TOEFL exam and advice on how to score maximum points in the Test 10.

Toefl exam 10 with advice on how to score maximum points on the day of the test.

Hi guys! Welcome back! I’m Julia your Toefl teacher and today I would like to discuss type 3 of the TOEFL speaking test.
Now unlike task 1 and task 2, speaking task 3 is an integrated task which means that it doesn’t stand alone.
You are not given a question and expected to answer.
You are given a listening passage, a reading passage, and then you are expected to answer.
So in this a toefl exam, integrated task you are expected to read, listen, and speak.
You are given first of all a reading passage which contains between 75 and a hundred words, about a campus related situation, a campus related issue.
A good toefl exam tip is the following, then you are given a listening passage which lasts between 60 and 80 seconds.
This equates to a hundred and fifty to a hundred and eighty words.
This listening passage comments on the issue mentioned in the reading passage.
And then finally it’s your turn to speak. You are given a question where they will ask you to summarise the speaker’s opinion.
The listening passage contains someone’s opinion about the reading passage.
Targeted activities such as integrated skills like this require a little more effort
So in your free time, in your spare time, I highly recommend that you get some practice, summarising texts, preferably academic texts.

TOEFL speaking Test task3 — Get more points in the Toefl speaking test.

What you can do is just take an article whether on sciences, social science, or something very specific.
Then just practise writing summaries.
Gradually you’ll see that you get to skim faster, scan faster, and write summaries faster.
So in this video we’re going to run through the different steps for you to start summarising.
We’re also going to look at some key phrases to help you write your summaries.
Then I will run through the three criteria that you are scored upon in the speaking passages.
The goal of the summary is to identify the main points and make sure that those main points appear in your summary.
Let’s try and write a summary in one paragraph.
Then depending on the answer type and how fast you actually speak, you can then adjust the number of words.
You can already visualise: okay, I have 60 seconds to speak.
How many words does that actually equate to?
So writing it down, practising in writing initially really helps
Then gradually you’ll know. Okay, if I’ve come up with four sentences, it’s roughly this amount of seconds… and so on so!
How do I write a summary? Well first of all I’m going to take my article or my reading passage and I’m going to read the title
Then I’m going to very quickly skim the text meaning I’m going to have a quick read through just to see the main ideas
Then I’m going to read it again for more detail.
So that’s when I scan, I look for main information, for main ideas.
Here the difficulty is separating important information and minor information (examples and things that don’t need to necessarily appear in the summary).
Once I’ve done that I start writing down key words.
Once I have my key words I then write down maybe two three or four bullet points – depending on the length of the text and also the word count of your summary.
Then I can also write down to two four main ideas that appear in the text.
And only then do I start writing a summary.
Once I finish, then there are two more stages:
1/ There’s editing: that’s where I do a quick word count, to make sure that I have not exceeded the word count limit.
If I have, I delete any unnecessary words.
And then the very final step, before submitting a summary, is to check.
I have to check the spelling, the punctuation, and the sentence structure.
So obviously that’s quite general.
But to get started, if you have no experience with summarising, I would recommend you started by looking for what we call “topic sentences”.
So if you hunt for those topic sentences, they are generally sentences that summarise the main idea that’s about to be presented or that has just been presented.
So it’s generally at the beginning or the end of a paragraph.
So look for those try and avoid distractors meaning minor information
Try to identify the logic of the text, the article, by locating the connectors.
They will indicate the logic of the text.
One of the other main difficulties that my students tend to have is:
When you’re writing a summary it’s so tempting just to cut and paste a few sentences.
You will get a really bad grade if you do that.
You really need to rephrase.
How do I rephrase?
Well i can use synonyms or I can paraphrase it (if you know that term).
If you paraphrase that means that you just rewrite it.
It’s the same idea but using different words.
That is essential!
You can also use your own connectors and you could also vary the sentence structure.
Now for some useful sentences!
This text / this passage / this article is about..
it deals with..
it comments on…
it describes…
it presents…
in this text the reader is confronted with…
he gets to know…
he is presented with…
the reader is told about…
the author states / points out /makes clear that…
the author uses examples that confirm that…
the author disagrees or agrees with…
the author criticises…
the author suggests…
the author doubts that…
the author concludes that…
the author compares x and y…
Let’s talk about summarising someone’s opinion!
The speaker’s opinion may be divided into…
The listening passage consists of…
in the second part of the recording…
starting from line…
another example can be found in line…
as a result…
to sum up
to conclude
in his last remark…
So don’t forget that on the day of the exam you will be wearing headphones and using a microphone to record your answers!
So please get as much practice as possible through this online course and also record yourself at home.
Find the examples of the course: record your voice, and listen to your answers.
Try to answer the following questions:
How did I pronounce?
How was my grammar?
Have I used enough key words?
Am I following the logic of the text?
Am I using sufficient amounts of connectors?
Am I using sentence structure that varies?
How is my style?
Am I hesitant?
Am I speaking fluently and with confidence at a natural pace?
Ask yourself all these questions because it isn’t that easy if you haven’t practised before.
If you get some practice, you’ll already have some kind of template in your mind.
You’ll have your favourite introductory sentences and your favourite connectors.
You’ll feel so much more confident.
Even though the topic may be totally unfamiliar on the day of the exam, if you already have some blanket statements ready, some generic sentences, you will be able to provide an answer that the experts can grade!
Don’t forget that they use three main criteria to grade or to score your speaking performance.
They will look at “delivery” – the way you speak.
Is it clear? How is your pronunciation? How natural is your flow?
They’ll be looking at use of language – grammar and vocabulary.
How correct is your grammar?
How varied is your sentence structure and vocabulary?
And finally they’re going to look at how you construct your ideas, how you present them.
Is it clear? is it organised? Is it logical? Is it coherent?
That’s what they call “topic development”.
That’s it for today!
Thanks ever so much for watching!
I’ll see you in our next video! Bye bye!