Customer Reviews

TOEFL CBT (Cliffs Test Prep)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book is really very useful.
1) Comprehensive grammar. I have hardly ever seen so broad and full grammar section although I had Kaplan, Barrons, Cambridge, and Princenton. If you have problem with grammar review buy this book. Moreover, mini tests after each grammar subsection reinforce you memory. In addition, the grammar looks like very close to that in real test.
2) Reading section is also very good. The book presents a lof of helpful techniques how to approach to reading section of the test. This section also can be qualified as the best among Toefl tests books.
3) Listening section is fair. Listening comprehension section is much better in Kaplan and Delta Key for the Toefl test.
4) Book is very effective in terms of practicing the test. 6 full scale test included in the book allowe you get used to toefl pacing and timing.
Generally, there is no single book for the Toefl. As I mentioned, Kaplan is better for listening comprehension part while Cambridge Preparation for the Toefl Test is definitely the best for Essay section. If you know English well and need only practice I recommend you buy Delta Key for the Toefl Test with CD Rom. The Delta's CD has 10 !!! tests.

This is one of the best TOEFL books available. The grammar section is so strong that you can build up your grammar skills very easily. Lots of explanations and lots of examples. Very, very, very good book.

I've taken the TOEFL CBT, and got a reasonable grade of 283. Here are the book I've used, from the most important to the least one, and what I did with each one, based on other readers' reviews:
1. CliffsTestPrep TOEFL CBT:
Excellent structure section. Good Reading strategies - but for the structure part (word forms) rather then for the Reading part of the test!
It's also one of the cheapest books available.
2. Cambridge Preparation For The TOEFL Test:
Great Reading and Writing sections.
3. Kaplan's TOEFL Paper-And-Pencil, Third Edition:
A fine Listening section.
4. ETS TOEFL Test Preparation Kit, 2nd Edition:
A lot of exercises at the appropriate difficulty level (from the creators of the test themselves). However, it has only PBT test, and NOT CBT.
I hardly used this one at all.
The only book you need is CliffsTestPrep, which really helps you with the structure part, and, if you insist, the Cambridge's book for the essays, either.
Also, download the TOEFL PowerPrep software (a computerized demo test, available for free download at the TOEFL official web site, including all the tutorials you'll see in the actual test), and the list of available writing topics in the official pool from the same site, and practice them whenever you're doing a test, in-order to increase the chance that you would be given a topic you've already been written on.
You should also look for a document called 'Toefl Essay Writing Tips' - it has a lot of good (how surprising) tips to write the essay, including a comprehensive division of the essay types, and what should you do in each one.

That's it - you're ready!

Good luck!

I find this book very well organized. The structure section has explanations easily understood by the student and clear examples, although I feel there should be more practice exercises of the structures. The reading section gives an excellent review of prefixes, suffixes and root words which helps the student increase his vocabulary. The listening and writing sections are well detailed, especially for the computer-based TOEFL. The only drawback I find is that there could be more practice exercises.

I have taken the TOEFL 3 times and I have been successful each og every of them and I used just this book. I consider that the authors have made the material really accessible and don't mess up with grammatical details that at the end, won't help you. However, they gave you the tools to build up a strong base to "understand" the english grammar. If you are planning to take the GMAT after the TOEFL , this book is useful to the basics of Sentence Correction.

This book has an excellent listening section...It was very helpful in getting me a total score of 273/300..I scored the least on listening, out of all the sections.

I rate this book as the best buy for TOEFL.

By the time I bought this book, I already use Barron's TOEFL Preparation book. I bought it just to make comparison, perhaps there are something that are not covered by Barron's. In the end I find that in short ammount of time, I couldn't read and memorize all the patterns explain in Barron's. So about one or more weeks before the test I switch to this book.

This book is quite simple. The writer give you a brief explanation on how to attack some questions, then give you some exercises on how to do it. I like the vocabulary exercise. Although they're not part of the test, but it helps me alot in reading comprehension.

In the end, this book... is helpful enough for you who are already advanced in English. But the questions on structure in my humble opinion is quite easy. I correctly answers, almost all of the structure questions., eventhough I am not an advanced English user.

This book was helpful for practice. It has a lot of exercises that let you get closer to the high score of TOEFL. As the saying goes "Practice makes it perfect".

Not as beautiful a book as the CAMBRIDGE test book but has a better section on grammar and includes an audio CD. All this for less money than most toefl books.

This book was very helpful to me when I had to prepare for the TOEFL test, the only thing that this book needs is some CBT practice tests.