About the TOEFL test - my fresh experience Hello everyone ! I have just finished the TOEFL test and I would like to share my experience for Italki community and for those who are going to take the test. Actually, the test is not an easy job to do, it requires that you are totally familiar with the English language. It tests your ability to "easily" understand, not just to understand, the language. Also it tests if your mind can think in English or your mind is just converting your native language into English. What makes me say that is the type of questions and the time to answer each of them. Firstly, I will talk about the type of the questions. TOEFL test has 4 sections in which it tests your ability to read, listen, speak and write. For the reading section I had 3 reading passages each of them has 7 paragraphs. I had almost 56 questions in the reading section for the 3 passages and the time was approximately 1 hour and 20 mins. Each paragraph of a reading passage has may be 3-5 questions. The problem is that when you come to TOEFL reading section you will be surprised with scientific subjects which are not easy to understand. Your job is that you have to get the clue of the context and take notes on everything. Taking notes for me was distracting thing while all TOEFL preparation courses recommend that you take notes on everything in the test. Personally, If I can go back with time and test again, I wouldn't take any notes except for summarizing an idea not for details. Anyway, the time may seem sufficient for such jobs, but the truth is that it's not until your mind can really think in English. Questions are in a multiple choice phase and most of them are indirect and must be inferred. A huge vocabulary collection is a very important thing for getting prepared for this test. You may study science, arts and history related vocabulary in addition to the normal vocabulary collection for life situations. About the listening section, you will listen to lectures and conversations, both are spoken like they are really made in normal life. For preparing yourself for this section I recommend that you listen to TED Talks https://www.ted.com/talks/browse this will help you be familiar with such lectures and it will let you increase your vocabulary database saved in your mind as well. Also you have to watch movies and TV shows like Ellen, the daily show and Dr. Phill's show. When you can really listen for such shows without the need for subtitles you are qualified to take the test, To be continued.