TOEFL.

Hello everyone! Let's not digress further.

I went over the seas for TOEFL last 2 weeks  (12 days ago to the exact).

Let's skip to the actual day which was 11 days ago.

I had the bad (almost worst) case of sore throat (don't get me started on that). I was quite worried that I would encounter problems during the speaking section. Didn't sleep well that night due to excess coughing and all.

The next morning, le uncle and le cousin turned up to the place where I was staying at 0400hrs. I know it was super early but it was as a safety precaution because we have zero idea about the location of the test center. We started the journey from KL to PJ around 0615hrs with the aid of GPS. Since there wasn't any traffic congestion (well it was too early for any) we arrived in PJ 20 minutes later. Le uncle brought us for breakfast at the nearest fast food outlet.

0715hrs- went straight to the test center which was within a walking distance.

Iverson Associates Suites T113& T114, Centrepoint. Located near KBU International College, Bandar Utama. Google it up.

I was 60 minutes earlier than the time stated in the confirmation slip. I won't describe what I did to pass the time. Other candidates started coming before 0845hrs. I think there were 17 of us from INTEC. We filled in some confidentiality form and waited. It was only 0900hrs when we went in the testing site. There were 2 persons in charge of us ( a man and a lady). We placed our belongings in a room and brought our IDs into the next room for registration and also a photo opportunity.

Once after the mini photoshoot we were assigned to our individual workstation with our photo on the computer screen. Everyone started the session with the reading section. I experienced technical problems in which I had headphones malfunction. I had to wait for more than 15 minutes for both of the administrators to solve that glitch. I have to admit that I was worried that I didn't have enough time since the others had the 15-minute head start. Not only that, I had to change my workstation too. Gratefully, the administrator managed to solve the glitch and I was able to proceed with the reading section even though I had a great feeling that it would affect me mentally.

After completing the reading section, I continued with the listening section. I was relieved when I heard  sounds coming out from the headphones. A 10-minute break was held at the end of the second section. I went out of the room and headed straight to the next room (where the personal belongings were placed) to grab my cough lozenges and water bottle. Unfortunately, the door was locked. I was devastated and immediately headed to the washroom.

A note to future test takers, do bring along some gum/mints/sweets/cough lozenges in your pockets, but do not eat them during the test since they have the strict no-eating-and-drinking-during-tests policy. I managed to have 2 cups of warm water (which was provided), with high hopes that I would not lose my voice for the speaking section.

By the time I returned to my workstation, I was left with 2 minutes which was indicated on the computer screen. I finally realized that 10 minutes was indeed a short period of time. I can't do much to warm up my voice so I cleared my throat and attempted to cough politely a few times. Turns out that the administrators waited for everyone to complete their 10-minute break before starting on the speaking section. I wasted about 8 minutes worrying. If I knew that fact earlier, I would've gone outside or to the washroom to cough maniacally just for the sake of not losing my voice.

It wasn't my day since I can hardly speak properly and clearly without my voice and the uncontrollable pitch(es). I didn't put any high hopes of scoring the speaking section. Finally, the writing section. Not to complain or brag, I didn't encounter any problems with the last section. Usually, during classes, the wordcount in my essays would not be sufficient to the requirements and sometimes my ideas were irrelevant with the whole topic.

The whole thing ended around 1315hrs and I went back to KL.

Why on Earth would I rant about this? It's because the results are out. Boom.

Here goes. Judge me, no matter what. I can't shut people's mouth. I'm only a kid.

My POV/ excuse(s):
Reading section: I was right. the glitch did affect me badly. Not only that, I never liked reading from the computer screen. It hurts my precious, spectacles-free eyes.

Listening section: I never scored this high before. My usual scores were 26-28. The whole thing depends on me: whether I want to listen or not. I would've score 30.

Speaking section: Speechless. I thought I messed up the whole thing. Thumbs up and special thanks to the highly-trained raters for the score.

Writing section: Not much to say since I exceeded the word limit for both essays.


Overall, I'm grateful that I can bid TOEFL farewell for the eternity since I fulfill the requirement for le sponsor and le future universities.

Kudos to all who got their TOEFL and IELTS results. Our hard work has paid off.
All the best to all future test-takers.