A One Month Study Plan for TOEFL® Success

Introduction

This study plan was created by professional TOEFL instructors to help you organize your TOEFL studying over a one month period. This plan includes suggestions on how to study each TOEFL section and a one-month study schedule.

Do I have to use this study plan to pass TOEFL?

No. We created this plan to help users who want/need help organizing their TOEFL studying and users whose English skills are not at a high level. You are more than welcome to use our TOEFL preparation website on your own. Actually, many of our previous users passed TOEFL without using this study plan, but most of them were individuals who have a higher level of English and simply needed to practice.         

The Goal

If you use this study guide, it’s safe to assume your test will be within 1 month. Therefore, the main objective of this plan is to improve your overall English skills and get you completely familiar with the TOEFL test within 1 month. By the end of the study plan, you will know the TOEFL format and question types, as well as the skills needed to successfully ace the exam.             

Before You Start

If you have not already done so, familiarize yourself with the TOEFL test format and questions, in order to get a quick glimpse at what the exam entails.

How to Study each TOEFL section

Vocabulary Section

A good command of English vocabulary is extremely important in scoring well on the four sections of the TOEFL. We strongly recommend that you utilize our TOEFL vocabulary interactive training program to study the top 1200 vocabulary words that are most likely to show up on the TOEFL. In addition, it is highly recommended that you complete 6 lessons of “Learn Common TOEFL Synonyms” series to enhance your paraphrasing skills.

While studying vocabulary words, we suggest the following:

• Write the words in a notebook.
• Say the words many times
• Use the words in your speaking and writing answers.

Reading Section

When studying the TOEFL Reading section, make sure of the following:

• Improve your reading and comprehension speed. The key to improving reading and comprehension speed is having a strong knowledge of English sentence structures and academic vocabularies. You can work on them by utilizing our TOEFL vocabulary interactive training program, our grammar lessons, and other external materials that teach you grammar.
• Understand the 12 different types of reading questions. Some question types such as “inference questions” and “Negative factual information” are tricky. If you find yourself stuck on those type of questions, you should skip them and move on to easier questions. Our TOEFL reading lessons cover all the reading question types and offer strategies for answering them successfully.
• When practicing reading exercises, do not just complete them and move on. If you have trouble understanding the passages, please do not skip the passages, you must put more effort toward understanding them.                                            

Listening Section

When studying the TOEFL Listening section, make sure of the following

• Listen to a variety of academic topics. TOEFL listening topics are selected from a wide array of academic topics including biology, history, ecology, anthropology, etc. Few students are good at all of them. This is the biggest challenge for many TOEFL test takers. For example, you might have no clue about topics related to archaeology. But don’t worry, our listening questions cover all of the topics. You’ll just need to follow our study plan.
• When listening to the lecture, listen for important nouns, main ideas, and key relationships, (The relationship can be comparison, contrast, or cause-effect). If you can take note of them, it would be ideal as you can refer to them when answering questions. If you can’t, make sure you understand and memorize the main ideas.
• If you find yourself struggling with one exercise, listen to the same one multiple times until you can understand at least 85% of the lecture.
• ALWAYS LISTEN in your daily life. Aside from our listening exercises and vocabulary listening materials, you can listen to other English podcasts or videos.               

Speaking Section

Here are a few tips for studying the TOEFL Speaking section:

• PRACTICE SPEAKING AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. Make sure you read your responses aloud and pay attention to your pronunciation, intonation, grammar, organization, and fluency. You should record your responses in our recorder and analyze your responses to see where and what you can do better.
• Imitate responses from sample answers to improve your pronunciation, intonation, grammar, organization, and fluency.
• Be sure to look up words that you don’t know how to pronounce or use them and learn to pronounce them correctly.
• When listening to the lecture, listen for important nouns, main ideas, and key relationships, (The relationship can be comparison, contrast, or cause-effect). If you can take note of them, it would be ideal as you can refer to them when preparing your response. If you can’t, make sure you understand and memorize the main ideas.
• You can use your speaking review tickets to get our TOEFL reviewer to review your speaking responses.
• Use external materials like Youtube to teach you how to improve your English pronunciation and speak like a native English speaker.

Writing Section

It takes time to develop good writing skills. Chances are a good English writer already has years of experience writing English and using English in their daily life. If you are not a good English writer, do not get frustrated. The good news is that you only need to be able to write well on TOEFL independent and integrated tasks. Here are a few things we suggest you do in order to complete the TOEFL Writing section in the most effective manner.

• To write well, first you need to read good essays so your brain has a database of good English structures and vocabularies you can use when writing. That being said, we recommend that you read and learn from our sample essays as much as possible. When learning these sample essays, do not just memorize them, but study how a paragraph is formed with different sentence structures, what words are used, and what main ideas are included. Ask yourself “Can I write similar sentence structures?” and “Can I form a sentence with these vocabulary words?”. The more you study, the more your writing skills will improve. The next time you write about a similar topic, you will be able to utilize them in your writing and add your own ideas.
• If you are not a good writer, spend at least an hour a day practicing independent writing and integrated writing tasks.
• Spend some time brainstorming ideas for all independent writing essays.
• Complete our writing lessons to ensure you know what characteristics a high-scoring TOEFL essay should have. In short, the following are key factors in scoring well on the TOEFL Writing section
• Understand the different types of prompts that appear in the independent writing section.
• Write a clear opinion or position on an issue.
• Write a good introduction and a good conclusion paragraph.
• Write 3 main body paragraphs. Each body paragraph should consist of a main idea and specific examples with details that support the main idea.
• Make good use of transition words to connect your ideas.
• Use a variety of words, both common and academic, correctly and appropriately.
• Use a variety of sentence structures correctly and appropriately.
• Master paraphrasing, synthesising, citing, and note-taking skills.
• Utilize all of our writing lessons

1 Month Study Schedule 

Week One

Reading Section:

• Complete 9 reading exercises.

Optional:

• Complete 5 more reading exercises.
• Complete all TOEFL reading lessons.     

Listening Section:

• Study Anthropology & Archaeology Vocabularies
• Study Astronomy Vocabularies
• Study Marine Biology Vocabularies
• Complete 1 listening exercise in the “Anthropology” category.
• Complete 3 listening exercises in the “Archaeology” categories.
• Complete 2 listening exercises in the “Astronomy” category.
• Complete 2 listening exercises in the “Marine Biology” category.
• Complete 3 listening exercises in the “Campus Conversation“ category.

Optional:

• Complete 1 more listening exercise in the Anthropology” category.
• Complete 2 more listening exercises in the Archaeology” category.
• Complete 2 more listening exercises in the “Astronomy” category.
• Complete 2 more listening exercises in the “Marine Biology” category.
• Complete all TOEFL listening lessons                         

Writing Section:

• Complete all TOEFL Writing lessons.
• Learn “compare and contrast transition words” lesson
• Learn “cause and effect transition words” lesson 
• Write 4 independent writing essays for the “Agree and Disagree” questions.
• Write 2 independent writing essays for the “Comparison and Contrast” questions..
• Using “Agree and Disagree” and “Comparison and Contrast” writing questions from the question bank, try to think of three main points for each question. If possible, take notes about the main points in your notebook. This will help you practice brainstorming and save time during the test.
• Practice 4 TOEFL integrated writing questions.                        

Optional:

• Read and study 8 sample essays of Agree and Disagree” and 4 sample essays of “Comparison and Contrast” questions. (The more you read and study, the more your writing skills will improve.)
• Get a professional to review your essays.

Speaking Section:

• Do 4 questions of independent speaking question 1
• Do 4 questions of independent speaking question 2
• Do 3 questions of integrated speaking question 3
• Do 5 questions of integrated speaking question 4
• Do 3 questions of integrated speaking question 5
• Do 5 questions of integrated speaking question 6

Optional:

• Complete TOEFL Speaking lessons
• Do 3 more questions of independent speaking question 1.
• Do 3 more questions of independent speaking question 2.
• Do 2 more questions of integrated speaking question 3.
• Do 2 more questions of integrated speaking question 4.
• Do 2 more questions of integrated speaking question 5.
• Do 2 more questions of integrated speaking question 6.
• Use your speaking review tickets to request our TOEFL reviewer to review your speaking responses.                    

TOEFL Simulated Test

• Complete reserved Simulated Test 1.

Week Two

Reading Section:

• Complete 9 reading exercises.

Optional:

• Complete 5 more reading exercises. 

Listening Section:

• Study Biology Vocabularies:    https://www.bestmytest.com/toefl/vocabulary/exercise/5    https://www.bestmytest.com/toefl/vocabulary/exercise/6
• Study Botany Vocabularies:   https://www.bestmytest.com/toefl/vocabulary/exercise/7
• Study Ecology Vocabularies:   https://www.bestmytest.com/toefl/vocabulary/exercise/11         
• Study Geology Vocabularies:    https://www.bestmytest.com/toefl/vocabulary/exercise/14
• Complete 3 listening exercises in the “Biology” category.
• Complete 2 listening exercises in the “Botany” category.
• Complete 2 listening exercises in the “Ecology” category.
• Complete 2 listening exercises in the “Geology” category.
• Complete 3 listening exercises in the “Campus Conversation“ category.

Optional:

• Complete 2 more listening exercises in the “Biology” category.
• Complete 1 more listening exercise in the “Botany” category.
• Complete 1 more listening exercise in the “Ecology” category.
• Complete 2 more listening exercises in the “Geology” category.                          

Writing Section:                

• Write 4 independent writing essays for the “Preference” questions.
• Write 2 independent writing essays for the “Comparison and Contrast” questions.
• Using “Preference” and “Comparison and Contrast” writing questions from the  question bank, try to think of three main points for each question. If possible, take notes on these main points in your notebook. This will help you practice brainstorming and save time during the test.
• Practice 4 TOEFL integrated writing questions.

Optional:

• Read and study 7 sample essays of “Preference” questions and 3 sample essays of “Comparison and Contrast” questions from our TOEFL Writing Question Bank.                    
• Get a professional to review your essays.                            

Speaking Section:

• Do 4 questions of independent speaking question 1
• Do 4 questions of independent speaking question 2
• Do 3 questions of integrated speaking question 3
• Do 5 questions of integrated speaking question 4
• Do 3 questions of integrated speaking question 5
• Do 5 questions of integrated speaking question 6

Optional:

• Complete TOEFL Speaking lessons
• Do 3 more questions of independent speaking question 1
• Do 3 more questions of independent speaking question 2
• Do 2 more questions of integrated speaking question 3
• Do 2 more questions of integrated speaking question 4
• Do 2 more questions of integrated speaking question 5
• Do 2 more questions of integrated speaking question 6
• Use your speaking review tickets to request our TOEFL reviewer to review your speaking responses

TOEFL Simulated Test

• Completed reserved Simulated Test 2.

Week Three

Reading Section:

• Complete 9 reading exercises.

Optional:

• Complete 5 more reading exercises

Listening Section:

• Study Art History Vocabularies
• Study Business Vocabularies
• Study Economics Vocabularies
• Study History Vocabularies
• Complete 4 listening exercises in the “History” category
• Complete 3 listening exercises in the “Art History“ category
• Complete 2 listening exercises in the “Architecture” category
• Complete 1 listening exercise in the “Film History” category
• Complete 3 listening exercises in the “Campus Conversation“ category

Optional:

• Complete 2 listening exercises in the “History” category
• Complete 2 listening exercises in the “Art History“ category
• Complete 1 listening exercise in the “Architecture” category
• Complete 1 listening exercise in the “Film History” category                     

Writing Section:

• Write 4 independent writing essays for the “If / Imaginary” questions.
• Using “If / Imaginary” writing questions from the question bank, try to think of three main points for each question. If possible, take notes on the main points in your notebook. This will help you practice brainstorming and save time during the test.
• Practice 4 TOEFL integrated writing questions.

Optional:

• Read and study 7 sample essays of “If / Imaginary” questions from our TOEFL Writing Question Bank.
• Get a professional to review your essays.    

Speaking Section:

• Do 4 questions of independent speaking question 1
• Do 4 questions of independent speaking question 2
• Do 3 questions of integrated speaking question 3
• Do 5 questions of integrated speaking question 4
• Do 3 questions of integrated speaking question 5
• Do 5 questions of integrated speaking question 6

Optional:

• Complete TOEFL Speaking lessons
• Do 3 more questions of independent speaking question 1
• Do 3 more questions of independent speaking question 2
• Do 2 more questions of integrated speaking question 3
• Do 2 more questions of integrated speaking question 4
• Do 2 more questions of integrated speaking question 5
• Do 2 more questions of integrated speaking question 6
• Use your speaking review tickets to request our TOEFL reviewer to review your speaking responses                            

TOEFL Simulated Test

• Complete reserved Simulated Test 3

Week Four

Reading Section:

• Complete 9 reading exercises

Optional:

• Complete 5 more reading exercises

Listening Section:

• Study Earth Science Vocabularies
• Complete 3 listening exercises in the “Earth Science” category
• Complete 2 listening exercises in the “Literature“ category
• Complete 1 listening exercise in the “Human Biology” category
• Complete 1 listening exercise in the “Marketing” category
• Complete 2 listening exercises in the “Sociology” category
• Complete 3 listening exercises in the “Campus Conversation“ category

Optional:

• Complete 2 more listening exercises in the “Earth Science” category
• Complete 2 more listening exercises in the “Literature“ category
• Complete 1 more listening exercise in the “Human Biology” category
• Complete 1 more listening exercise in the “Sociology” category

Writing Section:

• Write 4 independent writing essays for the “Description and Explanation” questions.
• Using “Description and Explanation” writing questions from the question bank, try to think of three main points for each question. If possible, take notes on the main points in your notebook. This will help you practice brainstorming and save time during the test.
• Practice 4 TOEFL integrated writing questions.    

Optional:

• Read and study 7 sample essays of “Description and Explanation” questions from our TOEFL Writing Question Bank. The more you read and study, the more your writing skills improve.
• Get your essays reviewed

Speaking Section

• Do 4 questions of independent speaking question 1
• Do 4 questions of independent speaking question 2
• Do 3 questions of integrated speaking question 3
• Do 5 questions of integrated speaking question 4
• Do 3 questions of integrated speaking question 5
• Do 5 questions of integrated speaking question 6

Optional:

• Complete TOEFL Speaking lessons
• Do 3 more questions of independent speaking question 1
• Do 3 more questions of independent speaking question 2
• Do 2 more questions of integrated speaking question 3
• Do 2 more questions of integrated speaking question 4
• Do 2 more questions of integrated speaking question 5
• Do 2 more questions of integrated speaking question 6
• Use your speaking review tickets to request our TOEFL reviewer to review your speaking responses

TOEFL Simulated Test

• Complete reserved Simulated Test 4                   

Review

Leave some time for yourself to review what you have studied

You are now finished the One Month Study Plan.

Congratulations and good luck on TOEFL!