Many students panic when they hear "TOEFL 100+." Ah, the pressure is huge!
Actually, TOEFL 100+ isn't that hard. Yuzu-chan loves teaching you exam strategies~
With the right review techniques, scoring 100+ on the TOEFL is steady and certain.
First, have confidence.
If you've taken the TOEFL before and have some experience with the question types and preparation, the key is to build your confidence. Don't lose heart because of one unsatisfactory score or become afraid of the TOEFL. For those who haven't taken the TOEFL, you have the fearlessness of a newborn calf—so be even more confident~
Second, break down your goal.
To score 100, you absolutely shouldn't aim for just 25 in each section. You need to split the target based on your strengths and weaknesses, and tailor your intensive practice and skill development to your own situation.
Common ways to split a 100 total: Reading 27, Listening 23, Speaking 23, Writing 27 (for those not strong in listening); Reading 25, Listening 25, Speaking 23, Writing 27.
Finally, review seriously.
You may learn many techniques, but how many do you actually use? Cramming on and off won't work. Three months is neither short nor long. You must prepare with intense focus and dedicate yourself wholeheartedly to the review.
1
How to Memorize Vocabulary
Core ideas:
1. Repetition. Memorization is simply constant repetition.
2. Be efficient and know what to skip.
For the TOEFL, vocabulary falls into the following categories:
1. Common words: Be able to read, spell, and use them.
This means you've learned the word fairly completely. These words appear frequently in the exam—you'll encounter them in listening and need to use them in speaking and writing—so you must master them solidly. Examples: elaborate, cliché, and series of synonyms for support/refute/think.
2. Less common but still frequent words: Be able to read them.
These are a bit less common than the first category. You might not use them often in your own speaking or writing, but they appear fairly often in listening and reading, so make sure you can read them. Also, once your vocabulary is large enough, being able to read a word usually means you can spell it roughly correctly.
3. Specialized terminology: Have some impression of them.
You don't need to be able to read, write, or fully recognize all of them—though full recognition is best. Having only a vague idea of the meaning is usually okay because you can infer such terms from context. Examples: photosynthesis, carnivorous, supernova, metabolic, sulfur dioxide. But if you want a Reading score around 30 (110+ scorers typically reach this level), you'll need to know all of these.
Recommended Resources
Longman Word by Word Picture Dictionary, 2nd Edition (PDF plus audio): Listen and look simultaneously; go through it from start to finish, then repeat—over and over. You don't need to force memorization.
400 Must-Have Words for the TOEFL
Familiarize yourself with the words in it, and you can do the exercises in the book.
iBT New TOEFL Essential Categorized Vocabulary: You can use rote memorization for specialized vocabulary, but you must really understand the subject knowledge (see the encyclopedia knowledge section in the appendix "Recommended English Learning Materials").
iBT New TOEFL Vocabulary Questions for Reading: Essential for reading vocabulary questions.
Academic Word List (Averil Coxhead) and AWL Analysis: 570 common academic words beyond the top 2000, along with their common inflected forms.
General Service List (GSL): The 2000 most common English words (both spoken and written).
2
How to Practice Listening
Core ideas:
1. Immerse yourself in an English environment.
2. Grind your ears until they bleed.
Listening is a matter of quantitative change leading to qualitative change. At first, listening practice is grinding and painful, but after a while, you'll suddenly find it's not so agonizing. The key is to place yourself in an English context and master some listening question patterns, such as the likely question range for certain listening content. This all requires constant listening and practice.
Longman Comprehensive Guide, Delta, TPO, Barron—difficulty basically increases in that order. Go straight to the questions. Look up every unknown word, re-listen to what you missed, analyze and summarize your mistakes, then aim for full comprehension and mastery. Repeat. Once you've worked through those materials, your listening will rise to a new level. Use the OG for pre-test simulation.
Recommended Resources
Complete Collection of TPO Listening Scripts (TPO 1-34) 3.0 Edition
TOEFL TPO Listening and Reading Translations (TPO 1-24)
Complete Collection of iBT New TOEFL TPO Listening Audio Files (TPO 1-34 + Paper TPO 4, 5)
Classic Listening Supplement (Audio + Script + Questions)
3
How to Tackle Speaking
Core ideas:
1. Pronunciation matters, but don't obsess over it.
2. Logic and coherence are the top priorities in practice.
First, good pronunciation isn't the most important thing. Well-organized ideas, clear logic, and creativity matter more. Pronunciation is not the key—expressing your point of view is. Otherwise, many Indian and Japanese friends wouldn't pass the TOEFL. (laughs)
Of course, there are speaking templates, but you can't use them rigidly. You can prepare several common templates, then break them apart and adapt them into universal reasons that you can apply to almost any question. Of course, you also need to be flexible—many questions can be answered by relating them to yourself. The important thing is that your answer must be logical and end with a deeper reflection.
Recommended Resources
That's All You Need for TOEFL Speaking: The test-taking strategies in Chapter 3 are especially important.
TOEFL Speaking Golden 80 Topics: A tool for accumulating examples.
TPO Speaking Sample Audio and Scripts (TPO 1-26)
Speaking Question Transcripts TPO 1-22 and TPO 23-33: You can also write your own answers. Similar questions can share the same response (just change the opening and closing sentences). Then practice saying them fluently, ideally with someone to practice with.
4
How to Approach Reading
Core ideas:
1. Quality over quantity.
2. Don't take anything for granted; respect the passage.
I want to remind everyone not to underestimate reading. TOEFL reading is actually quite challenging. Although Chinese students tend to find reading relatively easy, you still need to take it seriously.
The key to reading is not the number of passages you do. After you've built a certain vocabulary, focus on doing each reading passage carefully and thoroughly analyzing your mistakes.
Also, you must time yourself when doing reading: 20 minutes per passage, no more. Only then can you truly experience the reading speed the TOEFL demands and feel the pressure of the exam. Doing 1 to 3 passages a day is suitable. After finishing, carefully check your answers, reflect on why you made mistakes, and read the article thoroughly. These passages are meticulously crafted, with elegant expressions and sophisticated word choices. Note down those high-quality expressions you're not familiar with—you can use them in writing and speaking.
Recommended Resources
Golden Reading: This collection includes real TOEFL passages from all TPOs plus articles from the OG—every one is a classic.
GRE & GMAT Reading Difficult Sentences Tutorial
DELTA
5
How to Write Essays
Core ideas:
1. Accumulation is key.
2. The five-paragraph essay.
Honestly, writing is also a matter of fundamentals and long-term accumulation. But writing has another characteristic: while long-term build-up is important, last-minute cramming can also be very effective. During review, you can collect good phrases and sentences while doing exercises, then memorize them intensively before the test—you'll be able to use quite a few during the exam.
The five-paragraph structure is a fairly standard method: the first paragraph states your overall thesis, paragraphs 2-4 present three supporting points, and the fifth paragraph concludes and reinforces the central argument.
Word count matters. Try to write up to 500 words. Since the TOEFL requires typing, you must practice your typing speed. If you can master touch typing, even better.
When the test date approaches, you can appropriately check the exam predictions and practice with a few predicted topics.
Recommended Resources
Americans' 185 Sample Essays, ETS Official Collection of Perfect-Score Essays: Choose essays that match your own views and do English-Chinese mutual translation: first translate the English model essay into Chinese, then translate the Chinese back into English. Note that you should use your own familiar vocabulary and sentence structures, and feel free to modify or supplement the original text based on your own ideas. Do not memorize the original English essays.
Complete Collection of Integrated Writing Reading/Listening Scripts (TPO 1-33 + Paper TPO 4, 5) plus Perfect-Score Samples
In addition, I want to emphasize that TOEFL listening is extremely important. I suggest doing two complete TPO sets per week. The key is to analyze and summarize carefully; never do questions just for the sake of doing them. You must simulate the real exam fully.
The TOEFL is computer-based, which feels very different from paper-based tests like CET-4/6 or IELTS. So if you want to get a good score in one go, be sure to do full mock exams. Don't rely too much on exam predictions or superstitiously believe in techniques. Ultimately, trust in your true ability.
Wishing everyone a TOEFL 100+ with ease! Heart~
