Difficulties

TOEFL difficulties


One of the major challenges on the TOEFL (IBT) is the speaking section, in other words achieving challenging and unusual required high scores, on the speaking section, especially for foreign students is never easy
 
Reading presents a tough hinder as well because it involves so many advanced technical and difficult vocabularies as well as complex topics of discussion which sometimes challenges one’s ability of understanding the overall message of passages on the TOEFL
 
Idioms, proverbs and phrasal verbs can hinder one’s ability of understanding some parts on the listening section
 
Integrated parts on the TOEFL exam are very difficult either integrated speaking-Q3&4- or integrated writing-part 1- which require high ability of gathering specific and important points from both reading passages and listening material on a certain subject to cover on the test
 
On the Writing section on the essay part –part 2- you will probably face two types of essay writing either argumentative-which you usually have to change to persuasive- or expository. Such styles need information, full awareness of current of events and famous topics of discussion. 
 
 
 
 
<Formats and contents
Internet-Based Test
Since its introduction in late 2005, the Internet-Based test (iBT) has progressively replaced both the computer-based (CBT) and paper-based (PBT) tests, although paper-based testing is still used in select areas. The iBT has been introduced in phases, with the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and Italy in 2005 and the rest of the world in 2006, with test centers added regularly. The CBT was discontinued in September 2006 and these scores are no longer valid.
Although initially, the demand for test seats was higher than availability, and candidates had to wait for months, it is now possible to take the test within one to four weeks in most countries.[1] The four-hour test consists of four sections, each measuring one of the basic language skills (while some tasks require integrating multiple skills) and all tasks focus on language used in an academic, higher-education environment. Note-taking is allowed during the iBT. The test cannot be taken more than once a week.
 
   1. Reading
          The Reading section consists of 3–5 passages, each approximately 700 words in length and questions about the passages. The passages are on academic topics; they are the kind of material that might be found in an undergraduate university textbook. Passages require understanding of rhetorical functions such as cause-effect, compare-contrast and argumentation. Students answer questions about main ideas, details, inferences, essential information, sentence insertion, vocabulary, rhetorical purpose and overall ideas. New types of questions in the iBT require filling out tables or completing summaries. Prior knowledge of the subject under discussion is not necessary to come to the correct answer.
 
2. Listening
          The Listening section consists of 6 passages, 3–5 minutes in length and questions about the passages. These passages include 2 student conversations and 4 academic lectures or discussions. A conversation involves 2 speakers, a student and either a professor or a campus service provider. A lecture is a self-contained portion of an academic lecture, which may involve student participation and does not assume specialized background knowledge in the subject area. Each conversation and lecture stimulus is heard only once. Test takers may take notes while they listen and they may refer to their notes when they answer the questions. Each conversation is associated with 5 questions and each lecture with 6. The questions are meant to measure the ability to understand main ideas, important details, implications, relationships between ideas, organization of information, speaker purpose and speaker attitude.
 
3. Speaking
          The Speaking section consists of 6 tasks, 2 independent tasks and 4 integrated tasks. In the 2 independent tasks, test takers answer opinion questions on familiar topics. They are evaluated on their ability to speak spontaneously and convey their ideas clearly and coherently. In 2 of the integrated tasks, test takers read a short passage, listen to an academic course lecture or a conversation about campus life and answer a question by combining appropriate information from the text and the talk. In the 2 remaining integrated tasks, test takers listen to an academic course lecture or a conversation about campus life and then respond to a question about what they heard. In the integrated tasks, test takers are evaluated on their ability to appropriately synthesize and effectively convey information from the reading and listening material. Test takers may take notes as they read and listen and may use their notes to help prepare their responses. Test takers are given a short preparation time before they have to begin speaking.
 
4. Writing
          The Writing section measures a test taker's ability to write in an academic setting and consists of 2 tasks, 1 integrated task and 1 independent task. In the integrated task, test takers read a passage on an academic topic and then listen to a speaker discuss the same topic. The test taker will then write a summary about the important points in the listening passage and explain how these relate to the key points of the reading passage. In the independent task, test takers must write an essay that states, explains and supports their opinion on an issue, supporting their opinions or choices, rather than simply listing personal preferences or choices.
 
Task      iBT         Approx.time
READING             3–5 passages, each containing 12–14 questions                 60–100 minutes
LISTENING          4–6 passages, each containing 5–6 questions      60–90 minutes
BREAK                  10 minutes
SPEAKING           6 tasks and 6 questions                 20 minutes
WRITING             2 tasks and 2 questions                 50 minutes
 
One of the sections of the test includes extra, uncounted material. Educational Testing Service includes this material in order to pilot test questions for future test forms. When test-takers are given a longer section, they should give equal effort to all of the questions because they do not know which question will count and which will be considered extra. For example, if there are four reading passages instead of three, then three of those passages will count, and one of the passages will not be counted. Any of the four passages could be the uncounted one.
Test Scores
Internet-Based Test
    * The iBT version of the TOEFL test is scored on a scale of 0 to 120 points.
    * Each of the four sections (Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing) receives a scaled score from 0 to 30. The scaled scores from the four sections are added together to determine the total score.
    * Speaking is initially given a score of 0 to 4, and writing is initially given a score of 0 to 5. These scores are converted to scaled scores of 0 to 30.
 
 
 
 
Paper-Based Test
In areas where the iBT is not available, a paper-based test (PBT) is given. Test takers must register in advance either online or by using the registration form provided in the Supplemental Paper TOEFL Bulletin. They should register in advance of the given deadlines to ensure a place because the test centers have limited seating and may fill up early. Tests are administered on fixed dates 6 times each year.
 
The test is 3 hours long and all test sections can be taken on the same day. Students can take the test as many times as they wish. However, colleges and universities usually consider only the most recent score.
 
   1. Listening (30–40 minutes)
          The Listening section consists of 3 parts. The first one contains 30 questions about short conversations. The second part has 8 questions about longer conversations. The last part asks 12 questions about lectures or talks.
   2. Structure and Written Expression (25 minutes)
          The Structure and Written Expression section has 15 exercises of completing sentences correctly and 25 exercises of identifying errors.
   3. Reading Comprehension (55 minutes)
          The Reading Comprehension section has 50 questions about reading passages.
   4. Writing (30 minutes)
          The Writing section is one essay with 250–300 words in average.


IELTS difficulties


On the Listening section, both British and Australian accents have some sort of difficulty in interpreting each word or some expressions on the test especially if you are more acquainted to other accents like the American
The Reading section is challenging because of its length; most passages are too long to be answered all on time specially those of the academic, which require a very high ability of analyzing phrases and sentences and finishing all the questions in a smart sequence.

 


Learning how to analyze charts and graphs on the writing test on task 1 certainly needs a strategy and a smart technique in finding specific keys of comparison and reporting important details of analysis
 Differentiating between essay writing styles is a challenge on task 2 on the writing exam because it requires full awareness of current events, famous characters of great achievements as well as grammar and punctuation rules 
The speaking part needs clear pronunciation, Fluency, Coherence, fast response, a quick mind and a strong general culture of many aspects of life.  



SAT difficulties


Reading (800)
Writing= (language structure& essay) (800)
Math (800)
 
The Reading section is certainly challenging cause of its length, shortage of time and advanced Vocabulary which need great preparation and profound study as well as regular training on real official exams
 
The writing section, which presents almost 20% on The SAT exam, needs full awareness of the grammar basics before answering any writing section otherwise the result will be disappointing most of the time
 
The Essay question is the first question you meet on the SAT test which holds a huge mark of your overall scoring in the writing section. Its Challenge appears in the analysis and the difficulty of understanding the topic sometimes as well as the ability to provide your essay writing with related and persuasive examples
 
The strategy of selecting certain questions to answer in your exam needs regular and professional training on how to choose easy questions to start with and avoid those that might waste your time and effort during the exam. Meanwhile, learning how to evaluate your performance during your exam needs some special proficiency


Conversation difficulties


No difficulties for this course