he reason that this is important is because — if you try to use words which you are not familiar with in your Speaking or Writing responses in The TOEFL Exam — it will most-likely show in the way that you use them, which could result in receiving a lower score than if you simply used words that you know.  I promise you that the judges who score your responses are not going to be impressed by “big words”.

hat’s a very good question!  And the answer that you REALLY NEED TO KNOW IS:  NONE OF THE VOCABULARY THAT OTHER TEACHERS ARE TEACHING IN BOOKS & VIDEOS ON THE SUBJECT OF “TOEFL Vocabulary”.  It is all a complete waste or your time and energy!

ther teachers will tell you that you should learn words about:  Geology, Biology, History, Art, etc..  NONE of the words that you would study by following those teachers’ advice will — IN ANY WAY — help you on The TOEFL Exam!  You may expand your general vocabulary — but knowing those words, and trying to USE those words will NOT increase your overall TOEFL Score!

he ONLY words that you absolutely NEED to know is what I call “Functional Vocabulary”.  This is Vocabulary That Will Be Used Within The Instructions, And In The *Question-Stems On The TOEFL Exam.

hat’s another very good question!  And the answer is:  Because Most Teachers Are Lazy And Are Not Good At What They Do.  But even the one who ARE actually trying to help you, are not thinking about this from the view-point of what YOU need, as the “Test-Taker”.

hey are thinking about the situation from the view-point of a Teacher.  And because of that — they are treating the preparation of The TOEFL Exam the same as they would a “normal” English class.  But the two should be handled VERY differently!

teacher is supposed to actually TEACH!  But most teachers do nothing more than filling-up their class-time with content.  So most teachers are focused on providing “QUANTITY”, rather than “QUALITY” of content.  And the easiest way for them to do that is to provide you with…  wait for it…  Vocabulary.

he idea is:  The more information they give you — the better they THINK that they are doing at their job.  And they just hope that — if they provide enough information — that perhaps, somehow, be enough for you to succeed.  But if you don’t succeed — It does not really affect their job, so most of them do not care.  (See This Article for more on that point.)

ut YOUR perspective as “The Test-Taker” is that You Need To Achieve A Certain Score or better.  That is YOUR goal.  So simply obtaining a massive amount of information that is NOT going to help you achieve that score is a complete waste of your time — your energy — and very-often…  Your Money.

nother brilliant question!  And this is another area where — even though I’m SURE that the other teachers who may tell you that you need to do this are trying to help you — and that they even think that they ARE helping you — they are not using logic in their reasoning for telling you this.

o Prepare For The TOEFL Exam — you need to maximize your time & efforts.  Those other books & videos have a HUGE amount of vocabulary from lots of different topics — and there is an INCREDIBLY slim chance that ANY of it will be on YOUR exam.  AND — there is an amazingly GOOD chance that absolutely NONE of it will be helpful — in any way, at all.

nd here is the part where all those other teachers get the logic completely wrong…  You Are NOT Being Tested On Your Knowledge Of Those Topics!!!  You Are Being Tested On Your Ability To Comprehend What You Read And What You Hear People Discuss ABOUT Those Topics!  Nobody studies those topics BEFORE they go to university!  They go to university SO THAT they can study those topics!!!

know…  It is Mind-Blowing just how simple & logical that is.  It’s almost like I know what I’m talking about!  😆  And yet — other teachers in Traditional TOEFL Courses keep telling you that you should waste your time by doing what will NOT help you achieve the score you need.  And they completely ignore all of the most important information that you actually NEED to know to “Achieve Excellence On The TOEFL Exam”.

ow!  You are just filled with excellent questions!  So I’ll give you an excellent answer.  😉  Your time is BEST spent, learning How To Answer Every Question & Fulfill Every Task On The Exam.  Not on the accumulation of abstract skills & random information that may or may not help you.

his means learning every TYPE of Question & Task on exam.  How to identify them;  What they are asking for;  What Tricks & Traps you may come across with each of these Question- & Task-Types; and the Master Skills Necessary to Dominate Every Single One Of Them!

nd the only way to do that is with a PROPER course — created by an EXPERT on the subject — who is approaching the task of preparing you for The TOEFL Exam from YOUR perspective — and with YOUR goal in-mind.  The goal of making sure that you absolutely Achieve The HIGHEST POSSIBLE SCORE On The TOEFL Exam!