Lax took the TOEFL iBT about six months ago but did not reach his goal in the speaking section. According the official score report from ETS, he scored 24/30 on the speaking section which was only two points shy of the his goal of 26. Two points! Wanting to become a practicing pharmacist in the United States, Lax is required to score 26/30. The score report also indicated that Lax had delivery problems during the speaking section, which means he has problems with intonation, pausing, and stress.
Therefore, Lax has subscribed to an online TOEFL service where can complete TOEFL lessons to improve his pronunciation and speaking fluency. Toward this aim, he took a pronunciation pre-test last week, and a TOEFL iBT specialist evaluated his intelligibility and recommended lessons to help Lax reduce his non-native speaker accent. Once Lax has completed those TOEFL lessons, he will take the pronunciation pre-test again to see if he has made improvements.
Finally, in addition to taking pronunciation pre-tests and lessons, Lax is also taking independent and integrated lessons and practice tests so he can continue to improve his overall speaking fluency of American English. Each time he takes speaking practice test, a TOEFL specialist evaluates and scores his speaking practice test in terms of delivery, grammar and language use, and topic development. The TOEFL specialist also gives him additional tips and tricks to help prepare him for the TOEFL.
It will not be long before Lax reaches his goal of scoring 26/30 on the speaking section of the TOEFL iBT.