Recommendation to prepare the paper-based TOEFL

February 21, 2015 1:48 PM

Hello, I'll pass the paper-based TOEFL in a few months and I'm almost fluent in English so my main objective is to get a perfect or near-perfect score. I have learned English through immersion so I think that my main weakness is grammar mistake identification. Can you recommend me a book or some other resource to help me prepare for the test? Would the books aiming at preparing the internet-based be appropriate for the paper-based test? Thank you!
posted by lite to Education (1 answer total)

Best answer: The Internet based TOEFL doesn't have a grammar section like the paper based test, although the listening and reading sections are similar. If you primarily want to improve your score on the grammar section of the paper-based test, I don't think the iBT material will help much.

I haven't taught the paper-based test for almost a decade, so I'm not familiar with the available textbooks, but from my experience with teaching the iBT test, I would recommend that you get a couple of texts from different publishers so you have access to a variety of practice questions and answer explanations. (ETS, Longman, and Cambridge publish my favorite texts for the iBT) If you can afford it, I would also recommend a good grammar workbook to complement your TOEFL practice. Pearson-Longman publishes a very good one by Betty Azar:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0132333317/ref=pd_aw_sim_b_3?refRID=0BRB4Y6K0VXYZ85K4D4X

The key is to set aside time every day to do focused TOEFL and grammar practice. Take any questions that come out of your studies to an English teacher that can explain the grammar to you. It's a rough test, but if you can make the time commitment to preparing and are persistant, you'll eventually get the score you're aiming for. Good luck!
posted by Kevtaro at 2:38 PM on February 21, 2015 [1 favorite]