Hi, Saki san. So this is your TOEFL iBT Home Edition report. How was the test?
(こんにちは、サキさん。今回はTOEFL iBTの受験体験記だね。試験はどうだった?)
サキ
Hi, Jason sensei. Here we are, finally I’m going to tell you my final result. Let me tell you something first…you should take TOEFL iBT at the test center, rather than from your home.
There were a lot of situations going on. So today, I’m going to talk about my TOEFL iBT Home Edition experience and the reasons why you should take it at a test center.
(色々とハプニングがあったんだよ…。ということで、今日は私のTOEFL iBT Home Edition受験体験記兼、テストセンターで受けるべき3つの理由を紹介していくよ。)
Yes, I did! But having to take the test using my small coffee table for four hours was tough. You could imagine how my shoulders and legs started to hurt. This is just my case, but sometimes they don’t allow you to take the test due to book shelves or furniture that _ can’t be moved immediately.
But you know, there was no guarantee that absolutely no one would ring the doorbell. So I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
(だけどさ、ピンポンが絶対に鳴らない保証はないじゃん。完全に安心することはできなかったよ。)
ジェイソン
I understand that. That must’ve been distracting.
(余計な神経を使いそう。)
サキ
And I could hear peoples’ voices, cars, and an ambulance siren. I guess there might be some noise in the test center too, but since my house is not soundproofed, I felt it was very noisy.
When I was taking the speaking test, I was like “Please don’t let any kerosene delivery trucks drive around with loud music!” while I was recording my voice.
I couldn’t type periods and commas> Instead< those parentheses were typed in< therefore< I freaked out>
ジェイソン
Oh no, what did you do then?
(うわ〜、それでどうしたの?)
サキ
I didn’t know what to do for a second, but I started typing with <> those marks. I thought that if I could finish writing my essay first, maybe I would have time to fix the commas and periods later, so I was just barely able to finish the Independent Task within the time limit.
Then I remembered that there was the test proctor watching me through the webcam, so I raised my hand and said “Is there somebody watching me? I need your help!”
A moment later, a chat box popped up with a message that said “Need any help?” so I wrote “I can’t type commas or periods.”
That’s good then that there was someone carefully watching you.
(ちゃんと見てくれていてよかったね。)
サキ
After that, they operated my laptop remotely and set my keyboard so that I was able to type commas and periods.
(そのあと私のパソコンを遠隔操作で設定して、コンマとピリオドが打てるようにしてくれたの。)
ジェイソン
That’s great!
(すごい!)
サキ
You know, unlike in Japan, customer services in foreign countries differ from person to person. So I think that I was lucky that the person that happened to be there at that time was able to help me.
But there were only 20 seconds left after my keyboard was fixed. There wasn’t any time to edit my essay, so don’t think I did so good. It was hopeless.
I had to refocus somehow and tried to do my best on the Integrated Task, but I don’t think I had my full concentration.
Our series ends here, but there will be no end in the journey of language learning. I promise that I will continue working on the study methods that Jason sensei has taught us throughout these episodes. Thank you for reading.
It has been a joy sharing my knowledge and tips with everyone, and to see such a diligent student such as Saki san achieve her language learning goal! Thank you to everyone who read our series and good luck our your English studies!