Anyone Else Not Studying Abroad but Wanting to Take the TOEFL?

I thought for a long time about how to open this post, and in the end I figured I'd just be straightforward!

Hi~ to everyone reading this post, hello!

From the title, you can probably guess what this post is about~

That's right! For the second half of 2024, I've set myself a new goal: I'm going to prepare for the TOEFL!

When I told my family and friends, most of the responses I got were:

“Huh? You have the money to study abroad?”

“You're going to study abroad? How come you never said anything!”

“You know that test is for people going abroad to study, right?”

Anyway, the most common reaction was assuming I was going to study abroad. Only my grandma asked me, in Taiwanese, “What's that?”

After graduating from vocational high school, I worked for a few years before going back to university. I've just become a senior, and if I count the days, I'll actually be graduating before long. During my studies, I've met quite a few classmates who started preparing early for the TOEIC, TOEFL or IELTS to go study abroad. Of course, I've dreamed of studying overseas too, but my family's situation doesn't allow it right now, so I've set the idea aside for the time being.

1.Preparing for the TOEFL helps improve my English

2.A TOEFL score can help me land a better job

Those two are the main reasons I decided to prepare for the TOEFL. After reading some related articles online, even though I'm not 100% sure what I want to do in the future, what I am sure of is that I've decided to challenge myself and use the rest of my time in college to start preparing for the TOEFL. After all, preparing will still improve my English, which will help to some extent when I go back to the workplace.

You might ask me, “Why the TOEFL?” Why not the IELTS? Why not the TOEIC? First, as the article I linked above says, the TOEFL and IELTS both test all four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. For a long time, English classes at school mostly focused on reading and writing. Honestly, my English grades in vocational high school weren't bad, but if you asked me to express myself fluently in English, my mind would still go blank. So I think that, compared with other tests, preparing for the TOEFL or IELTS can improve my English in a more well-rounded way.

Both the TOEFL and IELTS test all-around listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, so why do I lean toward the TOEFL? Before deciding, I read what some people had shared online: since the TOEFL was revised, the once super-long test has been cut to under two hours; for speaking, you just record your answers into a computer; and apart from speaking and writing, everything on the TOEFL is multiple choice. As someone preparing for a language test for the first time, I'd still be a bit nervous facing a live examiner, and those factors are what made me choose the TOEFL as my goal.

“There's no best test, only the test that suits you best.” I saw that online too! When I think about it, it's true: everyone has a test format that suits them best. After weighing everything, I think the TOEFL suits me better, and I feel I should find it easier to prepare for.

Most people take these tests to study abroad, but I just want to improve my English through preparing, and then use the score to pave the way for job hunting later. I'm sharing my little idea with everyone in case it helps those of you who are on the fence about taking an English test.