vocabulary word (not only memorize
it) and harness it to be used in the four sections
of the exam. Furthermore, it provides a lot of
idioms and phrases which will benefit you a lot
in your constructive sections. If i could go back
in time, I would definitely use this book only as
a source to improve my vocabulary for TOEFL.
Here is a link to download it
http://www.mediafire.com/?8rufd5hzogyn9xd
>>Mistake 3<<
As you may notice, I overdo this step. I went
through a lot of sources memorizing many

unnecessary words for the exam which wasted a lot

of my time.
HOW MUCH TIME: From my experience, I think that
this step should not take more than 30 hours of your
time. In other words, a maximum of 10 days (3
hours/day) should be devoted for this step.

Step 7: Pronunciation
Do you know 3 different ways to pronounce (-th)?
Can you identify different stress patterns in English?
Do you have good intonation patterns? Knowing the
simple rules for English pronunciation is mandatory
for your speaking. The goal is to deliver the meaning
you intend clearly so that you can be understood the
first time you say something. Needless to say that
our native language; Arabic, have all the sounds
needed for mastering English pronunciation. Yet, the
main problem is that we tend to choose the easy way
to pronounce even if it is wrong. The (-th) sound
represents a famous example.
I found this YouTube channel which was very useful to
accomplish this goal. Jennifer; the instructor,
illustrates those rules in a very simple way. These
videos will take only 4:5 hours of your time and will
help you avoid a lot of common mistakes. Here are
the links http://www.youtube.com/playlist?
list=PL81BCA0A2CB139CB7&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?
list=PL4B28722936C871E8&feature=plcp
If you not satisfied with the above-mentioned
YouTube channel or you think that you need to work
with more aspects of your pronunciation, use
"Barron's Pronounce It Perfectly in English". It is a

good book with audio cd which will provide more

details at this area.
Here are the links to download it
Part 1
http://www.mediafire.com/?uqsi8shrx4uiyh0
Part 2
http://www.mediafire.com/?u9f647jl329m74v
HOW MUCH TIME: This step should not take more
than 1:2 days maximum.

Step 8: Grammar
Unlike previous versions of TOEFL, the IBT version
has no grammar subsection; however, it is imperative
to have a competent grammar in order to achieve
higher scores in the constructive sections of the
exam.
>>Mistake 4<<
I started this step using "Gem Top Grammar"; the
book with head of Nefertiti on it. It is highly
unorganized and out of date book that wasted my
time.
Here are other sources that I went through:
1) Cambridge English Grammar in Use (3rd
edition) It is a great source; delivers grammar
rules in a simple way for you to revise. It
consists of 145 units, each unit illustrate a
simple basic rule in one page and give you an
exercise on the facing page. The best merit of
this book is that it gives a study guide trial exam
at the end of the book, try to use it at first to
identify your weak areas and revise them
afterwards.

Here is a link to download it

http://www.mediafire.com/?
h3ujtc78crchbou
2) Video Aided Instructions; Sentence
Structure Study Guide This amazing videos
series only focuses on the rules needed to
construct a correct sentence. It gives special
attention to the common mistakes to avoid
while creating sentences. This series consists of
10 videos; each one is 1.5:2 hours long.
Here are the links:
01 Sentence Structure
http://www.mediafire.com/?y663qi7asyno5nh
02 Parts of Speech
http://www.mediafire.com/?wl0bnesd51mkoaa
03 Sentence Complements
http://www.mediafire.com/?tf7o63tkvzl7yb0
04 Verbs
http://www.mediafire.com/?kex0c7x3csqd1dx
05 Pronouns
http://www.mediafire.com/?tsd8dcw67pfsggj
06 Agreement
http://www.mediafire.com/?xquvva1dmob3o12
07 Modifiers
http://www.mediafire.com/?baeesixptg7210x
08 Parallel Structure
http://www.mediafire.com/?sk0kbwap3dsl492
09 Punctuation
http://www.mediafire.com/?vp2mxqi6ymu0uyz
10 Spelling & Capitalization
http://www.mediafire.com/?s3h7eiaj1m84dwr

>>Mistake 5<<
While I was watching these videos, I did not take
notes of the unfamiliar concepts for me. I regretted
it later as I needed to quickly revise them during
my practice on the writing section, especially the
last two videos (Punctuation and Spelling).

HOW MUCH TIME: This step should not take more

than 5:7 days maximum.

Step 9: Keyboard Typing Skill

You need to answer the following question as early as
the beginning of your preparation, how accurately
and fast can I type in English? You need to
understand that word count of your essay is a very
important factor in the scoring criteria. Furthermore,
having fast typing will let you have enough time to
proofread your essay which will lead eventually to a
higher score.
The first thing to do is to pick up a reading passage,
prepare your stop watch and write. After you finish,
calculate your words per minute (WPM) and if you
type less than 35 WPM, you should start practicing!
If you pick " Nova's 500 Words, Phrases, Idioms for
the TOEFL IBT Plus Typing Strategies" as your
source for vocabulary, you will be fine, as one of the
exercises provided for the revision of words is to type
a paragraph containing all the new words for the
lesson. You may consider going through the "typing
strategies" chapter before you start.

 HOW MUCH TIME: This step should not take more

than 10 minutes per day for the whole preparation
period.
Remember: This step is also very important for the
USMLE CS exam, so don't hesitate to work on it.

>>Mistake 6<<
I did not do this step at all. In fact, I think that this
mistake is the principle factor that impaired my
score on the writing section. I found that I'm slow
at typing 2 days before my exam date and tried to
practice a lot but I did not manage to reach the
minimum limit wanted by ETS (225 words for
question 1 in 20 minutes and 300 words for
question 2 in 30 minutes) in the test day.
>>Mistake 7<<
During my days of practice, I typed my essays using
my laptop, which turned out to be a mistake as the
standard keyboard used during the exam is
different and need more energy. So, try to practice
on a standard one.

Step 10: Taking Notes Skill

It is necessary yet uncommon skill. During my
medical school years I did not develop such a habit
as I'm slow at typing. If you have this skill, it would
benefit you in different areas of the exam.
It is necessary for the whole listening section,
integrated questions of the speaking section (3, 4, 5
and 6) and the integrated writing question.

 I used "Barron's How to Prepare for the TOEFL IBT

12th Edition" for this skill and the following three
skills. Here are the links to download it:
Barron's TOEFL IBT 12th.pdf.part1
http://www.mediafire.com/?h21bdcpnur8oars

Barron's TOEFL IBT 12th.pdf.part2

http://www.mediafire.com/?bqejrcwc7e933ay

Audio CDs 1:4

http://www.mediafire.com/?9e7qa8yb97q9fa6

Audio CDs 5:7

http://www.mediafire.com/?zojzg86cnntv8u4

Audio CDs 8:10

http://www.mediafire.com/?ujshr3jot8jfl8o

HOW MUCH TIME: This step should not take more

than one day maximum.
Remember: This skill will also benefit you in your
future lectures and seminars. If you don't have it like
I did, you should consider working on this step.

>>Mistake 8<<
After I learnt to take notes during listening to
someone, probably for the first time in my life, I
realized that my concentration was wavered while
noting down points. However, I didn't put that much
effort fixing this issue, which cost me two points in
the listening section.

Step 11: Paraphrasing Skill

Paraphrasing means expressing the same idea using
different words. You will need this skill for the

integrated questions of the exam, since you will read

or lesson to something and you will be asked to
express it in your own words. Using the exact same
words in your response is called plagiarizing which
will lead to a lower score.
Before you can acquire this skill, you need to work on
two things. First, you need to know synonyms for a
lot of words and phrases, as you will use them to
replace words that you hear or read during the test.
Second, you have to know how to alter different
grammatical structures while preserving the main
idea. You will accomplish that by doing Step 6 and 8
respectively.
HOW MUCH TIME: This step should not take more
than one day maximum.

Step 12: Summarizing Skill

This skill is the easiest one, yet has a great impact
not only in the test but also on your life. People with
this skill when using it during studying tend to recall
much better. Thus, it will be of great help during long
academic lectures within the listening sections and
integrated questions 4 and 6 of the speaking section.
Moreover, the final question of every passage of the
reading section usually tests this skill. This question
alone worth 3:5 points!
Before you start working on this skill, you need to
have competent grammar and good notes taking
skill.
HOW MUCH TIME: This step should not take more
than one day maximum.

Step 13: Synthesizing

 Synthesizing means to combine specifically chosen

information from two or more sources in order to
create something new. It is not only the sum of these
information, but demonstration of the relationship
between them as well. You will use this skill with
speaking questions 3, 4 and writing question 1.
Before you begin working on this skill, you need to
have all the previous three skills.
HOW MUCH TIME: This step should not take more
than one day maximum.

Step 14: Progress exam

If you finish the steps from 6 to 13, it is time to check
your progress. Take a full exam than compare your
answers with sample answers provided by the
practice CD (links to practice CDs will be attached
later in step 19). You will measure your developed
English proficiency (Steps 6, 7, and 8) and apply the
skills that you acquired (Steps 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13)
to the TOEFL test.
>>Mistake 9<<
Unfortunately, I didn't do this step although I knew
that it is recommended by Barron's book. I realized
later the significance of this step since acquiring
academic skills slow me down during exam as I
worried about so many details. Thus, if you intend
to take steps 10, 11, 12, and 13, you need to take
full exams as much as you can. (See step 19).

Step 15: Reading

 Base: Before you start working on this step, you

should have good academic vocabulary,
paraphrasing skill and summarizing skill.
Strategy: Based on my readings through previous
test takers' experience, I found that "Princeton
Cracking TOEFL" is the best source for the reading
section strategies. Its methods to deal with the
reading passage and the following questions are
priceless. However, this book is not that great dealing
with the other sections of the test.
Bear in mind that this book consists of two main
parts; the "Core Concepts" part which will help you
acquire the active reading skill, and "Cracking the
reading section" which will help you handle the
different 11 types of questions that you will possibly
encounter after reading the passage.
Here is a link to download this book:
http://www.mediafire.com/?wm1cq6rnz3ynvcr
Practice: After you finish acquiring strategies for the
reading section, you should practice it as much time
as possible. Practice CDs will be discussed later on
step 19. Moreover, I found this amazing document
which contains 164 academic readings; I didn't read
it but if i could go back in time, I would definitely do
it. This document will not only benefit your reading
skills, but also will pave the way for the listening and
writing sections. Here is a link to download it
http://www.mediafire.com/?c6ygvpah8waj4qb

>>Mistake 10<<
I scored 28 on my first trial exam's reading section
and get conceited about it. So, I did not devote
much time to practice the reading section and this
cost me 4 points.

 HOW MUCH TIME: If i could go back in time, I would

stick to the following time table:
1. Do "Princeton" with exercises in one day (full
time study).
2. Read this collection of topic "164 academic
readings" in one day (full time study) .
3. Solve 9 reading passages in test mode from
Barron and Cambridge CDs. This will take 10:12
hours or in other words; two days (full time
study).
Remember: With good strategy and enough
practice, this is the only section that you can 100%
guarantee a perfect score (30/30) on. Simply, the
answer to each question is right there in front of you,
and all you need to do is to find it in the passage.

Step 16: Listening

Base: Before you start working on this step, you
should have good academic vocabulary, taking
notes skill, paraphrasing skill and summarizing skill.
Strategy: Needless to say, "Barron's How to Prepare
for the TOEFL IBT 12th Edition" is the best source for
listening strategies. Unlike other sources, the level,
the pace and the difficulty of the listening passages
implanted throughout this book closely resemble the
actual TOEFL test. Moreover, it gives the best
approach to deal with each question that you will
confront during the listening section.
Practice: After you're done with the abovementioned strategies, it is important to start
practicing as much as you can. Practice CDs will be
discussed later on step 19. In addition, I found this
amazing YouTube channel with a lot of samples; you
should check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6342080255144325

Moreover, several websites offer free lectures and

talks. Select topics related to the science and start

listening. Here is a good one suggested before on this
group by Dr. Ahmed F. Al Behairy
http://www.esl-lab.com/ .
Finally, listen to international news broadcast in
English such as BBC or CNN as much as you can.
Remember: Putting yourself in an environment with
continuous streaming of English will definitely help
you achieve higher score not only on the listening
section but also on the speaking section.
HOW MUCH TIME: For me, the listening section
was the easiest one. In fact, I only practiced listening
during step 19 (the one with the full exams
practicing). Thus I have no experience dealing with
the time table dedicated for this step. However, I
suggest to do at least the following:
1. From day one, start listening to English news
broadcast whenever it is possible.
2. Do "Barron" with exercises in one day.
3. Solve 9 listening passages in test mode from
Barron and Cambridge CDs. This will take 10:12
hours or in other words; two days (full time
study).
Add more steps as needed according to your listening
section's scores on the trial exam (step 5) and the
progress exam (step 14).

Step 17: Writing

Base: Before you start working on this step, you
should have good vocabulary, competent grammar,
accurate typing, taking notes skill, paraphrasing
skill, summarizing skill, and synthesizing skill.
Strategy: First of all, you need to watch the "Inside
the TOEFL" videos which were posted online by ETS;

the company that makes the test. These videos

familiarize you with the question format;
demonstrate how to approach it and explain the
scoring criteria. Furthermore, they provide a sample
response and useful tips at the end. These videos
helped me expand my knowledge and deepen my
understanding about the writing section, you
definitely should see them. Here are the links:
Writing question 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hKJTJv4bjY

Writing question 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx3AXbGWNbA

Secondly, videos posted by famous online instructor;

Joseph Miranda. These videos will add to the
above-mentioned videos two things: good timing
technique and competent scheme for the integrated
question. Here are the links:
Writing section overview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7hfNZpqSqY

Writing Question 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytubzmj_j94

Writing Question 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul2OTUqMGqk

During my preparation period, no preparation book

could offer a satisfying answer to this question "How
can I construct, develop and evaluate an essay for
TOEFL" better than Nova's Speaking and Writing
Strategies. Without a doubt, this book's strategies
are the best since it demonstrate both basic and
advanced writing techniques needed for the perfect
score. I didn't find its methods to handle writing

section in such advanced yet simply illustrated way

in any other TOEFL source. How to use a hook; how
to compose a predictor thesis and how to use
rhetorical strategies are examples of what this book
offers to help you achieve higher score on the writing
section. Here is a link to download it
http://www.mediafire.com/?wwqz50zq19qd5kd
Also, I went through "Barron's Writing for the
TOEFL IBT" and after comparing both sources, I
definitely recommend the first one. If you have
different thoughts, here is a link to download the
second one:
http://www.mediafire.com/?yi9v2n9v9alodqy
Practice: No matter how good writing strategies you
acquire; competent sentences you can compose or
great vocabulary you have, the test is all about how
you apply them under the pressure of limited
time. Thus, the most important factor to achieve
high score is to practice as much as you can. As a
starting point, you should finish all practice tasks
found throughout Nova's Speaking and Writing
Strategies. Next, you should go through Practice
CDs which will be discussed later on step 19.
Moreover; if you intend to intensively prepare for the
writing section, you should go through the ETS
Official Topics List posted on their website, here is
the link http://www.google.com.eg/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rj
a&ved=0CCAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F
%2Fwww.ets.org%2FMedia%2FTests%2FTOEFL
%2Fpdf
%2F989563wt.pdf&ei=qNI4ULeXLonU4QSizgE&usg=
AFQjCNEcub_NQTKL5yAWxz9bXPaKPBevvQ&sig2=Pz
n4O8K_MswhY_Q1m9F7aw
Finally, DON'T FORGET TO TIME YOURSELF while
practicing.

 Evaluation: This is the most disturbing thing about

the constructive portion of the exam. You need to
know how to assess your essay while practicing. The
following are very useful in this area:
1. OPDUL=D; this spectacular scheme from
"Nova's Speaking and Writing Strategies" is
priceless, as it is based on deep understanding
of what the ETS' raters looking for. You should
follow this book's advice to the letter.
2. Answers to all TOEFL Essay Questions; an
amazing book contains 450 essays that had a
perfect score. Furthermore, this book covers
100% of all ETS official topics.
3. Sample Answers provided by practice CDs,
especially Barron and Cambridge.
4. Study partner: It is a very valuable move to
have a study partner in order to review each
other essays.
5. Study groups: Try to make use of the online
groups to communicate with the members and
convince them to rate each other essays.

>>Mistake 11<<
For both constructive sections, I spent a lot of time
searching for the perfect strategy to acquire rather
than practicing it. I only practiced writing and
speaking for one day each. This severely impaired
my confidence, time management and development
of ideas which led to my low score.
HOW MUCH TIME: If i could go back in time, I would
stick to the following time table:
1. Watch all the above-mentioned videos + Nova's
intro + Nova's independent question in one
day.
2. Practice all of Nova's independent tasks (12
essays) in one day.

3. Nova's integrated question + its exercises in

one day.
4. Read "Answers to all TOEFL Essay Questions" in
two days.
5. Solve 9 writing tasks in test mode from Barron
and Cambridge CDs. This will take about 9 hours
or in other words; two days.
Remember: Unlike speaking section, writing is a
constructive task that you can actually guarantee a
perfect score on, only by hard working and good
simple strategies.

Step 18: Speaking

Base: Before you start working on this step, you
should have good vocabulary, competent grammar,
clear pronunciation, taking notes skill, paraphrasing
skill, summarizing skill, and synthesizing skill.
Strategy: As in the writing section, you need to start
with "Inside the TOEFL" videos because of the
aforementioned reasons. Here are the Links:
Speaking Questions 1&2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8s9prmAD30

Speaking Questions 3&5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX18DZR010Y

Speaking Questions 4&6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmnCWdC9rk4

Next, the fundamental part of speaking preparation is

Joseph Miranda's great videos. These videos will
teach you the format of each question and how to
handle it step by step. Here are the links:
Speaking section overview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJDEQAzVokM

Speaking Question 1 Help

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4lzrCpndC0

Speaking Questions 1 and 2 Tips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K682Oune_YM

Speaking Question 3 Help

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-n_nOBDLd4

Speaking Question 4 Help

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMUWevT3o8A

Speaking Question 5 Help

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2dU1JqlWS0

TOEFL Speaking Improve your Score on Question 6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf3yr-EoUQI&feature=related

As you might have noticed, I wrote the writing

section first in this note although it isn't their order in
the exam. From my experience, I also think that you
should start speaking after you completely assimilate
the writing section. This is the same order as Nova's
Speaking and Writing Strategies which will
harness the same rules for writing and use it in the
speaking section.
Practice: Again, I can't emphasize more on how this
is important. In fact, I think you can start practicing
from day one, by beginning to think in English. I
know, it is a hard process but very effective. Try to do
in your regular life situations; try to talk to yourself in
English; try to repeat phrases from movies and you
will find this step much easier when you reach it.
I suggest to go through the following practice
materials:
1. All of Nova's exercises after each lesson.
2. All Practice CDs which will be discussed later on
step 19.
3. This materials which were amazing
http://gmatclub.com/forum/toefl-speaking-practice-questions106306.html?fl=similar

4. This YouTube channel also contains good

samples
http://www.youtube.com/user/ouliogroove/videos?view=1

5. A lot of people (including me) have a problem to

develop ideas for the independent questions (1
and 2); if you have the same problem, you
should intensively prepare for it by using this list
of topics that I have found online
http://www.mediafire.com/?
fhsgnxb5k3oa2p4
Evaluation: As the writing section, this step has no
clear way to be evaluated; however, here are some
thoughts:
1. The most important move is to evaluate
yourself; in fact, I could not find any advice
better than the one given by Dr. Ahmed
Elkhanany on EAMTAR Facebook group. He said,
"One of the most efficient yet simple means to
master fluency in an SLA; Second-language
acquisition. This simply means to get a sound
recorder, ask your younger brother or
whomever to ask you a completely random
question, and record your answer as fast as you
can. THEN, listen to your answer again, and
identify (in descending order of importance):
- Lexical error (wrong choice of words)
- Linguistic error (Bad Grammar)
- Conceptual error (poor progression of ideas)
- Phonetic error (Wrong pronunciation)
Next step is to re-record yourself after
identifying these errors, and to 'actively' avoid
them. That is, try to remember your errors, and
force yourself NOT to repeat them. This is called
'iteration'."
2. Mr. John Renshaw; a former ETS rater for the
speaking section and currently an online
instructor. He has posted free videos on
YouTube; however, this is the only one that you
should watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=7CRLcOAUNQI&feature=related

3. I heard about Joseph Miranda's test on his

website. He offers to rate your answers to only
one test for free; unfortunately, I did not try it.
4. A study partner or a previous test taker
friend whom you will ask to rate your records.
5. Expand the scope of the online study
groups for TOEFL to include members
uploading their recorded responses and
previous test takers who are willing to help by
evaluating them.
6. Private instructors, either from Amideast or
online via Skype but I have no experience in
that regard.
>>Mistake 12<<
As lot of people might be, the speaking section
was my greatest fear. Every time I sit and
practiced, I found it incredibly frustrating and quit.
I would search for another plan or strategy, rather.
So, you need to be mentally prepared for these
stressful times and DO NOT OVERTHINK about your
score, just practice, practice, practice and practice.
Eventually, seeing that you are starting to succeed,
these stressful feelings will go away.
HOW MUCH TIME: From my experience, I think the
above-mentioned tasks should not take more than
5:7 days but with full time study.
Remember: "Unless you are willing to drench
yourself in your work beyond the capacity of the
average man, you are just not cut out for positions at
the top." Watch this video to know the secret formula
to get the perfect score and you will know what I
mean http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDyKGOyIYJ0

Step 19: Full practice tests

 "The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in

battle." an ancient Chinese military proverb yet
perfectly apply to this situation. You should
understand that taking full tests is mandatory for
your stamina on the test day. Also, you need to mimic
the same environment that you will have on the test
day. For instance, it was very frustrating that a lot of
people are talking around me during my exam and
this did disrupt my concentration. So, as a solution to
this problem, I suggest switching on your TV and
radio during your practice test to make you get used
to all the blabbing going on around you on exam day.
The following CDs contain complete tests with real
answer samples that gain a perfect score. Try to
practice sincerely and honestly and you will
accomplish your goal:
1. Barron's TOEFL IBT CD (7 Tests)
Part 1
http://www.mediafire.com/?dfv9dj0infk45kd

Part 2
http://www.mediafire.com/?qf97jx3il19293x

Part 3
http://www.mediafire.com/?0f0oa9l9bgsvj6p

Part 4
http://www.mediafire.com/?n7bn78juczum5qr

2. Cambridge Preparation for the TOEFL CD (7

Tests)
Part 1
http://www.mediafire.com/?9p9j6y1vvgps3yp
Part 2
http://www.mediafire.com/?yc40814wdn51l2x

Part 3
http://www.mediafire.com/?hfdd3b0wzsqjq6z
3. Kaplan TOEFL IBT 2010-2011 (4 Tests)
Part 1
http://www.mediafire.com/?75r5x7rhvj06e9y
Part 2
http://www.mediafire.com/?014vqkb6wabwo2q
4. Longman Preparation for the TOEFL IBT CD (2
Tests + 8 mini tests)
Mediafire folder for the whole thing
http://www.mediafire.com/?cr67b9q6f5904

N.B the speed of conversations and lectures for

the LISTENING SECTION in the Longman CD is
very slow and not exam-related.
Practice CDs contain a total of 20 full tests; finish one
at first as a trial exam, another one as a progress
exam and nine exams in each subsection (Steps 15,
16, 17 and 18). This will leave you with 9 full tests to
be practiced at this step.
HOW MUCH TIME: This step should not take more
than 5 days of your time.

Step 20: Handling test night

After a long time preparing for the exam, you should
relief the stress and stop studying the night before
the exam. If you want to practice this day, you should
at least leave apart the section that annoys you
most. The worry will only have negative effects on
your performance, and make you more nervous.
Remember to Select the recipients of the FREE four
official score reports before 10 p.m. if you did not do
so when you registered.

 Prepare the needed documents for the exam;

registration number and valid I.D. In my exam day, I
saw a lot of people who couldn't take the test since
they bring their national I.Ds not their passport. See
this link http://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/test_day/id
Watch this video to understand what to expect on the
exam day
http://www.ets.org/s/toefl/flash/15571_toefl_prometric.html

Know exactly where your test site is; I used Google

maps for mine.
SLEEP TIGHT!

>>Mistake 13<<
Although I'm a long sleeper (needs 8:10 hours
minimum), I slept only for 3 hours that night. This is
my biggest mistake through my whole preparation
period, since it impaired my concentration on exam
day and made me more vulnerable to distractions
made by other examinees during their speaking
section.

Step 21: Handling test day

Good breakfast is mandatory since this is a long
stressful exam and Energy will be used up, so boost
your stamina for it!
Choose your method of transportation wisely; you
don't want the trip to be complicated.
You should arrive at the test center at least 30
minutes before your exam time.
>>Mistake 14<<
I did not have a breakfast; I went to the test center
by metro, which was a big mistake. If you use it at

august at 7.30 am, you would know what I mean. All

that put me in bad mood and gave me headache in
the middle of my exam. So, choose every step
carefully.
A useful tip I read somewhere is to make use of the
mandatory ten minutes break. Choose a test taker
and start talking in English with him/her. This will
make you think in English, hence pave the way for
the speaking section.

In a nutshell, TOEFL preparation should go through four

phases: English proficiency improvement phase (Steps 6,
7, 8, and 9), academic skills acquiring phase (10, 11, 12,
and 13), strategies with practice phase (15, 16, 17, and
18) and full exams phase (19). Based on this plan, total
time of preparation is 50 days. Since this is a quite long
time, dedicate another 6 or 7 days to be like breaks or
vacations throughout the whole period to avoid mental
fatigue.
Finally, don't compare yourself to anyone else; just find
out your weak points and improve them.

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