Group Of People - TOEFL Writing Integrated Practice Test Paper

In the TOEFL iBT® exam, candidates are evaluated on different abilities, by placing more importance on their communication skills. Among the four test sections, the Writing Section is one of the important modules that requires diverse skills.

Through this practice test, you will be able to enhance your writing abilities, by concentrating specifically on the Integrated Writing task of the TOEFL test. In this test, you will be able to immerself yourself and understand the task instructions, structuring responses effectively, and enhancing your performance in the TOEFL Writing segment. So, let's start your journey towards attaining your desired TOEFL score!

Writing Instructions

• You'll read a passage and listen to a lecture on an academic topic.
• You may take notes while listening to aid comprehension.
• Then you will write a response to a question that asks you about the r lecture you heard. 
• Answer the question comprehensively using information from the lecture. Avoid expressing personal opinions in the response.
• There is no strict word limit. However, an effective response is considered to be within 150 to 225 words.
• Your response will be assessed based on writing quality, content accuracy, and completeness.

Group Of People

In many organizations, perhaps the best way to approach certain new projects is to assemble a group of people into a team. Having a team of people attack a project offers several advantages. First of all, a group of people has a wider range of knowledge, expertise, and skills than any single individual are likely to possess. Also, because of the number of people involved and the greater resources they possess, a group can work more quickly in response to the task assigned to it and can come up with highly creative solutions to problems and issues. Sometimes these creative solutions come about because a group is more likely to make risky decisions that an individual might not undertake. This is because the group spreads responsibility for a decision to all the members and thus no single individual can be held accountable if the decision turns out to be wrong. 

Taking part in a group process can be very rewarding for members of the team. Team members who have a voice in making a decision will no doubt feel better about carrying out the work that is entailed by that decision than they might be doing work that is imposed on them by others. Also, the individual team member has a much better chance to “shine,” to get his or her contributions and ideas not only recognized but recognized as highly significant, because a team’s overall results can be more far-reaching and have a greater impact than what might have otherwise been possible for the person to accomplish or contribute working alone.

Now play the Audio.

Question

Summarize the points made in the lecture and explain how the speaker casts doubt on specific points made in the reading passage. 

Points to Remember

While answering the question, you are required to carefully structure your response by providing your opinion and clearly comparing and contrasting the ideas mentioned in both the reading and listening audio. Setting the stage for your response is by providing your opinion on the topic and including relevant points and examples from the lesson without including any  outside sources.

Firstly, highlight the benefits of group work such as wider range of knowledge, making riskier decisions, expertise, and shared responsibility. In addition to that, explain and provide real-life examples and also maintain elaborating the reasons to justify the opinions provided in the passage and audio. Moreover, it is important to maintain a balance while summarising the points. 

Next, start exploring the contradictions mentioned and the challenges. Start by discussing the contradictions such as time-consuming, dominating, and blaming for making decisions. You can mention the reasons for consensus delays, reasons leading to poor choices. Subsequently, incorporate specific examples from the lecture to support your explanation to justify the reasons and explanation. 

To retaliate, the primary information between the passage and the lecture provided is contradicting and mentioning the advantages and disadvantages of working in groups. It is essential to provide sufficient information and ensure that the response is coherent as well as grammatically correct with effective vocabulary utilisation.

Sample Responses for the Integrated Writing Task on ‘Group Of People’

This section provides a thorough evaluation of various responses, including both High-level and Mid-level answers. Through a detailed review of these responses, you can identify areas that need improvement to attain your target score in the TOEFL.

High-Level Response 

In the lecture, it highlights various advantages of working on projects in groups, particularly the sense of shared responsibility, the diversity of expertise and abilities, and the capacity to make courageous and innovative decisions. It implies that since team members can contribute significant improvements and receive recognition for it, collaborating with groups can be more productive and gratifying for individuals. First and foremost, while certain individuals received complimentary trips and others did not, they were nevertheless acknowledged despite their lack of effort. It signifies that diligent workers were unable to get the credit they deserve. Here is where the passage is explicitly contradicted by the lecture.

Furthermore, the lecture highlights a number of difficulties and disadvantages of group work. The lecture makes clear that coming to a consensus in groups frequently hinders project progress, taking control of the decision-making process, and steers the group in the incorrect way, which results in project failure. Therefore, this could lead to dictatorship.

In conclusion, although the reading highlights the advantages of group work, the lecture offers strong evidence to refute these assertions and highlights some possible drawbacks, including inefficiency, a lack of individual recognition, and the possibility of making bad decisions as a result of group dynamics.

Rater’s Comment 

The response provides a concise and comprehensive summary of the main points of both the reading and the lecture, clearly identifying the contrasting viewpoints. The response depicts the required explanation by accurating demonstrating an extensive understanding and providing specific examples and details from the lecture. The response is well-organised, coherent, and precise and it also provides evidence from the transcript. Overall, this response is well-explained with appropriate and varied vocabulary usage, making this a high-level answer.

Mid-Level Response 

The lecture and the reading passage mention the advantages and disadvantages of working in groups for completing projects. First, it elucidates the passage in context of the advantages by bringing a wider range of knowledge, expertise, and skills. With that, people can also work creatively and also meet the deadline as they would work quickly. Due to this, this would be a rewarding experience for team members. However, if any one individual does not contribute much, they still get the recognition which would be demotivating for others. Along with this, working in groups can lead to failure of projects since one can be dominating the other. This would be unfair to others who have worked on the project, resulting in making poorer decisions. Therefore, while the reading explores the benefits of working in groups, the lecture, on the other hand, provides the challenges by pointing out issues such as unequal participation, time delays, and the potential for poor decision-making in group settings.

Rater’s Comment 

In this response, it does provide a summary of the key points given in the reading passage and the lecture. However, it lacks depth while analysing and explaining the main points even though the response identifies the advantages and disadvantages of working in groups. The examples are briefly mentioned but could have been elaborated more in an organised manner. The vocabulary and grammar used is somewhat appropriate but a varied sentence structure could have make this response a structured one. Overall, this is a mid-level answer as the answer could be more precise and coherent.

Are you ready to achieve TOEFL success? We've included sample responses and expert tactics to help you reach your target score. Now, it's your turn to engage in practice tests!

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