This study reports on four Korean students’ test preparation practices for the TOEFL iBT Writing section and their perceptions of the effectiveness of direct test preparation in improving their test scores and overall writing skills. In-depth interviews with the participants indicated that it is commonplace among prospective Korean test takers to seek commercialized coaching services from hagwons—private cram schools—in which experienced teachers undertake two major tasks: (1) providing formulaic writing models and feedback on pupils’ writing and (2) imparting ideas for the Independent Writing task. Cramming for the test takes place systematically, with the teachers in the hagwon industry using an optimized instructional scaffold—templates. The findings are discussed in relation to the test-wiseness strategies of learning templates by rote and engaging in writing tasks almost on autopilot and their potential to affect the validity of TOEFL iBT Writing section scores.

本研究报告了四名韩国学生在 TOEFL iBT 写作部分的备考实践，以及他们对直接备考在提高考试成绩和整体写作技巧方面的有效性的看法。对参与者的深入访谈表明，韩国准考生通常会从hagwons（私立补习班）寻求商业化辅导服务，其中经验丰富的教师承担两项主要任务：（1）提供公式化的写作模型和对学生的反馈。写作和 (2) 传授独立写作任务的想法。备考考试有系统地进行，老师们在hagwon行业使用优化的教学支架-模板。研究结果讨论了通过死记硬背和几乎在自动驾驶仪上参与写作任务的学习模板的测试明智策略及其影响 TOEFL iBT 写作部分分数有效性的潜力。