TOEFL Test - Essay question

Share on Facebook

Brooke123

#106197 Tue, 07 Jun 05 05:50 AM

Hello!

I'm working with a woman who is getting ready for her TOEFL exam. On the whole, her essays are very good and she's got the standard format down - intro paragraph, 3 graphs in the body, concluding paragraph, and each graph is about 3 sentences long. But she's worried about time. It's taking her 2 hours to write her sample essays, and she tells me she'll only have 30 minutes on the TOEFL. I'm hoping she can pick up her speed with practice, but any other advice? Is it better for her to stick to the standard format and risk only getting it half written? Or should she maybe cut down her paragraphs to 2 sentences each? Perhaps she should stop doing a rough draft and just go for it ... is it better to complete the essay and have more grammatical errors in it, or turn it in incomplete with fewer errors?

I'd be grateful for any advice from people familiar with the way these tests are evaluated. Thanks!
Brooke
(Email removed, please add it to your profile)

Brooke123

Joined on Tue, Jun 7 2005

New Member (03)

Essays, TOEFL, Paragraphs, Sample

Anonymous

#152797 Sat, 29 Oct 05 01:37 PM

toefl essays look for just fluent english and that's about all i think.

make her start with brain storming, outlining.

like I. intro

george washington was brave enough to the british.

II. body

he fought battles with 1/100 of the redcoats and won.

III. conclusion...

when you make an outline, you don't have to think, you just write.

and 3 sentence a paragraph? that's too short...

well basic essay is two chunks? TS CD CM CM CD CM CM CS

but 1 chuck will be fine. Topic Sentence, Concrete Detail, Commentary, Commentary, Conclusion.

Anonymous

Essays, TOEFL, Paragraphs

YoHf

#152946 Sat, 29 Oct 05 10:31 PM

Tell her to practise more, best way she can speed up...

YoHf

Joined on Wed, Oct 26 2005

Florence, Italy

Senior Member (3,345)

To be yourself is all that you can do. Music [8]

Essays, TOEFL

TeacherJoe

#178447 Tue, 03 Jan 06 11:50 AM

I agree with YoHf, the best way to learn to write faster is to practice. Advise her to keep a journal every night, writing for 20 minutes without stopping. (Except maybe for short breaks to rest her hand!) Few people write as fluently as they speak, because they never do this kind of practice but if she does it regularly, she will see a dramatic difference.

Teacher Joe

TeacherJoe

Joined on Fri, Aug 19 2005

New York, Beijing, Honolulu, Paris, Osaka

New Member (22)

Good teachers cost a lot.Bad teachers cost a lot more.

Essays, TOEFL