Testimonial from Saudi Arabian Student
Here is a testimonial from one of our Saudi Arabian parents whose daughter has just received the TOEFL score she needed.
من الصعب إختصار في بضع سطور مافعلته هذه الشركه لمساعدة ابنتي تحقيق هدفها من رفع مستواها في اللغة الانكليزيه. فقد قاموا بوضع برنامج خاص لها وفروا مدرسات على مستوى عالي
وتابعوا تطورها عن قرب. لقد كان ولله الحمد اختياري لهذه الشركة موفقا
It is hard to tell in few words what this company has done to help my daughter achieve here target of improving her English language. They have developed a special program for here, made available excellent tutors, and followed here progress closely. Thank God, my selection of this company turned out to be exactly what we needed.
Use Earplugs when Taking TOEFL
Test centers put the test takers very close together in the testing room, which means that you can hear a lot of distracting noises when you’re trying to concentrate. For example while you’re concentrating on your test, you might hear:
1. another test taker’s listening section (if they have their volume up all the way)
2. another test taker giving his/her Speaking responses
3. the administrator talking to a test taker who is having trouble
4. noises from outside the test center, like fire trucks or ambulances
Now the test center does suggest that you wear your headphones for the entire test, even if you’re not listening to anything at the time. They say that the headphones will help eliminate some noise, but reports from test takers say that this is not enough.
Therefore, Strictly English suggests that you wear earplugs on the day of your test. Earplugs are very good at keeping out surrounding noises, like I listed above, but still letting you hear sounds that are directed in your ear. This means that you WILL be able to hear the sounds coming out of your headphones for the Listening section, Speaking section, and for the Integrated Essay, but you will not hear any of the distractions in the room.
So be sure to buy some earplugs. These combined with wearing the headphones should give you a much quieter testing environment!
Admissions Offices Prefer TOEFL over IELTS
Not surprisingly, many admissions offices prefer TOEFL over IELTS, and why not? TOEFL is more academically focused and it is more objective in its assessment of Speaking. (Entry continues below picture.)
On the TOEFL, six different raters evaluate your Speaking responses, and they cannot be swayed by your smile or your tears to give you a higher grade because they feel bad for you. I know IELTS says that they train their raters to be objective, but I just don’t see how you can coldly grade someone very low who is clearly nervous or afraid. I would hope people are more compassionate than that, but I would also hope that a test taker doesn’t get a higher grade than their ability just because a rater feels sorry for them.
Thank you note from Current Student
We’re very happy to have received this wonderful Thank You note today from one of our current Students. We’ve attached a picture of the original note, but if you can’t read the handwriting it says:
“Thank you very much for your patience and all your knowledge that you share with me. You have exceptional talent to explain and to make difficult things into easy English.”
The Limits of Memorized Answers
Many of our clients want to have a list of memorized answers for the Speaking and Writing sections of the iBT. They believe that if they memorize 100 answers that are general enough, then those 100 answers will apply to any question they get on the test.
Although Strictly English does believe that you can have some “go-to” topics before you walk into the exam, it is not realistic to assume that your standardized answers will easily fit for any question you get.
For example, one standard topic that can work for many questions is “BODY”. So let’s imagine that a student has memorized the idea of talking about BODY. That is GOOD. It will probably help them come up with an answer. But let’s take this a step further and say that they have memorized one very specific positive body answer and one very specific negative body answer. The positive body answer is, “It keeps me fit” and the negative body answer is “It might hurt me”. So let’s look at five possible questions on either Task 2 or on the Independent Essay and see how many of them we can use these standard answers of STAY FIT and HURT MYSELF for.
QUESTION: Should children be required to take gym class in high school?
POS: I believe that children should be required to take gym class in high school because it helps them stay fit.
NEG: I believe that children should not be required to take gym class in high school because they could hurt themselves.
We were lucky here, because GYM CLASS is already about BODY, so our general catch-all answers work. But we’ll still have to explain specifically HOW children might hurt themselves. And that hurt must be SPECIFIC for each prompt’s situation. At this level of detail a standard answer is no longer possible. For example, let’s imagine our more detailed standard answer is “IT WILL HURT YOUR BACK.” Will it work in every question? Let’s see:
QUESTION: “Do you agree with the statement that owning your own home is better than renting an apartment?”
ANSWER: I do not agree that owning my own home is better than renting an apartment because home ownership hurts my back.
At first glance, this sounds silly. Millions of people own homes and 99% of them do not have a bad back. And if they DO have a bad back, it is not BECAUSE of home ownership. Now, BAD BACK can still be used to answer this question, but we have to introduce that concept in a way that is unique to the question.
REVISED ANSWER: I do not agree that owning my own home is better than renting an apartment because home ownership requires more physical labor, which might hurt my back.
This is better, but now we have to explain WHAT KIND OF PHYSICAL LABOR hurts the back. Gardening? Shoveling snow? Raking Leaves? Mowing the Lawn? Again, at this level of detail, whatever answer we come up with, won’t work for another answer. Sure shoveling snow can hurt your back, but we can’t use that for an answer to a prompt like:
QUESTION: “Is it better to wear glasses or contact lenses?”
I think it is better to wear glasses because I will not hurt my back while shoveling snow.
I hope you can see that this answer is TERRIBLE. And we seriously get students who try to answer with these kinds of memorized answers. Now please note that BODY is still a good topic, and even HURT is still a good idea. For example,
I prefer glasses because contacts can infect my eyes.
Now the good thing is that HURT is still our answer, but the bad thing is that we still had to come up with a hurt that was SPECIFIC to contact lenses (an infection).
Please remember that the directions for both the Speaking and the Writing on the iBT say to give “reasons and examples” to support your opinion. These reasons and examples must be specific and relevant to the prompt.
Of course, you can say, “well, I’ll just memorize 10 different kinds of hurt”, but I hope you can see that what we’ve shown here will just happen again. If you memorized 10 kinds of hurt, then you’ll get a prompt that needs an 11th type of hurt. If you memorize 100 types of bodily injury, then you will get a prompt that requires a 101st type of bodily injury.
Trust us when we say: It is not possible to memorize enough answers.
And on a broader picture. Is this really how you want to be preparing for your college career? I hope you understand that you cannot memorize your way through the American university system. Sure, you need to memorize many facts in, say, an organic chemistry class. But most of your classes will evaluate you on your ability to think critically and your ability to synthesize new ideas from existing information. Therefore, you might as well begin learning how to do this NOW.
So, in conclusion: Yes, Strictly English encourages you to memorize some GENERAL TOPICS, but we do NOT encourage you to memorize specific details. Instead, you need to learn lateral thinking skills, critical thinking skills, and the ability to synthesize information. These skills are really only taught in university. It’s what differentiates university from high school. Therefore, you really need to be working with Strictly English tutors, all of which have their Ph.D.s and work at a university.
Video Testimonial: Score 104. Speaking 27
He did it, so can you! Sign up today!
Directions on How to Submit a TOEFL Essay for FREE Correction on Strictly English’s Website
How Long Does it REALLY take to “Pass” the TOEFL?
So they say it takes between 2500 – 5000 hours to get a good score on the TOEFL. And that’s from your very first English lesson.
This must be wrong.
Let’s say you studied English in school every day from 1st grade until you graduated. With homework, that’s about 2 hours a day, five days a week, 40 weeks a year, for 12 years. that’s about 4800 hours of English study. But most students around the world can only score in the 60-70 range at this point in their lives. So what’s wrong with these numbers?
Maybe it has something to do with the frequency of study. 5000 hour spread out over 12 years isn’t enough consistent exposure to the language. But let’s take an extreme example in the opposite direction. If you lived in America for a year and studied 13 hours a day, that would get you to the 5000 hours they say you need. Yet, this doesn’t work either! I don’t know any student in my 17 years of teaching ESL who went from Dead beginner to a TOEFL score of 100 in 12 months.
What’s the real story then?
As usual, it’s not QUANTITY, but QUALITY. You need to be studying the right materials and in the right way. Otherwise, you’ll just be spinning your wheels or, even worse, learning the English INCORRECTLY!
That’s why Strictly English organizes your study efficiently and customizes your study to fit your unique needs.
Strictly English on FaceBook!
Strictly English has now launched a FaceBook page called TOEFL 101. There are a lot of great discussions on it. Post questions about iBT Reading, Listening, Writing, Speaking, and we’ll answer those questions within 12 hours! See you there!
Find Books that Match Your TOEFL Reading Level
ETS has partnered with Metametrics, which created “The Lexile Framwork for Reading.” This framework will help you find books that are at the same reading level as your TOEFL score. That way, you can read books that are at the next level up from your level, which will help you increase your score. To learn more go here:
and put your TOEFL score into the pop-up menu on the left of the page!
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- Testimonial from Saudi Arabian Student
- Use Earplugs when Taking TOEFL
- Admissions Offices Prefer TOEFL over IELTS
- Thank you note from Current Student
- The Limits of Memorized Answers
- Video Testimonial: Score 104. Speaking 27
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