TOEFL Exam Preparation| How to prepare for TOEFL

The TOEFL exam consists of four sections: listening, reading, speaking, and writing, each with a maximum score of 30 points, making the total score 120 points.

To improve your score, you not only need to practice listening, speaking, reading, and writing, but also need to enhance your vocabulary.

Today, Leapy will introduce TOEFL exam preparation tips from five aspects: vocabulary, listening, reading, speaking, and writing.

1. Vocabulary

The TOEFL exam covers a wide range of content, and a rich vocabulary is crucial for understanding reading and listening materials. Additionally, mastering sufficient vocabulary can make expressions in writing and speaking more authentic.

However, memorizing vocabulary is not like answering questions; there are no shortcuts or quick methods to improve, it can only be accumulated step by step.

Whether using mobile apps or paper books for vocabulary learning doesn’t make a big difference.

Word apps often have a forgetting curve, which is convenient for memorization and allows for learning vocabulary anytime, anywhere. Paper books are more suitable for those who are used to taking notes.

2. Listening

Undoubtedly, a high score in listening also requires a solid foundation in English and a sufficient vocabulary. Therefore, if you have ample time to prepare, it is advisable to be steady and persistent, listening to materials daily, practicing intensive listening, reviewing after listening, and gradually improving your listening skills.

1. Listen to the material at normal speed and complete the exercises.
2. Re-listen to the questions you got wrong and figure out why you made mistakes.
3. Listen to the whole text again at a faster speed, transcribing sentences that you find difficult or unclear.
4. Read the original text and extract unfamiliar vocabulary, key terms, or synonyms.

When listening, consciously train yourself to "listen to English" and control the urge to constantly translate English into your mother tongue in your mind. Take fewer notes during the listening process, focusing more on listening and less on note-taking, and recall the main idea of the entire text after listening.

In addition to intensive listening to materials, you can also occasionally listen to some channels

Here are some recommendations:

1. VOA Learning English

The content of this channel includes news and stories, and the speaking speed is slower, suitable for TOEFL beginners.

2. This American Life

The main content of this channel includes news, essays, memoirs, short stories, etc. The content is lively and interesting, suitable for improving English listening.

However, as Leapy also mentioned earlier, answering questions also involves certain skills. If the preparation time is tight, practicing these skills while intensively listening and extensively practicing daily can also help improve scores:

Firstly, learn how to take notes efficiently and accurately!

In TOEFL listening, there is a huge amount of information and you can only listen once, so note-taking becomes very important to capture details and logical relationships, especially for detail and inference questions. However, note-taking isn't about just writing down all you have heard, but doing it skillfully!

Here are Leapy's note-taking tips:

Use abbreviations and symbols: Develop your own system of abbreviations, like using “&” for “and,” “w/” for “with,” etc., to greatly speed up note-taking.

Practice shorthand: The speed of note-taking is crucial, so practice often. Start with TED Talks or NPR, as their content is rich and the speaking pace is moderate.

Besides improving note-taking skills, pay attention to the following points:

• Listen for the main ideas in lectures

Almost every lecture's first question will be about the main idea of the lecture. This type of question is very common, so understanding the main idea is important. At the beginning of each listening material, the lecturer usually mentions the main topic of the lecture.

Therefore, maintain 100% attention at the beginning of the listening, ensure you catch the central idea of the lecture, and be aware of topic changes!

• Be careful to the speaker's tone

Sometimes you will encounter questions related to the speaker's attitude or opinion.

To answer these questions correctly, you should pay attention to the speaker's tone, whether it’s approving, excited, happy, confused, hesitant, sad, or negative.

Often, even if you don't hear exactly what the speaker says, you can infer the answer from their tone.

• Listen for the main points rather than specific details

TOEFL listening questions rarely test overly specific or trivial details, so there’s no need to focus too much on these. Instead, grasp the overall idea and understand the key points of the lecture.

• Predict the content

Before the listening section starts, the topics and questions are your clues. Predicting possible content can help you locate and grasp key information faster while listening. For example, if the topic is about “global warming,” you can expect discussions about climate change, environmental impact, or scientific data. This way, when these topics arise, you can quickly respond and understand their significance. So, making predictions can greatly improve your listening efficiency.

3. Reading

Here are some tips from Leapy for practicing reading

First and foremost, vocabulary!

In addition to your daily vocabulary tasks, after completing each reading passage, review and memorize unfamiliar academic terms encountered.

Visualize the content in your mind

Reading passages are often long, and it's easy to forget the beginning by the time you reach the end. Therefore, try to visualize the content of the article to deepen your memory.

Pay close attention to negative words and tone words in the article such as "barely" and "rarely", as they can help you better understand the author's point of view.

Watch for synonyms

The correct answer is always a paraphrase of the original text. When encountering vocabulary questions, if unsure, guess the meaning in context.

Dealing with summary questions

For summary questions, first eliminate options that are clearly details or not mentioned in the text, then choose from the remaining options.

4. Speaking

According to the official speaking scoring criteria, it is evident that general description, delivery, language use, and topic development are the four important dimensions of speaking assessment.

Therefore, to achieve a high score, we should focus on our pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, as well as topic development.

• Pronunciation and Intonation

Pronunciation and intonation are very important parts of oral expression. Intonation and tone could convey the thoughts you want to express. In our daily practice, we can not only record and listen to our own pronunciation and intonation, but also use some software to score our speaking.

The speaking evaluation feature of Lingoleap could score your pronunciation and provide audio recordings, making it very suitable for students who need to practice pronunciation and intonation.

Delivery The delivery of the speaking answer is generally clear and fluid, with a consistent pace and only occasional pauses. However, there are some areas where the speech could be improved. For example, try to avoid using filler words like "um" or "uh" and focus on maintaining a steady pace throughout the response.Additionally, work on enunciating each word clearly to ensure accurate pronunciation.

• Grammar and Vocabulary

For students with problems in grammar and vocabulary, in addition to daily vocabulary memorization and grammar review, it is also necessary to practice independent and integrated speaking every day.

The TOEFL speaking section on Lingoleap, with its mock exams and practice functions, can score your responses, point out your problems in your grammar and expression, and provide suggestions for refinement. Through speaking practice and testing, you can learn how to reconstruct sentences in a more complex and accurate manner and how to use more synonyms effectively.

• Communication and Topic Development

If you cannot make accurate and targeted statements around the topic, or if the details and examples you used are not specific enough, it becomes challenging to strongly support the argumentative overview.

In the scoring system of Lingoleap, this aspect is also evaluated, and based on that, suggestions for improvement are provided.

5. Writing

For students preparing to study in English-speaking countries, clear written English expression is a key skill, both in academic settings and in everyday life. Most of the universities require students to write various academic essays or dissertations, and if the writing structure is disorganized and not fluent, it affects the grades.

The TOEFL writing section is specifically designed to assess whether candidates possess the ability to write in an academic environment. The key to scoring high in TOEFL writing lies in thoroughly understanding the requirements of TOEFL writing and honing academic writing skills.

The key points of writing task can be summarized as follows:

1. Use a structured template, such as the five-paragraph structure, to ensure clear logic in the essay.
2. Clearly state your viewpoints and stance.
3. Provide specific examples and details.
4. Use appropriate conjunctions and transitional vocabulary to ensure logical connections and smoothness between sentences.
5. Avoid repeated use of the same words and filler words.
6. Pay attention to checking grammar and spelling.
7. Flexibly use different sentence structures and patterns to enhance the diversity of language expression.
8. Include a concession paragraph to add logical depth.

1. Master the correct writing framework

A well-structured essay typically consists of three basic parts:

Introduction - A brief paragraph of 2 to 5 sentences introducing the main topic. It should present an argument that directly responds to the question and includes 2 to 3 main points that will be discussed in the body of the essay.

Body - 2 to 3 paragraphs supporting your thesis statement. Each paragraph should cover 1 main point.

Conclusion - A short paragraph of 3 to 5 sentences summarizing your argument and drawing conclusions, restating the key points of your essay.Focus on the quality of writing rather than the quantity of words

2. Practice writing different sentence structures

Some students may think that longer is better.

However, a concise and clear written response helps ensure the quality of the essay, and your TOEFL writing score depends on the structure and clarity of your response to the task.

When preparing for the writing section of the exam, your main goal should be to adapt as much as possible to the writing process. You should strive to write a clear and persuasive essay to support your main argument.

3. Pay attention to checking and proofreading your essay

A variety of sentence structures is key to a high score in TOEFL writing. Long and complex sentences throughout the essay will not earn extra points; they can even lead to deductions.

High-scoring sample essays often feature diverse sentence structures, including shorter, more direct sentences as well as longer, more complex ones.

4. Pay attention to checking and proofreading your essay

If you have a few minutes left after completing an essay, use the remaining time to read and revise your work, avoiding writing errors.

The most common writing mistakes include:

• Spelling errors, including improper use of homophones
• Punctuation errors
• Subject-verb disagreement
• Repeated words or phrases
• Incorrect use of vocabulary

It can be difficult to notice these issues in our own practice.

But Lingoleap's writing feedback can also help you recognize problems in your essays.

By consistently using Lingoleap's writing evaluation function every week, your writing skills will get greatly improved.