If you want to study or work in an English-speaking country, like Canada or the U.S., you need to demonstrate English proficiency at the highest levels. Enter TOEFL. TOEFL measures English language proficiency at the academic level, a level many non native speakers find a challenge to master. In light of this, many test-takers ask, "Is TOEFL really a true measure of my ability?" Of course not. TOEFL measures only one ability: the ability to communicate in academic English across four disciplines: reading, listening, speaking, writing. TOEFL does not measure creativity. It does not measure initiative or resourcefulness or faithfulness or honesty or integrity or modesty or piety or industry or charity or chastity or humility or propriety. When you think about it, TOEFL measures only a very small part of who you really are. And that can be upsetting, for TOEFL is more than just a stress-filled test. TOEFL is a wall between you and your dreams. I know. I have seen the worry TOEFL causes. Out of this fear and frustration comes the one question I hear over and over: "What is the trick to getting a high TOEFL score?"
Unfortunately, there is no "trick" to getting a high TOEFL score. If someone tells you they have the secret to TOEFL success, don't believe them. If someone did have the secret to TOEFL success, believe me, every TOEFL text would be selling it (mine included). Trust me. There is no trick, no button you can push, no amount of new vocabulary you can memorize, no door you can walk through to find a perfect score. Why not? Because English, like all languages, is far too complex to be reduced to a simple game. However, what most test-takers don't realize is that the design of the TOEFL test itself is in fact a game. That's right: the TOEFL iBT is one big game, a very challenging game, but a game all the same.
Like all games, TOEFL uses a scoring system to measure player performance. Like all games, the underlying structure of the TOEFL game can be identified and analyzed. Through that analysis, it can be proven that TOEFL, like all games, is surprisingly predictable. In other words, TOEFL repeats itself, just like baseball and soccer and tennis. Okay, so? So if TOEFL is at heart a predictable game, test-takers can develop the strategies needed to beat the TOEFL game. What are the strategies you can apply to anticipate TOEFL's every move? Those strategies are available in my TOEFL text Speaking and Writing Strategies for the TOEFL iBT. I will expand upon these same strategies in my complete TOEFL guide due out in early 2011, the title of which is Integrated Strategies for the TOEFL iBT: A New Approach to TOEFL Success.
As a TOEFL author and instructor, I have not found the secret to TOEFL success because there is no secret. However, as a writer, I have reengineered the TOEFL test with the tools of argument development. I've ripped apart TOEFL's engine and seats and dashboard and tires and trunk and transmission and drive train, and discovered what makes the TOEFL iBT tick. Want to know more? It's all in the book.
© Bruce Stirling 2010-2011
