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Cambridge preparation for the TOEFL test | |
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Authors: Jolene and Robert Gear
595 pages
Price £20.25
ISBN 0-521-78401-8
Now that the exams season is coming to an end, many students are thinking of where they will go to college. If you are going to study in the United States, you will probably be asked to take the Test Of English as a Foriegn Language (TOEFL). The TOEFL test is in two forms - one on computer, and one a normal written test. For the computer test, you will need to score at least 150 points, and possibly 250 depending on the college you want to go to. On the paper test the same scores are 475-600.
It does not matter which of these formats you choose, the Cambridge preparation for the TOEFL test has all you need. This book comes with a CD, an audio CD, or tapes, depending which combination you select. For this review, we looked at the book + CD combination.
The CD is a comprehensive collection of seven complete practice tests. Although this book and CD are not officially approved by the Educational Testing Service which produces the TOEFL, the tests on the CD are almost exactly the same as the tests that you will get in the real exam. Many of the icons and colours are the same, as well as the way that the tests are laid out. You can go through each test as a study practice, with answers and explanations available, or you can choose the exam option, and do the same test as a practice exam. This is one of the best TOEFL practice CDs that we have seen, and if you have any technical problems you can e-mail toeflprep@cup.org. (The book gives a web page, but when we checked it (in June!), it said the page was under construction until May.) But still, some practice CDs cost over £20 by themselves, so the CD makes the rest of the book good value for money.
In fact there is almost too much of the rest of the book. You will need strong arms if you are going to carry this monster around with you. It has 600 very large pages with everything you need to know about the TEOFL. It starts with a diagnostic test, which is intended to find the weak points in your English.Then the authors suggest that you turn to the exercises that deal with your problem. There are more than 200 exercises in the book, so there is something for everyone.
As you would expect for a book which costs so much money, there is an index, an answer key, and explanations. There are also boxes on many pages giving you advice of the methods you should use to answer each type of question. (In fact there is also a complete tutorial on how to answer questions.) There are regular progress tests in the book, and at the end there are two complete TOEFL tests for those people who want to do the paper test instead of the computerized exam.
Who is this book for? This is not the book for people who just want to do some quick revision. If you are not very serious about doing the exam, look somewhere else. This book should only be considered by someone who needs all the help that this book can give, and is prepared to take the time to use it properly. Also, any EFL teacher who prepares students for the TOEFL exam should consider this book very seriously. But if you are nearly at the TOEFL level, and need only to give your English a final polish, this book is overkill.
Verdict: The ultimate TOEFL practice book. But be prepared to spend serious time and money.
Assessment 8/10