{"id":1770,"date":"2015-05-11T09:00:46","date_gmt":"2015-05-11T16:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=1770"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:46:01","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:46:01","slug":"book-review-longman-preparation-course-for-the-toefl-ibt-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/book-review-longman-preparation-course-for-the-toefl-ibt-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Longman Preparation Course for the TOEFL iBT Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

(NOTE:<\/strong> The TOEFL books that Magoosh reviews and recommends reflect the older, pre-August 2019 version of the test. As of this writing, there are no TOEFL prep books that reflect the newest version of the test. Fortunately, older-format books are still very useful in prepping for the current TOEFL. For details on this, see Magoosh’s tutorial on using older prep for the 2019 TOEFL<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\"Longman<\/a> Over the last year and a half, I\u2019ve reviewed almost all of the major TOEFL books<\/a>, and today I am going to write about one that many students have asked about: Longman Preparation<\/em><\/a>. This year, Pearson (the publisher) released a new version of their popular TOEFL book, so if the cover pictured here looks different from the book you know, it\u2019s because they are from different years. But the content is almost all the same, so this review works for old editions, too.<\/p>\n

Basically, Longman<\/em> is very similar in style and size to The Complete Guide to the TOEFL Test<\/em><\/a>. The most notable difference is that the material in Longman Preparation<\/em> is easier, and doesn\u2019t match the real TOEFL as well as the Complete Guide<\/em> does. And since they\u2019re a similar price, I\u2019d recommend the Complete Guide<\/em> above Longman<\/em>\u2019s book.<\/p>\n

Report Card:<\/h2>\n

Authenticity of practice material: C
\nAmount of practice material: A+
\nQuality of explanations: B-
\nSkill building material: B+
\nTest strategy and advice: A-<\/em><\/p>\n

TOEFL Practice Material<\/h2>\n

Longman Preparation<\/em> has a lot<\/strong> of material. Each chapter breaks up the individual question types, such as vocabulary questions in the reading or task four in the speaking, and gives many examples of each. As the book goes through those individual question types, it gives advice for each question and provides many test-like exercises. For example, in the chapter on listening questions that ask about the speaker\u2019s attitude, Longman<\/em> provides a total of eight recordings, starting short and then extending to longer recordings with more questions, slowly adding in other question types that were explained in earlier chapters. Eight recordings is a lot for just one question type, and that\u2019s a good thing!<\/p>\n

That question-by-question section is most of the book, but after that, there are eight \u201cmini-tests\u201d and two full-length tests. All of this adds up to plenty of material, but there\u2019s actually even more: the book comes with access to a website that has almost the same amount of material again<\/strong>, all different from what is in the book (but in a similar format).<\/p>\n

But quantity is less important than quality, and this is why I recommend other books above this book. The core problem is that the passages are too easy. The texts, for one, are often about topics which students will already be familiar with. The real TOEFL tries to include topics which no test-taker knows about. But in Longman<\/em>, you will read about topics like these:<\/p>\n