Hi everyone! My name is Ubaid Niaz. I’m an international dentist living in the USA and I took the TOEFL on June 27. I needed to score 5 in each section and fortunately I ended up scoring 6 in all sections. I wanted to share how the test felt and what actually helped me along the way.
For preparation, I mainly used TestGlider and the official ETS materials. I also worked with Metages Mesfin
@Meti_2323 , and those sessions made a real difference. The feedback wasn’t general at all, it pointed out very specific issues in my speaking and writing that I wouldn’t have noticed myself.
Reading
Reading felt pretty smooth overall. The passages were manageable and the questions were mostly straightforward. Vocabulary didn’t feel like a major obstacle. The only part that slowed me down a bit was the fill in the blank type questions where you have to type missing letters carefully. It wasn’t difficult in theory, but it required attention and patience. The main challenge was staying focused from start to finish.
Listening
Listening was also quite comfortable. The audio was clear and felt very similar to what I had practiced before. My note taking strategy helped a lot, especially for academic lectures where you can easily lose track of details. Some questions still required close attention but overall it felt very manageable.
Writing
Writing took the most effort in my preparation. The main challenge wasn’t ideas, it was building clear and natural sentences quickly under time pressure. I could often think of what I wanted to say, but turning that into smooth sentences without sounding awkward took practice.
For the email task, I kept things simple and direct. I made sure I answered every part of the prompt clearly, greeting, purpose, and each required point in short, organized paragraphs. I also mentally checked that I didn’t miss any instruction, because that’s where most people lose easy points.
For the academic discussion task, I treated it like a short conversation rather than a formal essay. I picked a clear opinion quickly and supported it with one or two simple reasons. I didn’t try to over explain or write long sentences. Clarity and structure mattered more than complexity here.
Feedback from Metages Mesfin helped me a lot here, especially in fixing repeated sentence patterns and overly long phrasing. Once I started writing shorter, cleaner sentences, everything became easier under time pressure.
Speaking
Speaking was the section I was most nervous about. The biggest challenge is organizing ideas quickly while still sounding natural. What helped me was practicing enough that I had a simple structure ready in my mind, so I wasn’t starting from zero during the test.
During the exam, I just focused on staying calm and speaking clearly, even if I wasn’t perfect. That mindset helped more than trying to force complicated answers.
Overall, it wasn’t about memorizing templates or using complicated language. It was more about getting comfortable with the format, practicing consistently and getting honest feedback on weak areas. Once that clicked, the test started to feel much more manageable.