A native resident of Italy, Kris has been taking an Online TOEFL Course called “The 7-Step System to pass the TOEFL iBT.” Like many European countries, Italy has had some monumental financial problems, and it appears that no one will be able to take care of Kris but Kris himself. In other words, it is nearly impossible for him to find a job right now, so he will need to figure out a way to be self-supporting. So, he set his sights on becoming a free-lance physical therapist, which is why he needs to take the take the TOEFL exam.
In fact, he needs to score a minimum of 21, 18, 26, and 24 on the reading, listening, speaking, and writing sections of the exam. And that will not be an easy task, but as luck would have it, Kris spent a few years in the United States several years ago, and he still has fairly fluent English proficiency.
His reading and listening scores on the TOEFL are already above the required marks for his profession, so he doesn’t need to worry to much about using his new Online TOEFL Course to improve his those areas. However, on his last TOEFL exam, he scored 22 and 21 on the speaking and writing sections of the exam.
Since he still needs to score 4 points higher on the speaking section of the exam, Kris has been completing pronunciation and independent and integrated speaking tasks in his course. Then his TOEFL iBT specialist evaluates his pronunciation and recommends specific lessons to help him improve. For example, after Kris completed his first pre-test, his TOEFL iBT pronunciation specialists noticed that Kris was having some trouble with sentence rhythm, intonation, and pausing. Based on that analysis, Michael recommended that Kris study 8 lessons from the pronunciation section of his course that would help Kris improve. In addition, Kris also has been completing speaking practice tests, and so far has been scoring between 18 to 26, with his lower scores being on the integrated speaking tasks number 4 and 6, both of which are academic in nature. Sometimes during these integrated speaking tasks, Kris’s pronunciation and grammar breaks down, resulting in lower practice tests scores in these two areas. Nevertheless, based on advice from his TOEFL iBT speaking mentor, Kris is studying lessons to help him solve these language problems.
Since Kris still needs at least 3 more points on the writing section of the TOEFL exam, he has also been completing independent and integrated writing practice tests. Similar to when he completes the speaking integrated tasks, Kris sometimes has grammar and vocabulary problems on his integrated writing practice tests. Therefore, based on recommendations made by his TOEFL iBT writing mentor, Kris has studying specific vocabulary and grammar lessons in his Online TOEFL Course to help him deal with these problems.
| This article was written by Michael Buckhoff–co-founder and materials writer for Better TOEFL Scores and The 7-Step System to Pass the TOEFL iBT, Composition and Linguistics Professor, TOEFL Specialist, ESL Master Instructor, and Placement and Testing Coordinator for California State University, San Bernardino.Follow more posts and videos from Michael at Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube. |