The test was on 18th of January.
Results:
R – 28 ( expected 22-26 )
L – 28 ( expected 29-30 )
S – 24 ( expected 26-28 )
W – 27 ( expected 27)
What can I say? I’m totally disappointed with the speaking section. I know that this part of the test is hard to judge, but still I think I did pretty well here. The tasks seemed easy for me. I was able to remember most important things and I’m sure I didn’t make too many mistakes. I don’t want to say that I speak perfectly English, but I really can’t understand their standards of appreciation. I think this part of the test is quite subjective, and probably they try to cut points on every minor mistake. As a lot of people need a good score in this section, I suppose they make the evaluation unfair and maybe with some profit purpose. I saw people here rescoring this part 5 or even 8 times. I don’t need any particular score in this section, so I don’t intend to rescore it, but still felt unhappy with the result.
The reading section was the only good surprise for me. I messed up a lot in this part. The first passage was so complicated, and I was a little nervous, so after I read it in the beginning I couldn’t remember anything. It was about Chinese and Japanese art history. The language was horrible, with words that I probably don’t know in my native language. I couldn’t answer the last question, and I just guessed a lot of questions. After that I changed my tactics and started to answer questions without reading the passages in the beginning. The other 2 passages were also quite difficult, but not as much as the first one. Still, in the end was short timed and answered the last 5-6 question in less than 2 minutes. The only thing that helped me were the last 2 passages. Those were quite easy, comparing to the first 3.
Listening went well. The conversations and lectures weren’t difficult at all. I thought I could get a perfect score here, but….
Writing was not as good as I wanted. In the end I was so tired and stressed, that couldn’t show my best in this section. My thoughts were far away. The first essay was not bad though. The second one was a little worse, so 27 score was fair enough for me. Have no complaints here.
Overall, I can say that I could get easily 110 and even more on a good day. I didn’t prepare too much for the test, maybe 3 weeks, 2-3 hours a day, but I have a good background in English. I studied it at school, at English courses and spent my last summer in USA. Actually, it’s not a test of English language but it is a test were a person must show many qualities, such as: very good memory, logical thinking, attention, concentration, be mentally strong and confident.
I’m 23.
I think you underestimate yourself. If you have a good level of English you can break the 105 or even 110 score. As i mentioned there are a lot of other factors in succeeding in this test.
About the essay topic. It was smth. about motivation and if people really need to be always busy doing smth.(job, home tasks, projects etc.) in order to be motivated. But I’m not sure about it:) Sorry, was too stressed and tired after the test, don’t remember too much now.
I suppose I took TOEFL on the same day (18/01/2008, in Croatia), and I still remember how terrified I was reading the first passage about Japanese and Chinese Art…
I was expecting lower score in reading and speaking section, so, in the end, I am more than satisfied with my score (111):
R - 29
L - 29
S - 26
W - 27
Total: 111
This was my first TOEFL test, and I spend only 2 weeks preparing for it…
Although the test was much easier than expected (and my score is much better than I thought it would be!!), I still think it was the worst experience ever (I can’t remember if I had ever been so exhausted as after that test)…
Oh, and the topic for the essay was something like…
“Do you think that, in order to be happy in their lives, people have to do things (study, work) which are challenging and sometimes cause lots of problems (or, on the other hand, people who chose only simple and easy tasks are much happier?”
Of course, this is my interpretation, as i can’t remember exactly the topic…
Yes, fragola, you a right with the essay topic. I simply forgot it, but I remember I was writing smth. about motivation (“challenging” in my mind at that moment associated in meaning with motivation:)). And indeed after the test I felt absolutely exhausted (it was about 4,5 hours long).
PS: By the way, fragola, congratulations with the excellent score:)!
i took the test on 19th of January,But still no result. I can not see from online…Today is the 12th of January. what has happened with my score report?
anyone had this problem???
19th of January was on Saturday. Maybe you were wrong. It is stated on their website that you can get your result within 15 business days. This means that the result should come in 3 weeks. My results came 20 days after the test, so probably you’ll get them today or tomorrow. Don’t worry.
i’m new here and i just took the test a week ago, 9th feb to be exact and i think i messed up quite a lot, especially in the reading and the writing parts. i just wanted to ask some opinions about my writing part. coz in the integrated writing part i kind of did some stupid thing. for example there is a sentence: “i give this letter to jim”
and on the contrary i write it: “i give this letter to kevin”
i’m afraid that this kind of error might have made my examiner a misconception and a thought that i might not understand the question completely, which is wrong because i understand the question completely.
thank you for the help
and i wanted to know if perhaps some of you thought that you had done the test badly or terribly, but the result however had proven to be otherwise.
because i kind of have that kind of feeling. and i’ve read some replies in this web and some people wrote that their results were far better from their own predictions…^^
Hi, about myself, ETS called me and told that my speaking part did not reach to USA. So they paid me again and I took a test again on 16th of Feb. It means I paid once as 140$ and took an exam twice. Hehe. Very funny.
A lot of people thought that their results would be worse, but instead they got good score. So I think you can hope for a good result.
The reading section is a tricky one. Some can do many mistakes there, and think they did well, others can think they messed a lot (like me ), but can actually get a decent score. I heard some opinion that they include some questions that are not scored, just to test them, so probably the score can be higher than you can expect.
Good luck and try to relax
thanks, parabellum. btw, how many passages are there in the reading section? coz’ as far as i can recall, i think i only got 3 reading passages.
and i think i kind of messed up my writing though. i made a mistake like “i give this to jim” where it was supposed to be written like “i give this to kevin”
and i’m scared that somehow it would affect my scores in the writing part.
i could be overreacting though^^
I had 5 passages. They usually give 3 or 5 passages, so if you had 3 it’s OK.
It may affect the score a little. But if the rest of the essay is good they won’t take many points, I think so. Anyway, don’t think about it too much. I remember I wasn’t able to check properly the second essay and when the time was gone I saw one mistake I couldn’t correct. Then I was thinking that I wrote smth. stupid, then other doubts come to my mind.
Follow my advice, just try not to think about the TOEFL next few weeks. Try to do smth. instead. It’s stressing to wait the result, I know it on my own experience.
Yes, it’s true, iBT includes such set of questions lately, either in the reading or in the listening part.
So, if you get such reading/listening passage it won’t be scored.
My reading score was much better than i had expected. Wish you the same ;))))
thanks guys… i know that i shouldn’t be freaking out. it’s just that i won’t be getting any second chance if this one failed. ^^
but, thanks btw!! i’ll post my scores in here as soon as it came out just to let u guys know…heuehheh
quite a shock. coz i thought that i did worse on the reading and the writing parts, but instead i got better grades at those parts than any other parts.^^
thank you for parabellum and fragola for all of the support u guys have given me!!
