Jargonomy - Study of TOEFL jargons

The Story behind Jargonomy  The tall, glass-fronted skyscraper buildings, shiny cars, high-end fashion stores..Anything sound familiar? It’s a typical American dream.  Like most people, I too, was a wide-eyed girl with hopes to study at a kickass American University, land  an awesome job with a big American Company and earn a pretty decent six figure salary (in Dollars..yayy!) The first Step to all of it begins with getting accepted with a University of your choice. And, the first prerequisite for being eligible is of course the most dreaded TOEFL exams, literally meaning “The Test Of English as a Foreign Language” exam. The first stepping stone to achieve the highly coveted American dream.  Like most aspiring students, I scoured several so-called agencies to help me with my TOEFL. The response I received was more or less the same! I was told that most Universities just need a passing score of 100. And they guaranteed that “100” just by signing m...

What Types of Questions Are on TOEFL Speaking? There are three different types of TOEFL Speaking questions, two tasks for each type. In this section, we explain the format and content of the tasks and give an official example question and response tips for each question type. Independent Tasks 1: PERSONAL RESPONSE TYPE The first two tasks are independent speaking tasks that draw on the student’s own ideas, opinions, and experiences when responding. For each of these questions, you’ll be given 15 seconds to prepare and need to speak for 45 seconds. EXAMPLES OF QUESTION STYLES FIRST STYLE- PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: 1. Describe a time in your life when you felt especially proud of an academic achievement.        Explain why you felt that way. 2.Describe a time when you overcame an obstacle in your life. 3.Describe a memorable experience you had while on a vacation. Why was the experience     so memorable?  SECOND STYLE - MULTIPLE...

SPEAKING SECTION Though the TOEFL Speaking section is the shortest section of the TOEFL test, many students struggle with it the most. Speaking in English, into a microphone, under a time constraint, in a room full of other test-takers … it can be stressful if you’re not prepared. Luckily, you have time to prepare! By understanding the format of the TOEFL Speaking section, and some strategies for making good use of your time, you’ll be able to answer all six speaking questions in the allotted time. Tips for Speaking Task 1: 1. You won’t get much time to prepare for these first two tasks, so you’ll have to think quickly. 2. Don’t try to figure out all the details you’re going to discuss in 15 seconds. Just settle on a topic to talk about. On the sheet given, construct a rough outline of what points you wish to cover for your topic, and let the details come naturally while you’re speaking. 3. If you run out of things to talk about and there’s still time left, don’t ...

TOEFL Learning - 50 IDIOMS with their meaning We have put together some frequently used IDIOMS with their meaning. These idioms prove to be very useful in Reading and Writing sections of TOEFL test. It can help you to frame your sentences or to better understand the reading passage which otherwise would be difficult. 1. To add insult to injury     -      To intensify a person. 2. To be born with a silver Spoon in one's mouth - To be born in a rich family. 3. A bolt from the blue       -       An expected disaster 4. To blow one’s own trumpet -   To boast 5. A bone of contention       -      Cause of quarrel 6. To burn one’s fingers       -      To suffer 7. To beat black & blue        -      To beat mercilessly 8. To cast an aspersion        -      To ...

READING SECTION Now that you've got a brief idea about the TOEFL structure, Let’s go through one of the time challenging sections in TOEFL, Reading section in detail. In this section, you will read 3 or 4 passages (approx. 700 words) from academic texts and answer questions based on that. Structure of Reading section 60 or 80 min 3 or 4 tasks Roughly 20 mins per task 12 to 14 questions per task Total: 36 or 56 questions Tip : Spend first 5-6 mins to read the passage and remaining 14-15 min to answer the questions with approx. 1.5 min for each question. Types of Questions that can be asked Detail - asks about specific detail or a sentence or a missing detail Vocabulary - asks about the meaning of a word Reference - asks about what does he/that/this refers to in the passage Inference - this is about figuring out from the given information Purpose - asks about the main idea of a paragraph/passage Paraphrase - summarize the given passage in your words P...

Now that you have got an idea about the entire TOEFL test structure and reading section in detail , Let's go through the types of question that can be asked in the reading section. If you haven't already gone through the above mentioned topics, STOP HERE and watch the YouTube video TOEFL tutorial (Part 1) - TOEFL overview in a min  and visit our blog post  Reading Section in Detail Let's go through the types of question that can be asked in Reading section with some examples. Detail - asks about specific detail or a sentence or a missing detail       2 . Vocabulary - asks about the meaning of a word      3. Reference - asks about what does he/that/this refers to in the passage 4 . Inference - this is about figuring out from the given information 5 . Purpose - asks about WHY a detail or idea or argument has been used in the passage.     6.  Paraphrase - summariz...