The Day to Remember: Experience on Writing the First TOEFL Test
For this TOEFL essay samples I want to remember one of the most important and nervous day in my life - the day I was writing my first TOEFL test. Everything was looking so silent and everyone breathes much quicker than before. Yeah, it’s the Toefl test day. Toefl is a required test for each international student and its divided into four parts---reading, listening, speaking and writing. On that day, we were sitting in a quiet computer room and taking a 4-hour test. Students all got up early and took tests until noon. I got there around 7:30am and each student just looked at each other and didn't talk in a room. Because everyone is nervous and not confident. Especially for me, I don’t think I can get a high score on this test.
The reading and listening parts passed quickly, and I believe I didn’t do pretty well. Reading required a lot of vocabulary and all those complex sentences really confused me. It has three passages and each passage has almost 800 words. The total reading part took an hour. I heard other students click the answer really fast and transfer to the listening part as soon as possible. I felt really nervous and regretted that I always avoided reading or writing. Actually it's a necessary thing for all international students. Then it was the break. This was my first test so I was not sure whether I could leave the computer or not. Seeing that no one else was moving, I stayed. 10 minutes passed quickly, and I started my speaking part. My voice broke the silence, seeming odd in the atmosphere. I was scared so my voice was low and my mind seemed dull. The preparation time was not enough for me, so I can’t speak fluently to express my idea. Finally, I faced the final part. Although I had enough time, I used most of them to think about the outline. I want to try to get specific details on each body,therefore I did not have enough time to write longer than 360 words. However, it was a short essay and the conclusion was not even perfect to end.
After the Toefl test ended, I was so disappointed and not satisfied with my study attitude. When I saw my parents waiting for me outside, I cried. My mum always reminds me how important reading or writing is as an international student. But I never listen to her, I just like hanging out with my friends on the weekend instead of thinking of studying. After weeks of waiting, I received my grades. It was so bad and I couldn't even reach any university requirements. After that, I made a goal to improve my score. First of all, I had 3 months of training, which helped me a lot because the skills I learned made the questions easier on the reading part and I tried to watch more American movies to improve English. Moreover, I finished many sets of TPO, which is the TOEFL Practice Online. The form is the same as the real Toefl test, so that’s really helps me a lot. Furthermore, vocabulary is a very crucial key to doing well in the test, so I contributed a lot of effort to it. Every single morning I spend an hour reciting vocabulary, this accumulation helps me a lot on reading or writing. Finally, the very key point for my success is to read English books. The more I read, the better I am at reading, and it also helps me to promote my sense of language, which reduces the number of grammar mistakes I may make, therefore I can have a better grade.
After 3 months of training, I tried the Toefl test again. I’m not that afraid as last time. I felt confident and calm to take the test. Surprisingly, I got a really good score. I finally can understand the whole passage of reading and write a perfect essay to express my own opinion. Reading and writing are really essential for each international student because we have to do lots of assignments based on these skills. If we are not forced ourselves to read or write, you may be a loser whenever you are. So, reading and writing is important for a person to do anything in life, try to learn something to catch up with other people.
