n a previous post — I told you about “The Most Important Thing You Need To Know About The TOEFL Exam”.  In that post, I stated that the MOST important thing to know is The Format of the exam.

hat is true.  And then the NEXT most important thing that you need to know is How To Answer Every Question & Fulfill Every Task On The TOEFL Exam — (which you will learn in the courses and lessons in The TOEFL Excellence Training System).

owever — a lot of people who contact me, are more concerned about registering for the exam, than they are about actually preparing for it!  They don’t know anything about the exam — other than that it is a requirement for University or a scholarship — and so it seems that they treat it like going to get a blood test.  They don’t need to do anything other than show up!

hen most people think about “Preparing” for The TOEFL Exam — they are ONLY thinking about how long it will take to learn How To Answer Every Question & Fulfill Every Task On The TOEFL iBT Exam.

nd unfortunately — they do not want to hear the truth.  That there is FAR more to “Preparing” for The TOEFL Exam than simply learning some quick & easy tips to ensure that they sail-on through the exam like there’s nothin’ to it…

ut that’s not how this works.  And what’s worse is that there are people who have HUGE followings on YouTube that make videos with titles like:  “Learn The Entire TOEFL Reading Section In One Hour”,  “Learn The TOEFL In One Weekend”,  “How I Got A Perfect Score On The TOEFL In 2 Weeks!”.  But these people are putting a false perception of the TOEFL into people’s minds.

hey are giving people the wrong idea about what it actually takes to prepare for The TOEFL Exam.  You can NOT Realistically learn the entire Reading Section in 1 Hour!!!  And you can Not Realistically Learn The Entire TOEFL Exam In One Weekend — or even 1 WEEK!

ou CAN watch a 1-hour long Youtube video that TALKS about the Reading Section.  But that won’t actually prepare you for it.  And a video that covers everything that you need to know about The TOEFL Exam would probably LAST from Friday night until Monday morning — non-stop.  But Do you REALLY think tht you would be ready to go after a 36 hour non-stop YouTube TOEFL Marathon?  (You could say “yes”, but you would be lying to yourself.  Besides — most TOEFL courses that cover the entire TOEFL Exam are at LEAST 200 hours or more.  And they do not even talk about everything that you actually need to know!)

inally — the people talking about getting a perfect score on The TOEFL Exam do not mention that they have actually taken the exam MANY different times before they got that score.  And some of them are actually English Professionals!  So they are giving you a false perception of what to expect!  It is no different than when companies use fitness models to sell some piece of exercise equipment — but do not mention that it took years of training for those people to obtain that body…  Using COMPLETELY DIFFERENT EQUIPMENT!!!…  (And those people probably do not even USE the product they are selling!)

ut the MAIN problem with all of these scam videos — is that NONE of these people EVER talk about The Entire TOEFL Process — and how it usually takes MONTHS to FULLY Prepare.  “Wait.  What???!!!  No One Every Told Me About The TOEFL Process Before!!!”…  (I Know!  Click The Link To Finally Find Out)

ow, you might say — that it’s not actually a “scam” because they are not actually SELLING anything!  Yes… They are!  Almost every one of those people has a course or a product to sell.  It may only be mentioned in the video description — but even if they do not try to sell you a product — they have already scammed you out of your TIME.  And they have warped your perception.  They use “Click-Bait” titles to get you to “Buy In” to their idea for long enough that you watch their entire video.  And then YouTube pays them for the time that everyone watches that video.  So yes…  It Is A Scam!

his includes all of the things that you need to do BEFORE you even schedule your exam (the things that, so far, only ONE person is actually talking about!)  And it also includes the MONTHS of time that you need to prepare for AFTER you have taken your exam and are waiting for your scores to be delivered.  (And that is the part of The TOEFL Process where almost everyone fails!)

lot of people make the mistake of thinking that The TOEFL Exam is just another English Proficiency or College Entrance exam that is just like all the rest.  (Some people even ask me if there will be any math on The TOEFL Exam!)  So, because they may have done well on other such exams — they assume that they do not need to Prepare For The TOEFL Exam.

ost English proficiency exams — such as the FCE & CAE — test for the skills that a person ALREADY possesses.  And although The TOEFL iBT Exam DOES take that into account — this is not actually the main focus of The TOEFL Exam.

he main focus of The TOEFL Exam is to test whether or not you will be able to function in an English-Speaking environment like that which you would experience in a university setting.  It does this by testing that you are able to effectively…

1)  Learn New Material In English

2)  Answer Questions About That Material

3)  Report About Certain Topics In The Spoken & Written Forms

f you are intending on taking The TOEFL Exam — then you need to:  First —  Get Acquainted With The Contents Of The Exam.  And, Second — Learn How To Answer & Fulfill All Of The Questions & Tasks On The TOEFL iBT Exam.  But all of this is going to take time.

f you already have all of those things, and you have ALREADY learned Everything You Need To Know ABOUT The TOEFL Exam.  Then you may not need as much time for the preparation BEFORE your exam.  But you certainly need to know about the entire TOEFL Process to even FIND OUT how much you need to DO to prepare.  (And almost no one who takes the exam has or knows all those things, unless they have already taken the exam before.  But if that is the case, then they are probably not reading this.)

nother HUGE mistake that people make is scheduling their TOEFL Exam a few days or a couple weeks before they need to have their scores submitted.  Then they find out that their scores will NOT be ready in-time, because they neglected to consider that IT TAKES TIME FOR YOUR SCORES TO BE CALCULATED…  and then…  IT TAKES EVEN MORE TIME TO MAIL THOSE SCORES TO THE UNIVERSITY OR ORGANIZATION THAT YOU HAVE CHOSEN TO RECEIVE YOUR TOEFL SCORES!!!

hat’s right!  Your scores are NOT available immediately after the exam!  And contrary to what many people falsely believe — Your Scores Are NOT Mailed To YOU!  They are mailed directly to the university or organization that you specify when you register for the exam.  If you do not specify this when registering — then it will take EVEN MORE time.

ith all the chaos that The World has been experiencing over the last few years, this should be obvious.  But even before all the chaos started — people all around the world knew that — in some places — the mail is VERY un-reliable.  And even in places where the mail delivery IS supposedly reliable — there can still be delays.  (Especially when it is really important for the mail to get through on time!)

he organization that created and administers the exam (ETS) states of their websites that your scores will be mailed out after 10-12 Business days.  (That’s 2-3 WEEKS).  But this does NOT mean that you will HAVE them in 2-3 weeks!  If the scores take 2 months to be delivered because they were lost, or got stuck at customs — then there is really nothing that you or anyone else can do about it.  Once they have mailed them out — ETS no longer accepts any responsibility for the delivery of your scores.  And there is no way to prove if the scores were actually mailed out on time.

ow when the postal services are working properly — then the mail should only take between 10 days to 2 weeks to be delivered — anywhere in the world.  (This, in addition to the 2-3 weeks that it takes them to even send them out.)  So that is still 1 Month After You Take The Exam!  But that is not what you should be relying on — and certainly not PLANNING on.

ecause even the information on the ETS website is contradictory.  When you are registering for your exam it states that you should allow 2 months for your scores to be delivered.  But they do not mention the processing time on that page.  So if you don’t factor that in (because they didn’t mention it) Well…  Then you’re screwed.  😡

ut what’s more — on ANOTHER page (which is not very easy to find) — it states that for international mail delivery — you should add an additional 4-6 weeks.  So if you add that to the 2-3 weeks it takes for your scores to even be mailed out…  That is OVER 2 months!  Not to mention that they are suggesting that you schedule your exam At The VERY LAST MINUTE!  So if there are ANY problems along the way…

fter you complete The TOEFL Exam — your scores are valid for 2 Years.  Most people take The TOEFL Exam for university (or a scholarship to get IN to a university).  Most people who go to university, stay there for MORE than 2 years.  So even though your scores are VALID for 2 years — you will almost certainly NOT even USE them again — after you are accepted for the university or scholarship.

herefore — you should start preparing for The TOEFL Exam as close as possible to 1 year ahead of time.  That’s right!…  1 year.  That way, you will have PLENTY of time to Properly Prepare.  While — at the same time — ensuring that you get ALL of the necessary information and other things you need — without having to stress about any deadlines.

hen — you should actually TAKE the exam AS SOON AS YOU ARE READY.  But the LATEST that you should be taking the exam is 6 Months Before Any Deadline You May Have.  In this way — not only will you be able to do The Entire TOEFL Process with no stress about deadlines — but if there is some sort of problem — like a cancellation, or problems with the equipment at the testing center — or even that you did not get the score you needed, and you need to re-take the exam…  Then you will have PLENTY of time to do all of that, without the stress of a deadline.  😎

f these things are not possible for you — but you are still determined to do The TOEFL Exam — then send me a message and let me know your situation.  I will let you know if it is even possible for you.

f you are able to meet the conditions for even being able to do The TOEFL Exam — properly — then you will still need to know How To Answer Every Question And Fulfill Every Task On The TOEFL iBT Exam.  Otherwise — you will just be wasting your time & money.

if you have any other questions — feel free to send me a message.  I am always happy to help in any way that I can.  And I have been helping people “Achieve Excellence On The TOEFL iBT Exam” for over ten years.  So I’m sure that I can help you too!