"Introductory" TOEFL texts are a good way to prepare for the TOEFL iBT. Yes? No.
WARNING! Introductory TOEFL texts are not real TOEFL texts. Why not? Because the material in these texts is not TOEFL level. It is intermediate-level English. Yet test-takers buy introductory texts thinking they are the real deal when they are not.
Worse, introductory TOEFL texts create a false sense of confidence in the test-taker. The test-taker thinks, "Hey, this introductory TOEFL text is easy. It's all I need to get a high TOEFL iBT score." Wrong! I know many TOEFL students who took introduction-to-TOEFL courses that used introductory texts, then they took the TOEFL test and...That's right. Disaster. Waste of money. Waste of time.
Why do publishers publish such texts? Money. Also, they are preying on test-taker insecurities. As a TOEFL author, I have no intention of writing an introduction to TOEFL text. The last thing I want to do is fool my TOEFL students into believing that TOEFL is easy.
WARNING! If you are serious about TOEFL, do not buy an introduction-to-TOEFL text, or any other TOEFL text with "introduction" on it. These texts are targetted at intermediate-level students.
The Pro
