It depends how good is your english. I prepared for it taking a course at a local english school, but after a few days I regreted taking it. It was mostly for people who don't speak English well. We used a book, (don't remember the name), that was pretty good in preparing the student.
If you went to school in english or if you speak very good english, you might not need a course. Try to get a hand of a good book, and review it. You might be sursprised at how the test evaluates your "knowledge" of english. Even a native english speaker, who's not educated, could score quite low in the TOEFL.
According to popular oppinion the hardest part is the essay. They'll give you 30 minutes for 250-300 words. You might choose to type it or to handwrite it.
I personally found 30 minutes more than enough for it. I do type much faster than handwrite, plus my handwriting is the typical doctor handwriting: impossible to read.
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Anyway, I'll give a trick I learned during high school: As you might know ( I sure hope you do) an essay contains 3 sections: introduction, develpment and conclusion. In order to get at least 1 point (maximum grade is 6), you need to write at least the 3 sections. If you're missing one, you're pretty much hopeless.
Well as soon as your given your topic, and you decide what is it that you're going to say; write your introduction, skip the middle part and write your conclusion. After you've got these 2 parts covered, then write the development of your ideas (middle part).
The reason this trick is useful, is that if your 30 min. are up and you haven't finished the essay, you at least have parts of the 3 sections, and could score at least a 1. Which is better than having a wonderful introduction, a great development and no conclusion. In which case you might get a 0.
This is assuming that you have practiced enough, and that since the beginning you have a clear idea of what you'll write about.
My advice: review a book, so you can get an idea what's the test about. Practice a lot of writting techniques (unless you have an english major, in which case you don't need my advice then.
), practice a lot of brainstorming (assuming it works for you), and practice, practice and keep on doing it.
Also, there are some practice websites for the TOEFL. Look it up.
Good luck.
