Avoid These 5 Bad Habits for Realistic TOEFL Practice!

[MarkAndrew]

1) Don’t practice speaking in a quiet room free of distractions! If you want realistic TOEFL Speaking practice, then get your laptop or recording device and sit in a busy room with lots of audio distractions, and practice making your responses with plenty of distractions around you.

Why? It’s simple. On test day, TOEFL test takers are all speaking their responses at the same time in one big hall or classroom. You may be very distracted by the other students making their responses on all sides of you, if you are not prepared for this. Some people are literally paralyzed by it! Instead of complaining about distractions at the exam center (which so many people do), why not prepare for it, and make your practice Speaking responses in a busy room instead of a quiet place?

Being able to filter your intake of information is actually agreat skill for TOEFL and beyond!

2) Don’t write out your TOEFL Speaking Section answers – EVER. Just begin practicing for the Speaking Section with real, natural spoken responses. Remember – REALISTIC pracitce is best. Practice using the 15, 20, or 30 seconds to prepare, along with the real 45 or 60 second response time.

3) Never give yourself a few extra seconds to prepare a TOEFL Speaking response. This takes discipline. It’s honest and realistic preparation that pays off, not cheating and bending the rules during practice. Keep to the letter of the time limits in all sections of the TOEFL.

4) Never think about the Speaking questions before beginning preparation. Realistic practice means getting the topic and then starting your preparation time immediately, just like on the real TOEFL.

5) Don’t select the questions you like from a list of practice TOEFL Speaking questions. If you have such a list, then cover it up, and only uncover one question at a time. FORCE YOURSELF to answer each one, and do not select only the ones you like. This gives you real practice, since the TOEFL Speaking questions will hit you as they are, and you will not have the option to choose this one or that one.

[goodjohn]

Thanks for your insightful contribution.