“Wow, the reading is no joke!” This has been a common reaction among iBT TOEFL test takers since it first began in Sept. 2005. The length of ther reading passages has more than doubled from 280-350 words on the CBT to an average of 700 words on the new iBT. The longer length of the passages has made them more difficult to grasp. Test takers who are unused to reading about science often find the new iBT reading passages especially difficult.

The number of vocabulary questions given on the TOEFL has also increased drastically, and these questions now constitute approximately one third of all the questions on the reading section. A typical passage contains 4 vocabulary questions out of 13-14 questions in total. Considering that the reading section contains 3 or 5 reading passages, test takers will have to answer 12-20 vocabulary questions on the new iBT. That’s really no joke.

In scrutinizing all the real iBTs given thus far, LinguaForum Research Center has found something very interesting. Similar topics and questions have appeared repeatedly on the real tests. In other words, the passages and questions the test takers witnessed on the today’s test will possibly appear again on the next week’s test, next month’s test, or on a test some months later. That repetition caused us to analyze the frequencies at which words have appeared on the real tests. Using this analysis we have produced an innovative and ambitious book, Frequency #1 Vocabulary

Setting priorities for iBT vocabulary building!

The 2,000 words in this book are the one that have most frequently appeared in the real test. We divide the words into two parts: top and second frequency, each part containing 1,000 words. Each section is then further subdivided into 20 chapters of 50 words each according to the frequency in which they appear on the test. Thus, students first learn the words they are most likey to see on the iBT and learn words that ppear less frequently in later chapters. By prioritizing vocabulary for the students, LinguaForum makes vocabulary building more streamlined and efficient, increasing the potential of test takers worldwide.