Test Of English as Foreign Language

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When i joined the college, there were talks about TOEFL. I paid little attention to them as i thought - "Itna tention kay lena hai? Jab semester holidays mein India jaunga, tab dedunga.Simple!!!" Infact i felt pity on some of the guys who bunked classes to go and give the exam back in India. I was totally confounded by their attitude. Firstly, they could have given their exam in Dubai itself instead of spending a fortune on the tickets to India plus the TOEFL examination fee. Secondly, they could have given the exam when the semester ends. Finally, i thought i should ask one of them the reason for their behaviour.

----The conversation----

To be honest, i was equally perplexed by his answer - "Dude..TOEFL is much easier to give in India. You score more when you give in India. Here it is very tough and you may not get the minimum required score set by the Management" and added - "You are not giving it or what?".

I cooly said - "No dude..I would prefer giving it in the semester holidays"

"Abbe #$%^&# !!! You have to submit the IELTS/TOEFL score-card before the semester ends.It is mandatory" - he said.

----End of Conversation----

I went back to my room thinking it was one more of those rumours floating around in the campus only to be proved grossly wrong a few days later.

I got a mail from the registrar which said "You are requested to submit your IELTS/TOEFL scorecard before the start of the semester exam failing which you would be barred from writing the exam"

OMG!! What sort of an idiot have i turned out to be? It then dawned me, i had only a month to go before my semester starts and if i had to submit my scorecard before the exam the only option i had was - "Give the TOEFL 3 days from now!!!". On November 14. Huh!! What an ideal children's day gift!! So i had no option but to book my dates here in Dubai itself(though the odds were stacked highly against me getting more than the cut-off score..Reason why i say this - a guy who secured 97 percentile in his CAT managed just 103..and he said - dude..it is tough writing it here..better practice atleast 6-7 full length papers before giving it)

So my search for TOEFL practice book began. After much searching i finally found a guy who had a very old book(who cares if it is new or old..i could atleast get one and hence would atleast know the pattern)
With only one day in hand all i could do was run through all the pages. I did try my hand at a few chapter review test and finally one full length test minus the speaking and writing part!!!

14th November finally dawned. Reached the centre 1.5 hours early(well..that is an achievement for me..i have this knack of invariably coming late or if god wishes Just-in-time). So i had to wait a long-long time(half an hour technical delay in starting the exam) before i sat in front of the screen.

What happened after that - God only knows!!! In order to reach on time, i skipped my breakfast as usual and by the time my exam got over around 16:30 hours i was starving to death. I called up my mom and said i dont even know what i wrote, though my reading and listening sections went well, i simply couldnt concentrate on my writing part and i guess i screwed it up.Ditto spoken to bro too.

Finally i ended up in a super-market just to grab a "Good Day" biscuit. How Ironic!! But not so when i got the results today. I scored well above the cut-off score and a lot more than the 97 percentile guy( i say this not to boast - which i would never like to, but to give you a rough idea of my score).

As Shakespeare said long ago - "All's well that ends well"

Vartmankal
(TT - 00:42)



Location: Dubai - United Arab Emirates

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