Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / July 2006

I realize that it has been quite some time since you posted this, but
I've been busy and I thought someone else would reply quickly.

The obvious choice in your situation is to take the CBT any way you
can.

This is my reasoning: whenever a test format changes, test-prep
instructors and test-prep material writers are forced to guess what is
on the test. It takes time before these guesses become actual teaching
techniques that work well.

There is plenty of good material out there on the CBT. Specifically, I
would recommend getting your hands on the old PBT test books (sold by
ETS) as well as their Test Preparation Kit. Follow up that preparation
with going over the POWERPREP software that you can download for free
from www.toelf.org.

If you feel you need much more help, I would recommend using _TOEFL
Success_, by Bruce Rogers. He has another, newer book out, _The
Complete Guide to the TOEFL_, but I haven't used it and am not able to
comment on its quality.

I would spend a great deal of time looking up vocabulary words and
idioms in the actual TOEFL Practice Tests. Generally speaking,
vocabulary books for the TOEFL are not worth the paper they're printed
on. If you feel that you really HAVE to build up your vocabulary for
this test, however, I would reluctantly recommend Milada Broukal's
_Vocabulary for the TOEFL Test_, fourth edition.

Not much information is really being spread by ETS about the new iBT.
Excellent hype, but little substantial data. This, of course, is
because test-prep instructors got uncomfortably good at preparing
students for the TOEFL Paper-Based Test and the only-slightly-modified
CBT. We could take students who could barely speak and write English
and get them to pass with minimal effort. However, many of these
successful candidates could barely function in real academic settings.

This inspired the University of Cambridge and IELTS Australia to work
on creating a new test for academic English, the IELTS, which gained
rapid acceptance for its credible results in the UK and the rest of the
world. More and more British postgraduate degree courses are abandoning
their TOEFL acceptance policies now that they can rely on IELTS.

Since the iBT has been created to combat the problem that test-prep
books and teachers can successfully get you to pass the CBT without
really knowing English, it stands to reason that you, as a foreign
student who cares more about achieving a cut score on an acceptable
test in a limited amount of time (and not delving into the mysteries of
the language at your leisure), should take the TOEFL CBT.

Best of luck.