The TOEFL primarily tests your ability to speak, read, write, and understand English. However, each question also deals with a type of situation or with an academic field. You don’t necessarily need a lot of background to succeed on the TOEFL. However, having some basic background information on these situations and academic fields can help you better understand the questions you will see on the test.
The situations on the TOEFL revolve around things that often happen on a university campus in the United States. The academic topics come from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.
During the Speaking and Listening tasks, you will hear conversations that take place on a university campus. The speakers will have various roles that are associated with a campus setting—including students and professors, but also sports coaches, administrators, museum directors, bursars, and so on. If you find on practice TOEFL questions that you are coming across roles unknown to you, do some research on the Internet. A bursar, for instance, is the person (or office) who collects the tuition and fees at a university.
It is worth noting that, on the TOEFL, there are conversations in which students will make requests that challenge the rules or question the professor or another person in authority. On campuses outside of the United States, this type of interaction between a student and an authority figure might be considered rude, or it might even be prohibited. However, these situations are more common in the United States and not considered rude. Accordingly, you may see this type of conversation on the TOEFL.
TOEFL conversations may discuss campus situations or topics that are unfamiliar to you. For instance, you might not be familiar with the typical system of midterm exams and final exams, the grading systems used in the United States, the various types of assignments that students are given in classes, typical extracurricular activities, etc. You won’t need in-depth knowledge of this type of information to successfully answer a TOEFL question. However, it’s good to be prepared so that you are not distracted by confusing terminology while trying to listen to a question.
Where should you research to learn more about university campuses in the United States? Orientation videos—which are the videos schools make about themselves—are often available on university websites and are a reliable source. They provide more realistic representations of university life than movies and TV shows, which tend to favor drama over realism. If you search YouTube for “A Day in the Life of a First-Year Student” posted by Harvard University, you will find a Harvard orientation video.
From there, you might branch out to watch videos posted by actual students at schools you are interested in attending. And you can always contact the schools themselves and ask to get in touch with current students. If you can visit, take a tour and ask questions. This can also be an opportunity to practice English conversation.
Your TOEFL could address a range of academic subjects in the areas of natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. But every TOEFL is different and will not necessarily test you in a wide variety of fields. Your test could have mostly natural sciences passages and lectures, with not a single literature passage or lecture. But the possible range of fields, or topics, is representative of the various course options offered at universities in the United States.
How do you know whether you’re struggling with the topic itself, or just with the English involved in the passage or lecture? If you are having trouble comprehending the core meaning of a passage, a lecture, or another academic task, even after taking extra time to review, you may need to invest time and energy in learning more about that field of study. Ask yourself—do I lack the knowledge I need to understand this topic, regardless of the language? If you don’t know what a “cell” is in biology, even in your native language, that is something you want to address. You will need to possess basic knowledge in major academic areas.
Research what you don’t know. You can use Wikipedia to start. Look for terms you don’t understand in the field with which you are unfamiliar. From there, you might search for articles and videos on the topic in sources like Scientific American and National Geographic. Note that these sources are in English, and this is important—you will want to read up on the subject in English too, not just your native language! (You can do both if it’s too hard to start in English.)
High school–level introductions to the subject are perfect. You might even skim a high school textbook, if you can get your hands on one! The method here is to expose yourself to the ideas that could come up on the exam. By the way, this isn’t just conjecture—research has shown that familiarity with a topic or field of study is a major predictor of a student’s ability to perform well in reading comprehension on standardized tests.
If you have the necessary basic knowledge of the field but are still struggling to understand a passage or lecture in English, there are two other possibilities. First, perhaps you don’t know the vocabulary involved. In this case, study the basic English vocabulary commonly used in that field of study.
Alternatively, if you find that you understand the vocabulary and know the content but are still struggling, then the issue is likely grammar/sentence structure. If this is the case, continue to work on your facility with complex English sentences. Try taking a long and/or complex English sentence and breaking it down into several shorter sentences, using simple vocabulary to describe the concepts involved.