My friends at ETS India sent me a copy of the new “TOEFL iBT Official Beginner’s Guide.” A hard copy of this book is now sent free of charge to people who register for the TOEFL in India. ETS’s current “get a free book” promise seems to be a unique quirk of the super-competitive Indian market – IELTS registrants in that country have been entitled to a free book for as long as I can remember.
I’m happy to report that most people will find the beginner’s guide really useful. The first ten pages describe the format, content and scoring of the test. The rest consists of a complete (and accurate) practice test, followed by sample speaking and writing responses. I’m VERY happy to report that the test will be totally new to most TOEFL test takers. This is not one of the tests from the Quick Prep collection, the PDF sets, or the TestReady page! It’s new! And there is so much unmet demand for new and accurate practice tests. That said, a few experts may recognize it as one of the tests currently licensed to New Oriental for use in their schools in China (test #50, I think).
It must be noted that about 50% of the book is made up of blank pages for note taking. This means that a second complete test could be easily added without increasing the cost of printing or mailing the book. Indeed, it is likely that with some creative thinking a third complete test could be added without increasing the page count. Perhaps this should be considered. Have I mentioned the unmet demand for accurate practice tests? Note that the free IELTS book contains four tests.
As an aside: if the so-called “New Oriental Tests” are now cleared for use outside of China… well, I can think of a few good uses for them.