TOEFL

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​ Notes for TOEFL prep. I enrolled in a New Oriental online course, but I still need to prepare properly myself—offline classes are too expensive, and I do not want the commute. That is roughly the situation.

​ Practice makes perfect!!!

​ TOEFL is hard. Study as hard as I can.

OK—passed it outright. Not a spectacular score, but enough for my needs.

Overview

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​ Tried the past 30 questions once: hard and fast—only 14 correct, but still about 20 points.

​ Tried 20 questions again; timing felt a bit more comfortable.

​ First listen can hit 20+; the harder bits are often English-culture related. Listening questions do not chase extreme detail—that helps.

​ First speaking attempt felt awful, but the score was 20? Maybe the accent is okay. I do not think it is that hard to train—speak more, think more.

​ Watched a few prep videos: everyone’s situation differs; solid preparation can get you there.

​ For vocabulary: XDF TOEFL Pro and MoMo. MoMo expands vocabulary; XDF TOEFL Pro collects unfamiliar words from reading and listening.

Daily practice:

​ Vocab + listening or reading (word bank) + speaking or writing (material bank) + class

​ Prep is basically that. The only hard part is actually doing it.

Speaking

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​ Personally I find TOEFL speaking easier than IELTS. The last three tasks lean on listening; Task 1 needs heavy accumulation and practice. First: dare to speak. Second: fill the time. Third: speak well.

Task1 Independent Speaking

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Finishing is less important than speaking clearly.

When something costs time and energy:

Should one keep a pet?

Should one learn an instrument?

Method 1: identify different losers and beneficiaries:

Method 2: tell a concrete story to fill time:

Add some emotional sentences:

When out of content, force-fill the time:

Common Material

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Entertainment / leisure —> relax and reduce stress

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Work: projects tasks

relax and unwind

Save time for more important things.

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Improve communication skills

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during the course

Broaden horizons

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Task2 Conversation Opinion

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1. Note the topic

2. Understand the stance; take notes

Clarity beats completeness.

You can ignore the timer.

Speed notes

Drop vowels—common among native note-takers too

food fd

week wk

room rm

reward rwd

housework hswk

nbhd

Here you need to learn more new expressions.

Student suggestion letter:

Student’s proposal

Task3 Academic Concept Explanation

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How to answer:

A model answer:

Key phrases:

In this case……

as a result……

which means……

Chain sentences together when you blank out.

Expressing liking:

be fond of……

chances are—high probability

Task4 Academic Lecture Summary

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Basic template:

Start from the prompt or a short summary.

Clarity first—if you cannot cover later points, skip them.

1. Deep-sea organism survival

Buffer: get a greate

Example cue: let’s talk about

2. Target customers

It’s very clear that……=Apparently

3. Ancient animal domestication

Writing

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Practice methods:

Vince on Bilibili.

30-day WeChat public-account drills.

Sentence Bank

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Social-issue analysis:

Use parallel nouns + precise adverbs

Tradition conflict: set off fireworks

Topics are abstract; write detailed examples.

A more selfish or more altruistic society:

Academic Writing

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​ Clear expression; relevance; coherence.

​ Strict plagiarism checks.

​ Explanation, examples, detail.

​ Varied, accurate, idiomatic wording; few grammar or word-choice errors.

​ Keep it short; prioritize logic.

Closed vs open questions

1. Closed questions: choose a side two views —> after choosing, develop a new angle (you may expand the original view in detail, but that is discouraged—go deeper)

Choose A: concession + refute B, but make your own stance clear

2. Open questions: you may choose, or give your own view —> state a clear position (if you can invent examples, it is open)

Is A good? —> a moderate answer is fine.

What is A? —> decide what it is.

Argumentation Techniques

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Topic Sentence:

1. Write a complete sentence: I agree with the statement that + ……

2. should be an abstract view point

3. needs to be concise

4. guides the whole paragraph

Cause and effect:

get access sth / access to sth

because of thanks to Since Because

Contrast:

In addition…… furthermore……

For instance…… for example……

Unlike the modern spots, the historical sites usually show(provide exposure to) long history and impressive culture to the spectators.

sb be exposed to culture./sth provide exposure to.

Compared with……

By contrast……—> introduces a contrasting line of thought after the previous sentence

Contrary to the common belief that……—> introduces an opposing idea.

Concession–turn.—> useful; more dialectical.

Case-by-case discussion: (classify, but avoid pure negation of others)

Integrated Writing

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Hypothesis type / pros-and-cons type

Take brief notes—copy English keywords

plausible seemingly reasonable but possibly wrong

The lecture rebuts the reading point by point.

Still listening-heavy—> the more detail the better; write furiously what you hear

Rewrite the reading; for listening, write the original wording when possible (paraphrase if you cannot).

Listening

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Vocab + background knowledge + practice

What kinds of words to note:

1. Contrast / turn words

2. Negation words

3. Extreme words

​ superlatives, comparatives, ordinals

Conversations

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Office Hour

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S-P

S-E

Three elements:

1. People

2. Setting—place, time, etc.

3. Plot

? problem R reason S suggestion / solution

Persona: undergraduate

​ 1. major 2. year

subject:

Anthropology: Clovis native american

Ancient people:

1. arrival in the Americas

2. historical development hunting&gathering->nomadic (pastoral)&domesticate->agriculture

3. extinction climate, disease

Main-idea approach for conversations:

Read the question:

1. why — purpose main idea, ~90% purpose of an example?

​ Ask who? who answers? (before entering; student’s first question)

​ Answer location: often at the beginning

2. what — content main idea

​ “ball possession” / who controls the talk

Writing a paper

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paper (TOEFL’s word)

1. topic

2. introduction

3. body

4. reference

Scope too broad postpone deadline—extension outline

comment

Service Encounters

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registration dorm club bookstore / shop volunteer internship, etc.

Double negatives like not unlike sth—not unlike

faculty — teaching staff

department—on campus, not “dept” in the business sense; means college / school

funding money, funds, sponsorship

Lectures

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​ History, archaeology, anthropology, psychology, sociology, business/economics, philosophy, education (mostly humanities themes—STEM jargon is too specialized)

Archaeology

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site location grave/tomb

form structure

function function

digging->tool fossil artwork

tribe->tribe war

Basic structure:

Attitude questions in lectures:

Degree of certainty:

affirmative / negative / uncertain

(mostly near the end)

Art & History

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Brief background:

Fresco (The Last Supper)

Brushstroke

texture canvas surface

canvas oil painting

Portrait painting

Art Criticism critic / connoisseur

1400-1600 Renaissance

1600-1700 Baroco

1700-1800 Rococo

Artist biography lectures

1. unique

2. *style

3. work

4. *event—> how the style formed

5. P — professor’s evaluation—> often very positive

Appreciating a painting:

1. subject

2. background—composition

3. color

4. brushstroke

Artist main-idea answers:

1. the artist

2. their style

3. their works

4. their views

History:

acoustic

Natural Science

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Astronomy and geography are similar

Content main idea—usually simpler (not always).

Question and passage move together

Main-idea questions cover the whole lecture

Replay questions may not

core-mantle-crust-atmosphere

lava-magma

Selection principles:

Zoology / Botany / Ecology

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Animal questions are general; not exotic species.

behaviour—reason

physiology organ/cell brain/heart high frequency; organ function—able to do sth

responsible for

Replay questions

1. ordinary replay

2. inference: imply / infer

​ Answer is not the verbatim line.

​ Use reverse thinking.

Question types:

A: odd tone.

​ Plain: what a but-turn means.

B: full information.

​ Partial information: think upstream; earlier info was incomplete—harder.

Botany:

algae photosynsize

bacteria fungi

Genetics: dna genes

Ecology

ecological problem—humans—remedies—explain the mechanism—examples

Reading

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Sentence Simplification

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​ My take: if you understand the sentence, you do not need grammar—but what blocks understanding is often complex grammar (obviously).

Changes or omissions of key information. Usually ultra-long hard sentences

Sentence: stem + modifiers + logic

predicate

1. Stem—> subject–predicate

2. Modifiers: restrict or supplement

3. Logic: relations between stems—> parallel or primary/secondary

nonessential modifiers

sentence

clause

paraphrase: substitution does partial substitution break meaning?

e.g. : exempli gratia

paleontologists

invasion invasion rate

spore

propagules genetic material

Factual Information

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No fixed form—> based on a given paragraph, you may……

imply->implicit

explicit->overt

limiter + abstract = concrete

in the presence of

Negative Factual Information & Inference

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Incorrect, or information not contained in the passage.

verify—>confirm.

Inferences are fairly direct.

Rhetorical Purpose

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I still think understanding the text solves everything.

be responsible for—cause of…

eliminate–rule out; may aim to exclude a certain view.

view: opinion view hypothesis theory

Paragraph purpose, and relation to other paragraphs.

comprehensive look—broad perspective

Insert Text

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Question 9.

Clear referents or logical links—e.g. They believe constrains the referent to humans.

Parallel: also, other—the two sides may be similar in length

Cause–effect: consequently, thus

Contrast: but, however, on the contrary

delineate: express, describe, depict

And yet (contrast) / thus / also: and can combine with many logical words

Later referents may also point backward.

Expression Bank

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​ For output tasks like writing and speaking—> use sentences.

There is no such secret ingredients. There are no shortcuts.

Listening to our intution and gut feeling is essential.

…,which leads to a sense of frustration.