2019-06-04 TOEFL: test overview, reading fact

Greg Malivuk
gmalivuk@staffordhouse.com
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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http://www.toeflgoanywhere.org/search-who-accepts-toefl
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TOEFL (until July 31): 4 hours, 4 sections, 30 points for each section
1 reading: 60-80 minutes, 3 or 4 passages, 12-14 questions about each passage
2 listening: 60-90 minutes, 6 or 9 listenings (2 or 3 sets, each set has 3 listenings, 17 questions, and 10 minutes to choose answers)
	(10-minute break)
3 speaking: 20-25 minutes total, 6 tasks, 5.5 minutes of speaking time (record your responses)
4 writing: 55 minutes, 2 tasks, 20+30 minutes of writing time
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Speaking Tasks
1 independent, open-ended opinion - 15 seconds to prepare / 45 seconds to speak
2 independent, choice/preference - 15/45
3 integrated reading/listening/speaking, campus announcement and conversation - 30/60
4 integrated R/L/S, academic text and lecture - 30/60
5 integrated L/S, conversation about a problem and solutions - 20/60
6 integrated L/S, academic lecture - 20/60
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The Oxford book has outlines for answering each speaking question.
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Each chapter has a theme and includes some reading, listening, speaking, and writing (in that order).
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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZqh6VE-OYFz2RCWDbZQOqw - Looks like pretty good practice (the practice speaking tests on that channel come from official ETS guides)
- Note that on the TOEFL, all the timers count down.
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Reading Section: You’ll have a single timer of 60 or 80 minutes, and you can answer the questions in any order you want. If you finish before the timer finishes, you can move on to listening sooner.
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Listening Section: You have a 10-minute timer for each set of 3 listenings, which counts down only during the time you can see answer choices. After you click “next”, you cannot return to an earlier question.
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Writing Section: Both tasks only require a typing speed of about 20 words per minute to do well. The integrated task (20 minutes to write) should be 150-225 words and the independent task (30 minutes) should be at least 300 words.
https://www.typingtest.com/ - You can test and improve your typing speed here.
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BREAK
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Reading Question Types:
- fact (“According to the passage, what is…?”)
- vocabulary (“The word _______ in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to…”
- negative fact (“According to the passage, which of these is NOT true?”)
- paraphrase / sentence restatement (“Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage?”)
- purpose (“The author says ______ in order to”)
- inference (“The text suggests which of the following?” “What does the author imply about…”)
- reference/pronoun (“The word ‘they’ in the passage refers to”)
- sentence insertion
- summary (“select the three answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage”)
- organize/categorize (Choose statements that are true about two or more categories; this is essentially a type of fact question with multiple answers.)
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p. 404-407 - Take 20 minutes to answer the questions about the placebo effect.
1 - fact - c (It can be any medical symptom, not just illness, and a necessary condition is the belief that it will work.)
2 - vocabulary - b
3 - negative fact - c
4 - inference - a (To test placebo, patients need to believe a treatment will help. In the experiment, they probably wouldn’t believe this if they were told the surgery was simulated.)
5 - fact - d (He was a placebo patient, so he was in the third group and didn’t get real surgery.)
6 - sentence insertion - b (“That is to say” means this is a restatement of the previous sentence, similar to “in other words”.)
7 - inference - b
8 - vocabulary - c (There are synonyms like “relief” and “ease” in the sentences on either side of this word.)
9 - purpose - a (The author uses this as an example of the placebo effect. ‘d’ is true about Parkinson’s, but that isn’t why the author mentions it.)
10 - fact - a (electrical and metabolic changes are the effect, not the initial condition)
11 - reference - c
12 - vocabulary - a (A better synonym for “invoked” would be “called upon”)
13 - summary - a e f (‘f’ is a general summary of everything from paragraphs 2-4, ‘b’, ‘c’, and ‘d’ are all more minor details from those paragraphs)
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p. 204-209 gives general information about how to answer fact and inference questions
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Homework: p. 210-212 (4R6 test questions) and 215-217 (4R12 test questions)