TOEFL

Taking the TOEFL: Advice and Materials

Each term many people asked me for “tips” and “advice” on taking the TOEFL. I have some good news and bad news for you. First the bad news: I don’t have any special or secret advice I can give you personally that will help you boost your score—there aren’t really shortcuts that allow you to cheat the test. But now the good news: I have put enormous amounts of my energy into creating good materials for students who seriously want to improve their English and raise their TOEFL score. That information and those materials are easy to obtain in widely available books in almost any major bookstore or online from Amazon.

Here’s my overall advice.

Step 1 To get started, you should visit www.toefl.org, the internet site you can use to sign up for the test. This is the homepage of ETS (Educational Testing Service), the company that makes the test. It has lots of information and is constantly updated. It also has some practice materials and even a service that gives you feedback on a practice iBT essay.

To begin, I recommend a TOEFL strategies and practice test book from Kenkyusha: TOEFL iBT テスト 完全教本 (ポール•ワーデン Paul Wadden 四軒家 忍 Shinobu Shikenya) 研究社 2014 ISBN978-4-327-43083-2. It presents, step by step, the strategies and the content of the iBT. It also contains a complete practice test.

Step 2 If you have already taken the iBT and know your strengths and weaknesses and what you need to work on, you can go on to STEP 3 below. I strongly suggest you use the following text to prepare for the exam: はじめてのTOEFLテスト完全対策［改訂版］、 旺文社、2014. ISBN 978-4-01-094433-2 . This is the most widely used general TOEFL preparation text in Japan. It will give you a clear and accurate introduction to each section of the test (even clearer and more accurate than any of the ETS materials, because the goal is to help you improve your score and our materials have explanations in Japanese). After you study this text and take the practice test at the end of the book, you should be able to identify your strengths and weaknesses, if you don’t know them already.

Step 3 If your biggest challenges are speaking and writing, then I suggest two books in the Obunsha series devoted to those skills (I helped to write them and they contain everything I know and can suggest about the exam and the skills involved):

TOEFLテストライティング問題１００［改訂版］、旺文社、2014. ISBN 978-4-01-094436-3

TOEFLテストスピーキング問題１１０［改訂版］、 旺文社、2014. ISBN 978-4-01-094437-0

If you want to work on listening or reading, I would recommend looking at the TOEFL reading and listening books in the same series (Obunsha is probably the best TOEFL publisher in Japan). You can also look at and use my two books from ALC Press, which I, lacking humility, think are better than the Obunsha texts, but it depends upon the reader so look at both sets and use your own judgment:

TOEFLテスト 完全攻略 リーディング /霜村和久(共著) アルク 2009. ISBN978/4/7574/1551/5

iBT対応 TOEFLテスト完全攻略 リスニング アルク 2008. ISBN 978-4-7574-1395-5

For TOEFL vocabulary, the book TOEFL TEST究極単語（きわめたん）5000 (［テキスト］) 語研 (2011/9/28) ISBN-978-4-87615-245-2 is probably the most comprehensive academic vocabulary lexicon available in Japan. Words are presented in 30 groups from the easiest and most commonly used to the most difficult and seldom used. The book also includes the most important academic vocabulary from 24 fields, from economics to biology and psychology to literature. But it’s important to find the book that matches your learning style and your needs, so please look at these other books, too. One of the most popular is Obunsha’s ＴＯＥＦＬ英単語３８００ ６００点突破をめざして 神部孝／著 旺文社 1997.

If your iBT score is already over 90 and you want some high-level practice, the following ETS iBT volume is good, but it contains no Japanese explanations or translations and it does not effectively teach iBT strategies. Its passages and questions are excellent though.

The Official Guide to the TOEFL Test, Fifth Edition. ETS. 2017. ISBN 978-1260011210

If you wish to take TOEFL courses or have one-to-one study probably the most reputable organizations in Japan are TOEFL Zeminar/Seminar and Princeton Review, though both are very expensive.

For ICU students, I recommend taking one of the TOEFL courses offered every spring and fall term as Advanced English (I usually teach one of them). Freshman students who are in Stream 3 or 4 may not be allowed to register for these courses during their 1st year because they haven't finished their ARW/RCA classes, but if they talk to the teacher (like me) the teacher will probably let you participate in the course without registering.

That’s about it. Good luck with your study. --Dr. Paul Wadden