Thank you for your information. I need to gain a toefl score of 500 on paper-based test for admittance to a College in North America. I have currently score of 370. I would like to enter college in fall of 2009. Is it reasonable to think I can make this improvement in this time?
toefl score
I tried the Toefl questions on Livemocha. After a while, I got a bit fed up with them. I started to feel that it was a non-sensical exercise with hair splitting questions.
I noticed that when I was in Poland that quite often the textbooks would contain mistakes in English. Also, the English Exercises would be quite demanding for a native speaker because they were quite demanding! Sometimes you would have to think to yourself, what exactly is it that they want?
At a certain point you have to recognise that getting a high score in Toefl and learning English are two different things. Perhaps if you gave some examples of the questions that you found difficult or failed, then it would possible to make a judgment.
Probably the best advice is to keep practicing the tests until your scores start to improve.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
To give an example.
I was a little concerned about the spelling of "non-sensical". In particular, I thought I might have spelt 'sensical' incorrectly.
MS Word picked it up as an error. Yet when I used Google, it turned out to be a common spelling. In the form that I have got it 'non-sensical', I think that it is acceptable. But in a test, you probably should spell the word as 'nonsensical'.
In fact, that is what Google does.
Did you mean: nonsensical
It does not recognise 'non-sensical' and only accepts 'nonsensical'. Which to me, is a stylist difference. But if you are sitting a test, you have to know the 'House Style', particularly if you are being marked by a 'machine'.
I noticed that when I was in Poland that quite often the textbooks would contain mistakes in English. Also, the English Exercises would be quite demanding for a native speaker because they were quite demanding! Sometimes you would have to think to yourself, what exactly is it that they want?
At a certain point you have to recognise that getting a high score in Toefl and learning English are two different things. Perhaps if you gave some examples of the questions that you found difficult or failed, then it would possible to make a judgment.
Probably the best advice is to keep practicing the tests until your scores start to improve.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
To give an example.
I was a little concerned about the spelling of "non-sensical". In particular, I thought I might have spelt 'sensical' incorrectly.
MS Word picked it up as an error. Yet when I used Google, it turned out to be a common spelling. In the form that I have got it 'non-sensical', I think that it is acceptable. But in a test, you probably should spell the word as 'nonsensical'.
In fact, that is what Google does.
Did you mean: nonsensical
It does not recognise 'non-sensical' and only accepts 'nonsensical'. Which to me, is a stylist difference. But if you are sitting a test, you have to know the 'House Style', particularly if you are being marked by a 'machine'.
Thank you for your advice but can you answer the question? Is very important to me for my immediate plans.
When are you taking the test? Right before starting school? If you have a month or two, then yes, it's very possible. The single best strategy I know is: get 10 or 15 novels in English, and spend at least 3 hours reading each day. Don't check every single word in the dictionary, only check enough to understand what's going on. You will learn by absorption/context, and you will learn a LOT.
To make this work (so you don't get discouraged/give up), pick books that you find interesting. Harry Potter, Robert Jordan ("The Wheel of Time"), David Gemmell are some of my favorites when picking up a new language - you choose whatever works for you.
I do most of my language learning this way. You can learn a language to a fully functioning level in a month if you have multiple hours to read each day, provided the language isn't totally alien to you (such as Chinese once was to me). Since you only need a certain level of improvement, you should be able to achieve it. But it will take effort. If you give up after a few days, you won't get very far.
(I seem to recall that TOEFL also has a listening component - if so, spend part of your time listening to audiobooks or radio. Google This American Life, for instance - you can stream the show for free, and it's a lot of fun.)
To make this work (so you don't get discouraged/give up), pick books that you find interesting. Harry Potter, Robert Jordan ("The Wheel of Time"), David Gemmell are some of my favorites when picking up a new language - you choose whatever works for you.
I do most of my language learning this way. You can learn a language to a fully functioning level in a month if you have multiple hours to read each day, provided the language isn't totally alien to you (such as Chinese once was to me). Since you only need a certain level of improvement, you should be able to achieve it. But it will take effort. If you give up after a few days, you won't get very far.
(I seem to recall that TOEFL also has a listening component - if so, spend part of your time listening to audiobooks or radio. Google This American Life, for instance - you can stream the show for free, and it's a lot of fun.)