Discussion:
BARRONS 13TH EDITION TOEFL book a total ripoff, involving the US State Dept of Education
(too old to reply)
Rimbaud lives on
2010-09-30 14:28:48 UTC
Permalink
I agree that there is something VERY VERY FISHY with administration of
TOEFL these days for admission of foreingers to American universities.

I tried as you suggested to find any reviews of the now nearly 10
months on the bookshelves new BARRON'S TOEFL IBT 13th edition, and
they have all been whitewashed out of existence on Amazon.com and
Google and everywhere else.

Don't buy the 13th edition!!!! The CDs and sample tests are now going
on 6 years old and very old.

They are exactly the same as the old 12th edition.

The new Barron's 13th edition does not even warn that for the
integrated writing, one must use the CASTING DOUBT ON technique,
saying that the 2nd professor casts doubts on the 1st professor's
opinion. The 2009 ETS Toefl book does a good job of illustrating the
technique needed to succeed on the test, but they give only two sample
essays and recordings. One needs at least ten to get good at the
technique.

It really does seem that Big Brother is playing with reality over who
gets into Ivy League universities and good state universities,
dependent on their TOEFL scores, if they are a foreigner, which is big
bucks in USA, maybe over 25 percent of their higher education student
body.

Somebody is tipping off Chinese and Korean students how to get higher
scores on TOEFL through unofficial channels, like NED and Dept. of
Education and US embassies abroad, the America Councils, and IREX, it
sorely seems true, and none of the TOEFL books are clued in to the
annual changes in TOEFL exams that make the Listening and Reading more
like obscure IQ tests than testing only english skills needed to
follow a university lecture in english.

Somebody should investigate this scandal, like DER SPIEGEL magazine in
Germany, or the Amnesty International, like they look into human
rights crimes every where else. It is time for all the monitoring
agencies in the world, to monitor USA now.
Debbie Smythe           View profile
       
Newsgroups: sci.lang, alt.english.usage, alt.callahans,
alt.usage.english, alt.native
The13th edition of the BARRONS TOEFL book ibt, is a duplicate of the
12th edition, that ran for 4 years, almost 5, reprinted each year as
new, the only difference is that the Test 1 is no longer at the
beginning of the book separated from the other 6 sample tests, it is
along with all the other practice tests.
nothing has changed and my students are deeply disappointed, not only
in Barron's but with ETS and the whole U.S. billion/trillion dollar
education industry for foreigners, which seems like a closed mafia
these days, as corrupted as military contracting rampant in all levels
of U.S. industry, since the never ending Afghan and Iraq wars.
Try to find a review of Barron's13th edition on Amazon.com or any
other Google link.  You won't.  Some big brother hand in USA is
snipping every truthsayer that posts online the fact that the13th edition is a rip off as big as the Goldman Sachs induced global banking scandal.  check it out.  Sallie Mae student loans and fraud on
the part of the bankers.  These kinds of global frauds are what led to
Russia's collapse in 1991. DOES IT LOOK LIKE IT IS TIME AND THE TURN FOR USA TO FOLLOW?
Deb
Local: Tues, Jul 14 2009 8:20 pm
Subject: when is the publishing release date of BARRON'S 13TH EDITION?
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Does anyone know when the book BARRON'S TOEFL13th edition will
finally FINALLY come out?
The 12th edition has been out since 2006 and i hope that ETS does not
slap on 2010 on the cover of the new Barronsbook for 2010 and yet it
is STILL the tiresome 12editionthat will now be 4 years old.
The tips and workouts DO NOT WORK WELL for higher scores on the new TOEFL global exam and it seems the Chinese teaching schools are being
tipped by someone inside the United States Department of Education,
letting the rich and populous Indians and Chinese and Koreans get
higher scores while the rest of us are stuck with the aging and
ineffective Barron's book?
Again, when is the publishing date of BARRON'S 13TH EDITION?
Rimbaud lives on
2010-09-30 16:33:09 UTC
Permalink
The only review on Amazon.com is the publishers review, as if you knew
what you are speaking about.

but anyone who stretches an argument all the way to Hitler to try to
make a moot point, has little context to argue with.

Check again. Every bookpublisher and dealer online has snipped the
readers' reviews of BARRON'S TOEFL 13TH EDITION, because all the real
people reviewers have all been complaining since Jan. 2010 when the
book came out. BARRON'S had always been the Bible of TOEFL before it
became a trillion dollar industry when the tuitions of our
universities are taken into account ..... our universities are
undermanned by Americans and jammed with higher paying foreigners.
Black attendance is as low as in the pre-civil rights movement now
nearly useless victories.

Kaplans has a fairly good 4th edition, they are using the same CD
sample exams but have updated tips and explanations in the printed
book half of the training module.

For decades it seemed Pamela Sharpe had helpful colleagues in College
Board and ETS that were helping her write the best book with every
update she made. Then after iBT, it took five years to update
Barron's .... the old TOEFL bible failed miserable, and the newest
13th edition book is worthless, they should have just made their fifth
12th edition by slapping on the year 2011 on it again. It is shameful
to name it the 13th edition, without even advising students of the
complete change in INTEGRATED ESSAY.

Only the newest ETS printed book is really in tune with all the little
adjustments the test engineers make about every 9 months on TOEFL
exams, and all the other books are behind the changes. It is a Brave
New World. Have you read it Professor Genius? By Aldous Huxley,
check it out. Why are you defending the politics of TOEFL when you
clearly don't know anything about standardized testing nor the
publishing world??


What a fascinating little bit of paranoia. There IS one review on
Amazon, and it's a five-star rating. In judging the validity of your
supposition, you might take into consideration the fact that there are
27 reviews of the 12th edition, and they span the spectrum, including
five one-star ratings.

That you are frothing irrationally is also made apparent by your
delusion that a single possibly overpriced book is somehow comparable
to
billions of dollars in financial shenanigans that devastated the
economy
of a nation. You might as well bring Hitler into it while you're at
it.
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:20:55 -0700 (PDT)
The 13th edition of the BARRONS TOEFL book ibt, is a duplicate of the
12th edition, that ran for 4 years, almost 5, reprinted each year as
new, the only difference is that the Test 1 is no longer at the
beginning of the book separated from the other 6 sample tests, it is
along with all the other practice tests.
nothing has changed and my students are deeply disappointed, not only
in Barron's but with ETS and the whole U.S. billion/trillion dollar
education industry for foreigners, which seems like a closed mafia
these days, as corrupted as military contracting rampant in all levels
of U.S. industry, since the never ending Afghan and Iraq wars.
Try to find a review of Barron's 13th edition on Amazon.com or any
other Google link. You won't. Some big brother hand in USA is
snipping every truthsayer that posts online the fact that the 13th
edition is a rip off as big as the Goldman Sachs induced global
banking scandal. check it out. Sallie Mae student loans and fraud on
the part of the bankers. These kinds of global frauds are what led to
Russia's collapse in 1991.
TIM BLOWFALT
2010-10-03 17:21:54 UTC
Permalink
re: American Councils employs a full-time professional staff of over
370, located in 24 countries across Southeastern Europe, Eurasia, the
Middle East, Asia and the United States.

Funding comes from public and private sources, including the U.S.
Agency for International Development, USAID; the U.S. Department of
State; the U.S. Department of Education; the Library of Congress, the
National Endowment for the Humanities, the governments of the Russian
Federation and Kazakhstan; the World Bank; the Carnegie Corporation;
the Open Society Institute/Soros Foundations, and other public and
private donors.

It is SURELY time for all the
monitoring It is SURELY time for
all the monitoring
agencies in the world, to monitor USA
now agencies in the world, to monitor
USA now.
.

=======================================

I agree that there is something VERY VERY FISHY with administration of
TOEFL these days for admission of foreigners to American universities.
I tried as you suggested to find any reviews of the now already nearly 10
months on the bookshelves!!!! the 'new' BARRON'S TOEFL iBT 13th edition, and
they have all been wiped out of existence on Amazon.com and
Google and everywhere else.
Don't buy the 13th edition!!!! The CDs and sample tests are now going
on 6 years old and very outdated.
They are exactly the same as the old 12th edition.
The new Barron's 13th edition does not even warn that for the
integrated writing, one must use the CASTING DOUBT ON technique,
saying that the 2nd professor casts doubts on the 1st professor's
opinion. The 2009 ETS Toefl book does a good job of illustrating the
integrated writing technique needed to succeed on the test, but they give only two sample
essays and recordings. One needs at least ten to get good at the
technique.
It really does seem that Big Brother is playing with reality over who
gets into Ivy League universities and good state universities,
dependent on their TOEFL scores, if they are a foreigner, and this is big big big
bucks in USA [almost equal in profit to global arms deals for the US elite], foreigners often making up maybe over 25 percent of their higher education student
body, in many university and college institutions.
Somebody is tipping off Chinese and Korean and Indian students how to get higher
scores on TOEFL through unofficial channels, like NED and Dept. of
Education and US embassies abroad, the American Councils, and IREX, it
sorely seems true, and none of the TOEFL books are even slightly clued in any longer to the
annual changes in TOEFL exams that make the Listening and Reading more
like obscure IQ tests --than just testing only english skills needed to
follow a university lecture in english.
Somebody should investigate this scandal, like DER SPIEGEL magazine in
Germany, or the Amnesty International, like they look into human
rights crimes and justice/corruption violations every where else. It is SURELY time for all the monitoring
agencies in the world, to monitor USA now.
-------------------------------------------
+++++++++++++++++++++
REPOSTING

I am going to sue ETS!!!!!!!

Hi guys,

I’m going to sue ETS on their blood sucking iBT. I have gathered a
great deal of information about them and their ways in treating their
customers ”test takers” that would help explain dozens of ETS
mistakes . I have contacted a big attorney firm. The lawyers over
there are collecting information. I am waiting for their final
decision.

The reason why I am contacting you is because my lawyers have advised
me that the more candidates claiming unfair test conditions or
questions, the better our chance would be.

Personally, I am a pharmacist and my career has almost gone. My life
is in the middle of no where. I have lost my opportunity to live
nearby my family in my state. I have nothing to lose. I have been
taking the TSE and TOEFL iBT 15 times since January 2006. I have been
doing nothing but studying and taking ETS tests for 14 months. Is it
fair? Meanwhile, I have lost job opportunities. I have spent fortune
on TOEFL registration and materials. I have lost my self-esteem.
Consequently, I have decided on filing my claim. They think that most
of the foreigners in the U.S. have no rights. ETS reserves the rights
to have our test responses without even treating us as humans Instead,
they look down to most of us as if we were their slaves. Have you ever
called the ETS customer services? Try it.

Let me tell you a real story. I believe that every body remembers the
chaos of TOEFL iBT in November 2006. Last November 2006, I called to
inquire about my TOEFL iBT test results that had not been published
and been late for about 20 days. Asking me tens of questions about my
identity, the customer service representative said that she could not
give me MY test results. I asked for her supervisor. The honorable man
said the same claiming that I did not have my test registration number
given that I had correctly answered every single question concerning
my name, birth date, address, test center, date and time, and so
forth. I, inoffensively, thought to ask this supervisor about who
would be the auditor for ETS. Surprise!!! “NO ONE IS AUDITING US”,
said the supervisor. After 2-3 minutes of what I should call
monologue,I was the only one talking, he, sarcastically, advised me to
go ahead and ask my institution ((NABP)) to assign me another test.
Based on what is mentioned above, please answer the following
question.

Who in the world would repel customers by asking them to find someone
else to do what s/he supposed to make living of?
The answer is one word: MONOPOLY

ETS has succeeded to convince universities as well as professional
institutions like the NABP to recognize ETS as the only English test
maker in the US. In doing so, they held some practice tests in
countries like England. Of course, the English students could have
made it in the speaking test. Taking preliminary phase results into
their considerations, they provided the NABP with misleading figures
and numbers about the potential scores of the upcoming ETS innovation,
TOEFL iBT.

I happened to get 29 on reading, 29 on listening, 29 on writing, and
my best was 24 in speaking. When I requested rescoring my 24 in
speaking, they remarked my test and I got 22 instead. On another test,
I got R: 28, L: 28, S: 19, W: 28!!!!!

According to my understanding, any language consists of two aspects.
The first aspect is the ability to receive the language. You
comprehend the language using your reading and listening capabilities.
The second aspect is the ability to inform others your message using
this language via the writing and/or speaking. Having achieved 29 on
the writing section, I would consider my abilities in conveying
information using the English Language adequate. Therefore, the
problem would be in the speaking score. Is it the right reflection of
my real speaking level? According to my professors, instructors,
colleagues, associates, co-workers, friends, neighbors, family, and
letter of recognitions that I have gotten from my college, I SPEAK
ENGLISH FLUENTLY. Moreover, the way by which the speaking part of the
TOEFL iBT test is brought in make it harder for me to prove my
competence in the language. I find it hard to come up with a perfect
summary concerning 2-3 minutes lecture I have just heard to. Besides,
The TOEFL iBT test mainstay would be on university situations,
conversations, lectures, problems, and so on. What does this have to
do with my situation? I am taking this test to be licensed as a
pharmacist. Should a pharmacist be a problem solver to academic
situation? I believe there are many different ways to evaluate
professionals better than speaking for 5.5 minutes in the TOEFL iBT.

It is better for either the NABP or the ETS to assign another test and
call it TOEFLP (Test of English as a Foreign Language for
PROFESSIONALS). It is an idea that no body would even think about. As
mentioned above, it is monopoly. It is all about business and business
relationships. I was just wandering, what the mean of the speaking
section test results would be in case that the NABP agreed upon IELTS
as another approved test. Do I smell something bad? It might be.
However, I trust NABP.

If you are interested, just send me at

***@yahoo.com

Thanks for your consideration
I agree that there is something VERY VERY FISHY with administration ofTOEFLthese days for admission of foreingers to American universities.
I tried as you suggested to find any reviews of the now nearly 10
months on the bookshelves new BARRON'STOEFLIBT13thedition, and
they have all been whitewashed out of existence on Amazon.com and
Google and everywhere else.
Don't buy the13thedition!!!!  The CDs and sample tests are now going
on 6 years old and very old.
They are exactly the same as the old 12thedition.
The new Barron's13theditiondoes not even warn that for the
integrated writing, one must use the CASTING DOUBT ON technique,
saying that the 2nd professor casts doubts on the 1st professor's
opinion.  The 2009 ETSToeflbookdoes a good job of illustrating the
technique needed to succeed on the test, but they give only two sample
essays and recordings.  One needs at least ten to get good at the
technique.
It really does seem that Big Brother is playing with reality over who
gets into Ivy League universities and good state universities,
dependent on theirTOEFLscores, if they are a foreigner, which is big
bucks in USA, maybe over 25 percent of their higher education student
body.
Somebody is tipping off Chinese and Korean students how to get higher
scores onTOEFLthrough unofficial channels, like NED and Dept. of
Education and US embassies abroad, the America Councils, and IREX, it
sorely seems true, and none of theTOEFLbooks are clued in to the
annual changes inTOEFLexams that make the Listening and Reading more
like obscure IQ tests than testing only english skills needed to
follow a university lecture in english.
Somebody should investigate this scandal, like DER SPIEGEL magazine in
Germany, or the Amnesty International, like they look into human
rights crimes every where else.  It is time for all the monitoring
agencies in the world, to monitor USA now.
Debbie Smythe           View profile
       
Newsgroups: sci.lang, alt.english.usage, alt.callahans,
alt.usage.english, alt.native
The13theditionof theBARRONSTOEFLbookibt, is a duplicate of the
12thedition, that ran for 4 years, almost 5, reprinted each year as
new, the only difference is that the Test 1 is no longer at the
beginning of thebookseparated from the other 6 sample tests, it is
along with all the other practice tests.
nothing has changed and my students are deeply disappointed, not only
in Barron's but with ETS and the whole U.S. billion/trillion dollar
education industry for foreigners, which seems like a closed mafia
these days, as corrupted as military contracting rampant in all levels
of U.S. industry, since the never ending Afghan and Iraq wars.
Try to find a review of Barron's13theditionon Amazon.com or any
other Google link.  You won't.  Some big brother hand in USA is
snipping every truthsayer that posts online the fact that the13theditionis a rip off as big as the Goldman Sachs induced global banking scandal.  check it out.  Sallie Mae student loans and fraud on
the part of the bankers.  These kinds of global frauds are what led to
Russia's collapse in 1991.  DOES IT LOOK LIKE IT IS TIME AND THE TURN FOR USA TO FOLLOW?
Deb
Local: Tues, Jul 14 2009 8:20 pm
Subject: when is the publishing release date of BARRON'S13THEDITION?
Forward | Print | Individual message | Show original | Report this
message | Find messages by this author
Does anyone know when thebookBARRON'S TOEFL13theditionwill
finally FINALLY come out?
The 12theditionhas been out since 2006 and i hope that ETS does not
slap on 2010 on the cover of the new Barronsbook for 2010 and yet it
is STILL the tiresome 12editionthat will now be 4 years old.
The tips and workouts DO NOT WORK WELL for higher scores on the newTOEFLglobal exam and it seems the Chinese teaching schools are being
tipped by someone inside the United States Department of Education,
letting the rich and populous Indians and Chinese and Koreans get
higher scores while the rest of us are stuck with the aging and
ineffective Barron'sbook?
Again, when is the publishing date of BARRON'S13THEDITION?
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