Notes! Notes! I Need My Notes For TOEFL Exam Preparation!

Hello everyone and welcome back! Now, I've talked about this before, but this time I've come up with a very good idea for taking notes for TOEFL. This idea came about while discussing strategies with one of my students, so I'd like to thank her for the inspiration. (I really love it when my students give me ideas!) Now, I've already discussed the importance of note taking for TOEFL and that you can take notes at any time during the test. Also, I recommended that you do this throughout the test. However, I only really touched on one aspect of note taking and that was to write your notes in 1 to 2 words, meaning all your points should be kept to 1-2 words only. What I realize now is that I never discussed anyway of organizing your notes. This is what I'm going to talk about now. Keeping your notes organized, having them in some type of logical order is necessary and imperative for both the speaking and writing tasks. Particularly the integrated tasks. By having your notes organized, you will have a map or guide that you can use to logically present your topics. Logical development and structure are two key considerations for scoring and so the proper organization of your notes should be taken into consideration. Now, as I have said, keep your notes to 1-2 words per point. There are several ways of organizing your notes, which I will discuss and these are in the form of charts. I'll will discuss one form now and then in the next blog entry I will discuss the other. This first form is perfect for the independent speaking tasks as well as the listening speaking task in which you must summarize a lecture. This can also be useful for the independent writing task. The form your notes should take is that of a pyramid. With the pyramid in mind, you have the topic at the top. Below that you have the major idea followed by the main ideas which come below. Under the main ideas are minor ideas as well as details used to describe the ideas. It would look something like this