ETS has just made changes to the free TOEFL study materials it provides.

This change eliminates:

  • All of the TOEFL Quick Prep Collections
  • The TOEFL Interactive Sampler
  • The TOEFL iBT Test Questions PDF

These have been replaced with:

The TOEFL iBT Free Practice Test seems to be the same as Quick Prep Volumes 3 and 4, but modified to match the new version of the test. The second speaking question, though, is new. This is probably because the Quick Prep version referred to students using a “Walkman” in the cafeteria. That’s a pretty old reference!

The iBT Practice Sets include SOME of the content from the TOEFL Quick Prep volumes 1 and 2. Like the Quick Prep sets, they include no audio tracks… you can merely read transcripts of the spoken parts.

The New PDFs are a combination of stuff from the Quick Preps, the TOEFL edX class and the old PDFs. Of course there are no audio files.

It is great that ETS has provided some updated materials, but is is disappointing that the free test is a less accurate simulation of the test center experience than the old TOEFL Sampler program. There are no timers in the listening and reading sections, and in the speaking section a sample answer is played before students even get a chance to deliver their OWN response.

 

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