Why
TOEFL
The main reason behind TOEFL is that
you can complete your Education in English successfully.
The TOEFL is now only available as a computer-adaptive
test. This is how it works: instead of having
a pre-determined mixture of easy, medium, and
hard questions, the computer will select questions
for you based on how well you are doing. The
first question will be of medium difficulty;
if you get it right, the second question will
be selected from a large group of questions
that are a little harder; if you get the first
question wrong, the second will be a little
easier. The result is that the test automatically
adjusts to your skill level. But the Reading
Comprenhson is not computer adaptive. The Tough
questions have more credit than easier ones.
• TOEFL
score is valid for two years.
• You can
take TOEFL once in a month.
• 213(CBT)
is equivalent to 550(Paper based) and 250
to 600.
• You can
request paper for writing section, but it
may delay your score report.
• TOEFL
may not be required by students of those countries
whose native language is English .
The Test of English as a Foreign Language
(TOEFL®) is undergoing some important
changes. In order to meet the challenge of
providing a more comprehensive assessment
of an applicant’s ability to understand
and use the English language in an academic
environment, the next generation TOEFL®
has been developed to assess all four language
skills - listening, reading, writing, and
speaking. While some questions in each of
the sections will be similar to questions
found on the current computer-based TOEFL®
test (CBT), others will be new. The scoring
system will change as well. Each of the four
language skills will now be reported on a
scale of 0 to 25 and there will also be a
total score. In addition, the next generation
TOEFL® will no longer have computer-adaptive
sections; it will be a linear assessment test
covering a full range of question difficulty.
Note taking will be allowed on the new TOEFL®
in order to better reflect real-life academic
situations. The new TOEFL® will take approximately
four hours to finish.
Starting in July 2004, students will be introduced
to this new version of the TOEFL® on the
Internet. Full-length tests will be unproctored
(i.e.: not supervised), and the scores will
be given to the examinee only. In September
2005, the next generation TOEFL® will
begin to be administered at official ETS test
centers.
A very important change to the TOEFL®
is the inclusion of a mandatory speaking component
- the Academic Speaking Test (AST). This test
will last approximately 20 minutes, and will
take place over the telephone.Your responses
will be recorded on tape and then reviewed
later and given a score. During the test you
will be asked six questions, two of which
will focus on familiar topics. The other four
will ask about short conversations, lectures,
and reading passages. Both the questions and
the reading passages will be printed in the
test book. The time you have to prepare your
response and speak will be printed below each
question. The preparation time begins as soon
as the question is finished, and you will
be told when to begin speaking. See below
for examples.
Example 1 :
(Script)
Narrator: Number 1. You will now be asked
to give your opinion about a familiar topic.
After you hear the question, you will have
15 seconds to prepare your response and 45
seconds to speak.
Some students study for classes individually.
Others study in groups. Which method of studying
do you think is better and why?
Preparation time: 15 seconds
Response time: 45 seconds
Example 2 :
(Script)
Narrator: Number 2. You will now read a short
passage and then listen to a talk on the same
topic. You will then be asked a question about
them. After you hear the question, you will
have 30 seconds to prepare your response and
60 seconds to speak.
The administration at Central University feels
it needs to find a way for more people to
be able to attend sporting events. Read the
article from the university newspaper below.
You will have 45 seconds to read it. Begin
reading now.
Narrator
Now listen to a student who is speaking
at a student council meeting about the stadium
plans.
Student : I’m all for saving money,
but money isn’t everything. If you look
at the area around the stadium, you’ll
see that expansion would cause the main street
to be rerouted right around a main classroom
building. Can you imagine the added noise?
Also, they’ll have to build where there
are now student parking lots, and we barely
have enough parking spaces as it is. And you
know that it’ll take up part of the
large open area next to the Student Center
and that’s become a really popular place
for students to hang out in good weather.
This is what they should be worried about,
not money.
Narrator
The student expresses her opinion
about one of the university’s plans
for a new stadium. State her opinion and explain
the reasons she gives for holding that opinion.
Preparation time: 30 seconds
Response time: 60 seconds
Conclusion
As you can see from these two examples,
the new TOEFL® contains questions that
integrate the four basic communication skills;
thus, the test is an excellent measure of
how well individuals are able to communicate
in english in an academic situation. This
integrated approach will help students prepare
for success in the real academic environments
they will be in once they begin their studies.
ESL-Pro, Free-TOEFL, and Free-English will
be closely monitoring the introduction of
the next generation TOEFL® and will be
among the first to offer high-quality test
preparation materials for this exam. Check
back with us regularly to stay tuned!
For
any further information on Know Your Test,
contact us at : info@pacasia.org
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