Taking TOEFL iBT Experience

How I prepared and how the test went through (2015)

10 min readAug 22, 2018

Hi! This is a “revamped” version of my previous blogger post. I prefer my readers to refer to this new article due to the dramatic nature of my old post 😺.

Goal of Taking the Test

I took the TOEFL test to fulfill the requirements of transferring to another university abroad, particularly Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). I actually planned to reapply for Nanyang Technological University (NTU) with my TOEFL score, but they suddenly did not allow me from taking my second chance. A new rule was imposed banning second-time test takers 😕. Even if I got rejected from HKUST, I could still use the scores for student exchange programs in the future at ITB. In the end, until my graduation, I never get the chance to use my TOEFL score 😢, but it’s still a worthy experience.

Test Structure

This article explains the test’s structure perfectly. Here’s the summary:

Reading (3 scored reading passages and additional 1 unscored passage, multiple choice, 60–80 minutes)
Listening (6 scored audio lectures/conversations and additional 3 unscored lectures/conversations, multiple choice, 60–90 minutes)
Break (10 minutes)
Speaking (6 tasks, 20 minutes)
Writing (2 tasks, integrated and independent task, 50 minutes)

Note that if you get the additional reading passage, you will not get additional listening conversations, and vice versa. I heard that the unscored portions were new materials that were given to current test takers in order to determine the materials’ difficulty for future test takers.

Registering

You can register for a test at the official TOEFL website. Even if you don’t intend to take it yet, just sign up first because you will not be charged for anything. After you are done signing up, registering for a test is easy. You just need to choose your desired location and date. For example, in Bandung, the there are only two possible locations which are TBI Dago and Vista Education, both only offer the test on weekends.

I scheduled my test to be on Sunday, 1st February 2015 at TBI Dago. I only chose my home and HKUST as the only scores report destination. You can actually send four free scores reports to any destination. It was extremely expensive and I vowed to myself that I need to get a good score in this test. In 2015, the cost was $180, around Rp2,200,000 at that time. As of 2018, it’s $195, approximately Rp2,800,000. I paid the fees using my mother’s credit card. After the registration was done, I spent January’s holiday weeks to spend some time to prepare for the test (along with preparing for SAT Subject Tests).

Preparations

I strongly recommend you to open this kaskus thread. It has a lot of suggestions, especially for recommended books. I downloaded four books (not sure how to get it now, cannot help sorry) accompanied by each book’s simulation software: Barron, Longman, The Offficial Guide, and Cambridge TOEFL books. My primary book is definitely The Official Guide. As I was afraid of the speaking test, I practiced all the speaking sections in all the books. I additionally did few reading and listening practices using Longman book.

These are some preparations that I have done for each particular section:

A. Reading

I cannot tell you how long I’ve spent for the preparation. I think I already studied probably six months before the test, mostly studying new vocabularies. I also regularly read English news. I tried to do two Longman’s mock tests and I scored perfect on both. Then, I just ignored my concern on the reading section as I thought it would not be a problem at all :).

B. Listening

I can tell you that I suck at listening. Though my English knowledge is much better than my friends’ (at least vocabulary wise), I still think they hear and understand English conversations better than I do. I only trained a month prior to the test by using Longman and The Official Guide’s programs. Well, all of the conversations are spoken with slow-spoken and clear English. This was why I thought the real TOEFL’s listening would be easy as well. Nevertheless, I was wrong. Speakers in the real TOEFL’s listening sections talk so fast. Some questions may ask you to choose multiple correct answers out of 5 options 😱. If you suck at listening as well, please prepare a lot better.

C. Speaking

Trained the skill one month before the test, and I definitely feared this one most. I devoured all speaking questions on all of the books’ programs that I have. Even until now, I am not able to answer the first two questions (experience/opinion and preference) smoothly. The questions were like, “What is your best childhood moment”, and I was always like, WTF, could I really pick a childhood memory in a 15 seconds interval? 😢 For the other four questions, with a lot of training, I managed to convey my ideas more clearly. Practices do extremely help!

D. Writing

I took a writing class in campus, and I think this is already sufficient for my writing skills. I also learned how the integrated task is and how to tackle it. The reading passage will usually (as what happened in my test) offer three solutions/opinions, and the lecture will reject/support all of it. You just need to explain each point in both passages in one paragraph. Here is one template that I used on the test:

The reading said a b c; however, the lecture disagrees with the passage by presenting these following reasons.
First, the lecture asserts that a is … even though the passage claims that… (one paragraph). Second, the lecture declares that b is .. (one paragraph). Lastly, c is .. according to the lecturer (one paragraph).
To conclude, the lecture sums up points which make the reading passage’s assertions doubtful.

Should I Take a Paid Preparatory Course?

The only way to ace this test is by practicing regularly. Everything can be found on the internet, so I’m not sure if any TOEFL tutorship might give you any new insight (unless you’re lazy to research for the test). I personally did not take any additional paid course. It’s not about the money, I just like learning independently. This way, I can determine my own pace, i.e. if at one point I’m weak at speaking, I can flexibly put more effort into it. If you have difficulties on disciplining yourself, I guess that’s when a preparatory course might help.

Test Day

I was in panic after discovering a car-free-day in Dago. It’s Sunday!!! Therefore, I could not park my motorcycle at TBI directly. I parked mine at my campus, ITB, and walked along the street for fifteen minutes until I arrived at the test center.

There were approximately 10 people in the test center. All of the guys look ‘smart’, and this fact made me quite nervous. I was asked to enter the test room for a briefing. After that, we all went back out from that room and queued to be photographed and checked for our identities. Then, we were all assigned into chosen computers. I got the computer number one (I’m not sure whether it was chosen randomly or it was because I registered the earliest). The first thing that you will do is to confirm your identity shown in the monitor and then you will be given a task to speak answering the “Describe the city you live in” question. You can answer anything actually, even singing alphabet as the girl beside me did (she looked like she retook the test). It is only for the microphone’s volume adjustment.

a. Reading

Ding dong, the reading section began. Oh well, I was quite sad because I only got three passages. That means… I would have to face three additional listening passages 😠 I must warn you that the reading questions here are much harder than The Official Guide’s mock tests. There are a lot of quite hard vocabularies like don, confounded, elaborate, etc. The passages are also somehow boring.

I think I did well. The only question that I was quite unsure is a summary of a passage about dinosaur. I think that was the reason why my reading score did not reach perfection. I was left with 7 minutes after I was done answering the questions.

b. Listening

I really hate this part and suddenly I was forced to face nine passages 😢.

Well, the first three listening passages went well. But really, although the conversations were still interesting, the speakers talked really fast, and they often cut each other’s speech. Then the fourth listening passage popped out. It was a conversation between a black lady (as depicted in the picture lol) and a mechanic. It was really damn hard to understand what the lady was saying. Her accent was bizarre… The mechanic also talked really fast and he often interrupted the lady’s speaking. Out of 5 questions only asking for that conversation, I could not answer 3 😠. I was truly hoping that this was only an unscored conversation.

Thankfully, the other later listening passages went on normally. Unlike the practice tests where I usually scored perfectly, I was doubtful on perhaps one question per passage. Oh God, how much my scores are going to be? Again, if you think you suck at listening like I do, you might want to allocate a lot of time to train your listening skills with harder practice materials.

Break

It was a sad break actually as I lamented my performance on the listening section. But well, life must go on. I only brought my Teh Kotak outside and waited for 10 minutes. Later, my name was called and I began the last two sections.

c. Speaking

There were a lot of guys speaking simultaneously answering the questions. I read a lot of blogs and most of the writers complain about the noisy situation. Nonetheless, the situation was not as chaotic as I first thought. Wearing the headset is sufficient to prevent you from the distractions. There might be some distractions, however. For instance, there were two a**holes in my room who spoke like they were delivering a public speech even though their pronunciations were horrifying. Before the test began, the microphone volume adjustment task emerged for the second time.

After that, I started the speaking section! The first question asked me about “Do you study in a group, study in a group, or study by yourself?” and I managed to answer this question well as I once spoke about this in a practice test. However, I struggled on the second question: “Some people want to be fashionable, some don’t. Which one do you prefer?” I do not want to tell you my answer because it was completely ridiculous 👽. The other questions were easy for me. You just need to make good notes from the lectures and voice your thoughts clearly. I can assure you that I did not speak fluently like an answer example in the Youtube. I answered like “The ancient civilization, umm, has, two, umm, ….” I’m not sure about the criteria of score of 4, but I hope that my last responses were excellent enough.

d. Writing

The first one is the integrated task. Easy as pie! I even finished the task for 13 minutes. The independent’s topic task was unfortunate for me. I was very clueless, and I believe I would screw up my scores. The question asked you to agree or disagree to this statement: “TV gives more negative influences than positive ones to young poeple.” I was dumb that after I decided to oppose the statement, I altered the whole plan to support the statement. Indeed, I wasted a lot of time, perhaps around 8 minutes. Anyway, I finished the essay with 315 words in it. Then, the time ended and I was allowed to leave the test room.

At the end of the test, I was really scared of my scores, especially the Listening and the Writing sections. What if my listening score were only 20. Well, let’s hope that the total scores are at least 90.

Results

It was really on the 10th day after the test (11th February). I somehow woke up at 3.00 am for no reason. Then I checked my phone and, uh, there was this sent email from ETS at 1.00 am. I was quite reluctant as I wonder whether I should view the scores or not. If I got bad scores, then I could not sleep, and if I got great scores, I could not sleep either 😅. After getting the urge to take a dump, I decided to bring my phone and viewed the results in the toilet.

Unbelievable actually.. I got 106!

PRAISE LORD FOR THE LISTENING SECTION’S SCORE! I assume that I did great on the listening section because the black lady’s conversation was only the additional listening passage. I was also just not confident enough while the answers I gave were actually true 🙌.

As I predicted, I only got “fair” score (2.5–3.5) on the independent writing. I also got “fair” score on the first and second questions of the speaking sections. Others are dubbed as good. Unlike the old tests in which you could only view the score, for the 2015 tests (and onward probably), you can also download a PDF report on the website! This one will need time though. I got mine on 18th February, that is one week after the scores. Take notes that this is only your temporary record, as on both pages of the PDF, there is this “not an official report” sentence. The official one would be the delivered results later or the one that you asked to be delivered to your desired destination.

Update: Yay, I received the letter after approximately one month! I always thought that it is going to be a hard-paper certificate, but well it is just a usual letter…