Three Reasons Why the TOEFL Test is Hard ?

Let’s make something understandable, the TOEFL test isn’t hard for everyone. If you have a lot of knowledge speaking, listening, reading, and writing in English, the TOEFL test might be very easy. In fact, if you have sufficient experience, you might not even need to take the TOEFL test. Your GRE, GMAT, or SAT scores in the reading and writing sections might be enough.

But if you’re English experience comes mostly from your education–high school and university English classes–then you might be surprised by the TOEFL test. Why?

1. The TOEFL Test Practice, Not Theory

What you learn in English class is half theory. Every time you study grammar, you’re not really learning the English language, exactly–you’re learning rules that describe English. Like those of any language, English native speakers don’t learn the rules at first. We speak first, and then create the rules second.

The TOEFL test reflects this. There is no grammar section on the test. You might know your grammar very well, and that will positively help you to score well in the writing and speaking sections especially, but the TOEFL test writing topics don’t ask you to apply grammatical rules; they ask you to communicate your thoughts successfully. If you don’t have enough practice using English (not just learning about English), then the test can be a bit scary.

2. The Content is Academic
The test contains many lecture recordings and reading passages that are about uncommon, academic topics. The vocabulary might be very technical and scientific, and the topics might be completely new for you. How much do you know about geology? Architecture? Economics? Psychology? Because the topics are so academic, if your only English listening practice is from your English teacher and Lady Gaga (or Michael Jackson, or whoever), then you’ll really need some better suited TOEFL test listening practice that includes the academic language from the test.

This is similarly true, or possibly more true, of TOEFL test reading passages. But don’t worry too much about this about seeing very rare, subject-specific vocabulary. It’s possible to deal with that very rare vocabulary without studying every single scientific subject before the test. It’s more important that you learn the more universal academic vocabulary that can appear in any passage, but are uncommon in conversational speech. And although that still might not be the same vocabulary you learned in school or use with your English speaking friends, if you expose yourself to enough advanced English reading, it is not impossible to learn.

3. The Clock Is Strict

The main problem for many students is the clock. This is especially hard for the same people who have difficulty with number one above. When writing the essays, if you focus too much on perfect grammar, you won’t communicate enough to be effective. The speaking section is especially notorious for this. You will be given six TOEFL test speaking topics, and you will have either 45 seconds or one minute to speak about each one. If you think too much, trying to find the just right word, you’ll lose a lot of time, and your score will go down. But it you speak too fast scared of the clock, the listener won’t be able to understand, and (again), your score will go down.

But really, learning to deal properly with the clock in any of the four sections takes practice; it’s not just the speaking.