How to Prepare for the TOEIC Test Audio CD Pack

Rating:
Summary: Not terrible, but mostly confusing, unenligtening
Review: Barron’s How to Prepare for the TOEIC Test has both positive and negative points, but the negatives outweigh the positives. First off, the positives. (...) You get six complete TOEIC practice tests and a fair number of practice exercises for each of the seven sections. All of these exercises somewhat approximate an actual ETS TOEIC test. In addition, the author gives explanatory answers to the practice tests and exercises. However, this is where the positives of Barron’s book end. On the negative side, the author’s analysis of the construction of the TOEIC is very confusing. For example, his presentation of the material in the listening comprehension sections is less than helpful. It attempts to mix all four sections together which, in my opinion, doesn’t work well. Peterson’s TOEIC Success presents this listening material in a much clearer manner. In addition, the author’s analysis of Parts 5 and 6 (grammar) of the reading section leaves much to be desired. Simply put, the grammar points reviewed in the Barron’s book are not an exact reflection of the grammar you will find an actual TOEIC test. I do feel that the author’s analysis of Part 7, the reading comprehension section, is the stronger than his analysis of Parts 1-6. For Part 7, he provides a useful “question type chart” and realistic TOEIC-style reading passages. However, even here, there are problems: The reading passages are on the short side and there is an overabundance of chart-type passages. Overall, Barron’s How to Prepare for the TOEIC Test is not terrible, but mostly confusing and unenlightening. Buy this book if you want a lot of practice tests, but not as a way of giving you a full understanding of the construction of the TOEIC exam.

Rating:
Summary: Overall it's a useful book
Review: I am an ESL teacher using this book with students in Japan. I most like the large number of sample questions, including several full-length tests and accompanying CD's. One problem, though, is that Loughheed's explanations are difficult for even my advanced-level non-native speakers to understand. However, they are very helpful to me as a teacher in explaining how to solve problems. What I do is review his explanations myself before class, then use them as a tool to help teach things to my students as they work through the sample problems. The test section does not include a table giving a model TOEIC score. I wrote the author about this, and he said a conversion chart would be included in the next edition. He also kindly sent me a conversion chart.
Overall, it was a useful book and I will continue using it with future students.

Rating:
Summary: Good as an Additional Text
Review: The attractive thing about "How to Prepare for the Toeic Test : Test of English for International Communication" is that it's good value for money. You get six full TOEIC practice tests, as well as some mini-tests, and a full coverage of every section of the test. Unlike some other reviewers, I found the explanation section quite good and well-detailed, but most of my students have complained about the ease of the practice tests in comparison to the real TOEIC test -- this does not have to be a big problem. I teach a TOEIC preparation program at Cambridge International College in Melbourne, Australia, and, as a result of my students' feedback, I now use this book during the first and part of the second week into the course to drill my students for harder tests. By the time the students have finished the six practice tests in this book, they are ready to move to harder tests that reflect more the level of difficulty in the real TOEIC test. Some of the answers at the back of the book have errors in them, but no so many that you should be too concerned. Overall, it's a great tool for low-level to intermediate TOEIC students, or advanced students who want to start low and build up from there with other text books. It is a great teacher's tool, but it might be a little difficult for some students if used as a self-teaching book.