PERBEDAAN TOEFL PAPER BASED AND TOEFL COMPUTER BASED
Nama : Anggra Pratama Haasanullah
Kelas : 4ea17
NPM : 11213028
The Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL, is a test which measures people’s English language skills to see if they are good enough to take a course at university or graduate school in English-speaking countries. It is for people whose native language is not English. It measures how well a person uses listening, reading, speaking and writing skills to perform academic tasks. This test is accepted by more than 7,500 colleges, universities, and agencies in more than 130 countries; which means it is the most widely recognized English test in the world.
The format of the TOEFL test has been changed three times. The first was the PBT (paper-based TOEFL test). It tests listening, reading and grammar skills with a perfect score being 677. Some centers where computers are not available still offer this format. The second format is the CBT (computer-based TOEFL test). People are each provided with a computer to take the test. A writing section was added as well as the three sections. The level of listening and grammar skills are automatically changed depending on a person’s English level. The third change is the iBT (Internet-based test) that is being brought in around the world which measures listening, speaking, reading and writing.
There are three procedures that people are following to take the test. First it is decided where and when you are going to take the test because the format of the test could be either iBT or CBT depending on location. People need to register 2–3 months in advance to get a place. Second is registration in person, online, by phone, or through email. Online registration is most common and payment will be required to complete the registration. The cost changes depending on what kind of exam is taken.
As more universities and colleges want a TOEFL more people are wanting to do the test. In Korea in 2010, nearly 115,000 people took the test to demonstrate their ability in English. This was 20% of the total for people doing the test. It is considered as one of the ways for middle or high school students to apply for the high ranked domestic universities. By studying at such an advanced level, it could help to improve their English skills to get high scores in other English exams.
Difference between pbt and cbt
TOEFL CBT vs. TOEFL PBT
TOEFL computer-based test (CBT) was first used instead of TOEFL paper-based test (PBT) in July 1998. Now it is a common practice to use both kinds of test depending on the convenience.
The main differences between the two tests are the two sections that are adaptive in the computer-based test, namely, Reading section and Structure. Besides, the ways to answer the questions differs as well.
Structure section in the computer-based TOEFL gives the same kinds of questions as in the paper-based TOEFL, which are multiple-choice questions and error correction. The former aim at checking your knowledge of the sentence structure, while the latter test your grammar awareness and knowledge. The only difference is that in the TOEFL CBT, the questions you receive further in the test are chosen by the computer on the basis of your performance, which means, that you get an average level question first. The level of the next question depends on whether or not your answer was correct. This is a computer-adaptive part of the test.
Listening section. The two kinds of short passages in the Listening section of the CBT – Short Dialogues and Casual Conversations – test the same ability as the Listening section in the PBT.
There are also two long passages for listening comprehension on the topics of Academic Discussions and Academic Lectures, which contain in addition to traditional multiple-choice questions a number of other than in the PBT questions: choose two, graphic, ordering and matching.
Choose two and the graphic questions are both variations to the multiple-choice tasks that test the comprehension of the details in the passages. In choose two there are two correct variants and two incorrect (in comparison to the paper-based test, where only one answer is correct). Graphic questions suggest multiple-choice variants of answers but by using image and not words.
Matching and orderingquestions check the general understanding of the text and the ability to reproduce the order of the events. In ordering you will be asked to put the sentences that describe the events or steps in the process in the correct order. In matching you will have to match some categories mentioned in the long passage with the examples that correspond to the categories.
Reading section, apart from the traditional multiple-choice questions, contains some new kinds of tasks: click on a word, click on a sentence, click on a paragraph, and insertion. The latter tests the new kind of ability in comparison to the PBT. All the other types of questions differ from the PBT types of questions only in the way the answers should be submitted.
Click on a word questions test your knowledge of the specific vocabulary. While in paper-based test you had to choose one word from four given, which corresponded to a certain meaning, in computer-based test you are to click on the answer, which you consider correct.
Click on a sentence tests your ability to find specific and correct information in the paragraph. In PBT you had to choose the number of the line that contained the necessary information, while in CBT you have simply to click on the sentence to submit the answer.
Click on a paragraph tests the ability to find a necessary paragraph with the given main idea. To choose between the paragraphs you have to merely click on the one you consider correct. In paper-based test you have to use a standard multiple-choice way of answering.
Insertion questions present a new kind of questions, which ask you to find a place in the paragraph where a given sentence needs to be inserted. It tests the ability of the student to follow the logical sequence of events in the story or paragraph and determine the places where the flow of information is aborted and the necessary part is missing. Such ability as well as this kind of questions is not tested and used in the paper-based TOEFL.
Refferences :
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.mytoeflsuccess.com/toefl-test/faq/cbt-pbt.htm
https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOEFL
