Hi all;

Am I too early...
I I am taking my TOEFL in first week of May... Will be sending out my apps in Dec. 2006. Do u reckon I can ask TOEFL to send my 4 free score-cards right after the exam in May to the Law Schools of my choice or should I waive my right to the 4 free TOEFL transcripts & send them later with my other docs. in Dec. by paying for them again...

Would be grateful for any comments & solutions...

Cheers!

scores are valid for 2 years so it does not matter if you send them after taking the toefl as long as you apply to the schools within that 2-year period...

I took the TOEFL in May 2005 and didn´t apply before December 2005 either. You should have the ETS send out your 4 free score reports right after the test. The universities will keep them even if they haven´t received any other documents from you yet, you may give them a little email note in advance if you want. Remember that most schools in the US expect the score report to be sent directly by ETS, so you can´t put it into your application anyway. Plus when you request score reports later than directly in the test you will have to pay for them.

Thanx Anushka & Matthias...

That input was very useful.

Matthias: In the TWE section, the structure of the essay I suppose would be important, along with of course the substance of the essay. Do you supppose an Introduction + Arguments for and against / Merits-Demerits discussion + Conclusion ought to be enough?

Would be grateful if you could share your experience and I agree practice for this one is an absolute must.

Cheers!

masteroflaws2007: i personally "followed" that simple structure and i got 5.5.
Good luck.

i just stated my position and supported it with arguments and explanation. Plus, I read somewhere that it would be important to use sort of complex sentences and i followed it. I got 6.0. :-)

Thank you all for sharing your experiences.

Is it "color" instead of "colour" in the Writing section?

Would it be preferable to use American spellings or can you go with the English way of spelling things...

Does anyone know if there are any penalties?

Thanks.

Cheers!

I'm preparing for the TOEFL as well. Actually, so long as your essay is coherent, you'll be ok. What they want to see is the extent of your vocab, your ability to spell correctly, your sentence structure, etc.... In comparing the GRE with the TOEFL, the ETS website itself states, viz.:

How does the analytical writing section differ from the TOEFL Test of Written English (TWE)?

The TOEFL® and GRE® analytical writing measures are very different. The TOEFL TWE is not designed to measure higher levels of thinking and analytical writing, but centers instead on command of English vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and syntax. Therefore, scores on the two tests are not at all comparable.

Because the TOEFL test emphasizes fundamental writing skills, the TOEFL score can supplement an analytical writing score by helping faculty determine whether a low score on the GRE analytical writing measure is due to lack of familiarity with English or lack of ability to produce and analyze logical arguments.

RE your question on spelling, I think it doesn't matter which style (US or Brit) you use so long as you are correct within the style used and are consistent, i.e., if you start using "colour", you have to spell "flavour", "centre", etc., as the British do.

BTW good job on your essay, sunshinesparkles! I am from the Philippines too :)

Oh no! I just have to correct myself so that anyone who stumbles onto this site will not be mislead -- as I have been -- by the passages that i quoted from the toefl site
(http://www.ets.org/portal/site/ets/menuitem.1488512ecfd5b8849a77b13bc3921509/?vgnextoid=302433c7f00c5010VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD&vgnextchannel=7196e3b5f64f4010VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD)

The to be coherent is not enough ... both formal and substantive merit will be reviewed as such:

To get a 6, the essay must (1) effectively address the writing task (2) be well organized and well developed (3) contain clearly appropriate detailes to support a thesis (4) display a consistent facility in use of language and (5) demonstrate syntactic variety and appropriate word choice though it may have occassional errors

That's from the powerprep software downloadable from the toefl website.