Customer Reviews

Cracking the TOEFL IBT with Audio CD, 2007 Edition (College Test Prep)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought Cracking the TOEFL IBT with Audio CD, 2009 Edition (College Test Prep)( Princeton Review) and Kaplan TOEFL iBT with CD-ROM 2008-2009 (Kaplan Toefl Ibt) .i read both of them for one month and passed the ibt by 97. This is what I think about these two books on all four part of ibt:
Princeton Review
Reading 3 out of 5: good strategies but the readings are simpler than the real exam
Writing 5 out of 5: great strategies and samples with good drills
Speaking 4 out of 5: good strategies and drills but difficult to use on exam
Listening 4 out of 5: good strategies and sample but limited number
Overall 4 out of 5: the most important negative point is that it comes only with audio cd and you can not experience the real exam condition.
Kaplan
Reading 5 out of 5: great strategies and samples
Writing 2 out of 5: some useful techniques but not so helpful
Speaking 2 out of 5: some useful techniques but too general
Listening 4 out of 5: good strategies and examples
Overall 3.5 out of 5: the most important positive point is that you can create the real exam condition by its cd-rom at home.

I highly recommend this book for intermediate users who are already familiar with English usage but are looking for a quick review to familiarize themselves with the test format. Every test has its own strategy and so does iBT, which is very different from the PBT or CBT.

This book delivers the best 'strategies' to crack each part of TOEFL iBT. The strategies are very easy to understand and are very practical. I spent two days studying this book (and only this book), and received a satisfying score of 110 (out of 120). However, this book will NOT teach you so much about the basic knowledge for English grammar, structural writings, vocabs, etc. So if you need help in these fields, I'd recommend buying other books to complement your study. Good luck for the test!

Actually, I bought the book because of its highest rating at Amazon. It seems that there is no good book on TOEFL strategy at all. This one mostly describes the test, it gives some hints, but the proposed strategy doesn't appeal to me. Even having learned it, you still have to guess answers if you do not know a correct one. What they call a strategy can not be compared on real strategy proposed in textbooks for the IELTS. In "Cracking" they have exercises, what is good, but for speaking they propose as an exercise to WRITE your answers, which is stupid because when you speak and write you use different skills (and different areas of the brain, I guess). Very few exercises on speaking. They have one practice test. However, the CD is just an audio CD with audio tracks. So you have to take a paper-based test for training. And you have to manage your time and to record your speaking answers (and you have to do it while speaking). This ain't fittin. Besides, there are mistakes, typos and wrongly formulated questions in the book. Here is a piece of their "Victorian" English: "By mastering the skill of active reading, you'll be able to not only find the most important information in a passage but also effectively answer the questions that follow". Show the phrase to a good English teacher and you'll understand that if you need a score more then 90, you should avoid the book.

The book volume could be two times smaller since there are a lot of blank pages and blank space on pages.

In general I liked the book. I found it very useful with the examples given. Last 2 things if they can be performed the book will be very very useful. The first QUALITY of the paper
Second attaching another CD with iBT TOEFL practice exam

i bought this book for my 2009 TOEFL IBT and after studying it and following its strategies, i was convinced that i was well prepared for the test, studied for 5weeks and got 100 out of 120. Now basically if you are expecting this book to teach you English language and grammar completely, you are mistaken, this is just a guide on how to excel on the test, a perfect one i must say, your general performance on a language is based on lifetime practice; constant reading, writing and speaking the language, but regarding the test, this is a blueprint on how to pass the TOEFL IBT.

The book really helped me to crack the TOEFL, especially with the hints to the writing section. Now that I got my desired score I can sell my book. Anyone interested?

I strongly recommended this book.it gives great strategy and tips.Actually I studied ETS longman but this book the best TOEFL book I have ever seen.its very useful.if u wanna get good score from TOEFL u should buy this one...

I took the TOEFL test few days ago, and found out this book actually helped me a lot.

This book covers the exam pretty good, it gives you the information you need. The tests are not similar with the real exam, that's for sure.

This is a good book, it reviews all parts of the test and gives you great tricks, it also has a sample test you can take. I believe this book is better for the reading and writing part.I used another book called the michigan guide for better toelf test results and i believe that book is better at the listening and reading as well. Both books were good in the speaking section.I recommend getting both.