aditya mahardhika

My ITP TOEFL Story

“This venture is not a torture, yet for my future pleasure”

One day in septermber last year (2012), I took this ITP for the second time. My first was in 2010. I came back for the test to obtain the same purpose, to live out my dream; study in the STATES!. Yeah, I needed the certificate to spice up my application for GLOBAL UGRAD. It is a student exchange program of American Indonesian Exchange Foundation (AMINEF).

The ITP test was totally tiring, exhausting, and energy-consuming. I mean, this test is a head-spinning test, much harder than doing an algorithm (though I’ve never done any algorithm. Hahaa). Listening section is something to begin with, continued with grammar structure section, and what worst is the piles of reading passage in the reading section. 

Early on the test day, I had a morning class. Having a six-in-the-morning class and an TOEFL ITP test after was probably the worst arrangement ever made (you better dont follow). With no breakfast I plunk my self to the class, then went to the test center right after the class dismissed, and that was still with no breakfast. 

*grrrllllllll grlllllllll* dying whale sound that I tried to ignore comin outta my tummy. “This couldn’t get any worse” said I . the two first sessions were fine (I guessed). However, the last session was totally a different story. In the mid of the last session, le belly ended up making that dying whale sound, AGAIN!, but this time is worse!. that freakin growling sounds broke into the silence. it happened for several times. Moreover, yeah, I am a lousy reader. I could barely finish the whole passages. Guess what, I made quite many guessing on the reading section.

Good work, good work tummy!  I, at least, had something to remember other than the dizziness that came after it. PERFECTO!!

A week after, the result came out. However, the result was below my expectation (I expected to get 600, but it turned out to be 557 only). After all, I can still apply for the program with it. “Well, at least I scored better than two years ago” mumble I.

That was my story, for those of you who have no idea what  ITP is, or even wore, you don’t know what TOEFL is. You better be thankful, because you have me here to explain the whole thing. Test of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL) is a form of test held to measure our english proficiency, and ITP is one kind of it. some people say it as Institutional TOEFL , or else say its a paper based test. The score range from 310 to 6777 (quoted from wikipedia). However, this type of TOEFL may only be accepted by scholarship sponsors. This means, you can only use the certificate to appply for scholarship. If you want to apply for university overseas, you might want to consider the other type of TOEFL, that is IBT TOEFL ( I will talk about this type in later post).

Basically if you want to register yourself for ITP, all you need to prepare is your english (me dont say :D LOLS). It is true tho. You have to prepare yourself, few months of prep prior to the test day would be very helpful. This is what I failed to do :P .by the time you are ready for the test, then you need to find an authorized ITS TOEFL test center  in your town. You may have a look to the list I provide (though some of them might no longer hold the test, so better make a call first). -ITP TEST CENTERS LIST (download here)-

Ussually they conduct the test only once a month, however a great number of participant would be an exception. What you need to know is, in a month you can only take the test once. The second test (in the same month) will not be scored. It does not matter whether you do the test at the same center, or not.

Your certificate should be something like this :

It is issued by ETS, Educational Testing Service.

Oh yeah, one more thing. The test costs about $30. In Indonesia, It may vary in some test centers. Some may charge Rp. 275.000,- , some others may charge Rp. 300.000,- . so choose wisely. :D

Good Luck!!! And wish me luck for the GLOBAL UGRAD !!! This Year, Amin……