TOEFL iBT Strategies

Week 1
 Listening
“It’s so hard! They talk too fast, and use too many new words. I’ll never improve!”
 Listening Overview General tips
Quality of notes
• Two types: Campus • You must answer
questions AFTER
conversations and Academic you’ve listened.
lectures • You must be able to
apply your notes back
• Long and short format to your test.
sections
• Short Format: 6 excerpts
• Long Format: 9 excerpts Relax and don’t
be intimidated by
(some of the excerpts will not
the listening
be graded)
passages. You can
do this!
Campus Conversations Setting up your notes
Location:
prof. office

Problem:
st wants grade change,
was ill, has doctor’s note

You will listen to two students discussing Solution:

a problem, or a “service encounter” –
interacting with some kind of campus make-up project
facility.
Do next?
These conversations have an informal, Write proposal for
conversational tone, with relatively few
new vocabulary items. make-up proj.
Academic Lectures
• Familiarize yourself with more
difficult vocabulary items
beforehand.
• Like the previous section, focus on
the organization of the lecture to
identify key information.
You will listen to a lecture and answer
questions, similar to the reading
• Recognize organizational patterns
section. They can be from a broad range of the lecture, and highlight them
of topics, do NOT let the vocabulary (i.e.
Sciences) overwhelm you.
in your notes.
 Listening recap

Campus Conversations Academic Lectures

• Short discussions between a • An excerpt from a university
student and a campus facility level lecture.
• Informal, conversational tone • Formal tone
• Few new vocabulary items • Unfamiliar, technical vocabulary
• Location, Problem, Solution, Do items
Next? • Don’t be overwhelmed by
vocabulary; focus on
organization.
 Reading
“”I don’t need to practice reading, I can do that at home.”
Vocabulary from Context
• Identify the word form. If it’s a noun, look for adjectives describing the
noun. If it’s an adjective, look at the noun it’s describing.
• Use the sentence structure to look for cues – if it’s part of a list of like
items, or if you can see a contrast in the sentence.
• Look for word roots, suffixes, and prefixes that you recognize, ex. “un”,
“pre”, “pro”, etc.
• When desperate, try substituting each word choice into the text to see
if it makes sense.
Sentence Insertion
Task
Ss must look at a paragraph from
the reading and add another
sentence to it. There are four
places where the sentence could
go.
Strategy
• Look for a referent in the sentence to be
matched in. Usually a “these”, “this”,
“Another example..” which gives ss a clue
where it might go.
• If they have lots of time on their hands, they
could match the sentence into the paragraph
and read it through each time. Sentences can
be match in and out before committing to an
answer.
Understanding Detail Questions
Task: Students must identify correct
details from the reading.
• large amounts of new
vocabulary in these questions.
• for the sake of the test, it’s not
necessary to understand every
word.
Strategy
• Details are located in the body paragraphs,
and take the form of examples, descriptions,
definitions or explanations.
• Take notes, don’t underline! If two or more
things are discussed, have them divide the
notes so key details will be associated with
the correct term.