The Test of English as a Foreign Language commonly known as TOEFL is a mandatory test for all the students from outside the US to apply for admissions in the North American Universities. Before you begin your TOEFL preparation, it is important to understand what exactly the test is, its validity, duration and syllabus.
The TOEFL includes three main categories that students are assessed on. Hence for your TOEFL preparation you need to prepare yourself for the Listening Test, the writing test and the reading comprehension test. For any sort of communication, listening skills are very important too. Listening also includes understanding the exact meaning of the thought conveyed. This comes easily once you are proficient in the language. A person with a habit of reading English books will adapt easily to the syllabus. But other students may also work hard and take sample test for improving their performance.
The total score is out of 300 with each section. One advantage of this test is that you can keep taking it until you are satisfied with the score. All you need to do is pay the registration fee each time. Also you can take a test only once a month. Hence if you think your TOEFL preparation is not enough and the score is low, you can take the test next month. Registration can be done online or through mail or in person too. You can register maximum 7 days prior to your test
But ideally your TOEFL preparation should begin well in advance. This is because mastering a foreign language (English) will take a bit of effort and time. Nowadays most TOEFL Tests are internet based but few locations still follow the paper based tests. As a part of the TOEFL preparation you need to make sure that you can read, write and speak English as per university level and not just basics. The various tests will judge your ability to carry out the academic tasks based on English and score you accordingly.