Jose Carillo's English Forum - Preparing for English Proficiency Tests

PREPARING FOR ENGLISH PROFICIENCY TESTS

Getting ready to take English proficiency tests

The Forum has put this section to help Forum members prepare for any of the English-language proficiency tests required by prospective employers or for college or graduate school admission. Every week, the Forum will present a new set of practice tests in four of the most commonly measured areas of English-proficiency: vocabulary, grammar, syntax, and reading comprehension. Most of the testing instruments for English proficiency today also measure picture identification skills, listening comprehension, writing ability, and speaking competence, but since these instruments require sophisticated technical equipment and scoring by actual human raters, the Forum won’t be able to provide practice tests for them here. Instead, it will concentrate on pencil-and-paper tests that can be self-administered and self-scored by the test taker: grammar error recognition, incomplete sentences, and reading comprehension. For parts of English proficiency tests that involve visuals and sound, those preparing to take the actual tests soon are encouraged to get the practice tests in the CD-ROM format that are offered by the testing or test-review companies.

After reading the overview to this section, “Is Your English Good Enough?”, simply click the link to the practice tests for the week and start testing yourself. Always remember when taking these tests: Practice makes perfect!

This Week’s Practice Tests:
TOEFL Reading Comprehension Test No. 1 Click to take it now!

Previous Practice Tests:
1. TOIEC Incomplete Sentences Test No. 1   Click to take it now!
2. TOEIC Error Recognition Test No. 1         Click to take it now!
3. TOEIC Reading Comprehension Test (Part VII) No. 1         Click to take it now!
4. TOEFL English Structure and Written Expression Test No. 1 Click to take it now!

To ace TOEFL’s Reading Comprehension test, bone up on Americana

The Forum presented last week a TOEFL practice test for English Structure and Written Expression, which are two of the paper-and-pencil reading tests of this academic-oriented English proficiency test. As I explained, however, these measures of the test-taker’s grammar and syntax capability are just the tip of the TOEFL iceberg. Much more challenging is the TOEFL Reading Comprehension test, which, as the TOEFL company itself explains, is “designed to measure the ability to read and understand short passages similar in topic and style to those found in North American universities and colleges.” In short, to do well in this part of the TOEFL test, the test-taker has to have more than just a passing familiarity with the society, culture, history, literature, and major concerns of the United States and Canada, the presumption being that he or she is seeking admission to a university or college somewhere in North America to begin with. Thus, although the TOEFL takes pains to make sure that that no subject-specific familiarity with the subject matter is required to answer the questions, the prospective test-taker is well-advised—no matter how good his or her English—to bone up on Americana to avoid feeling like a Martian when taking the TOEFL test.

The paper-based TOEFL Reading Comprehension test consists of about five passages with a total of 50 questions with four answer choices each, and it runs for 55 minutes; the computer-based Reading Comprehension test, on the other hand, consists of a total six passages with a total of 60 questions, and runs for 70-90 minutes. Keep these time frames in mind when you take the TOEFL Reading Comprehension practice test that the Forum is providing this time; the time pressure you create on yourself can give you a good idea of the actual speed and time needed to read all of the passages and finish answering all of the questions in the test.

This Week’s Practice Tests:
TOEFL Reading Comprehension Test No. 1 Click to take it now!

Click to view all the English-proficiency practice tests!