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.

http://www.lexile.com/toefl/

and put your TOEFL score into the pop-up menu on the left of the page!

Want to learn how to write a more powerful TOEFL essay, begin by watching this video!

1. The content of movies are not even close to the content of TOEF lectures.  Therefore, movies and TV might improve your ability to understand general English, but it will not give you the specific vocabulary and content that you’ll need for TOEFL.

2. If you process information more through your eyes than through your ears, you can easily understand a movie by focusing more on the images than by focusing on the words.  Now this is good, because most everyone uses their eyes to understand the world around them, but this won’t help you with TOEFL.  TOEFL offers no visual prompts or visual clues. You only have your ears.

So if you really want to use movies to improve your listening, then go to the theater with a blindfold on!  Okay, that was a joke.  But here are a few ideas that might improve this ETS Tip:

1. Go to movies with very little action.  Action movies do not have as much talking, so they do not help you improve your listening.

2. Watch documentaries, like Disney’s EARTH. These movies have content that is more akin to TOEFL content.

3. Watch TV channels like PBS , the Discovery Channel, or the History Channel. Again, they have content that is similar to TOEFL content.

This is why Strictly English has designed a TOEFL program that can be directly applied to university life.  Our methods and strategies will be helpful when writing university essays and when giving oral presentations in your university classes.

Case in point: during the Spring 2009 semester, Strictly English received a phone call from an ex-student who has already completed her TOEFL study and was now at college taking a history class.  She called requesting help with her midterm essay. Although Strictly English does not regularly offer academic tutoring, I did take the time to meet with this ex-student to show her how all of Strictly English’s strategies for the 30-Minute essay could be applied to her college midterm paper.

Not only did she get an A- on that paper, but that grade was significantly higher than the other essays she had written without the Strictly English method!

So remember: a good TOEFL tutor will give you skills that go far beyond the test!

If you’re looking for an iBT tutor, make sure he or she can answer at least these three questions below. If your tutor cannot answer these questions, then you might want someone who knows more about the test to be teaching you!

QUESTIONS:
1. Can I get a 25 out of 30 on the Speaking section of the iBT?
2. What section of the TOEFL iBT asks you questions that directly test your knowledge of Grammar?
3. On what part of the iBT are you most likely to use modals?

ANSWERS:
1. NO. TOEFL does not give a score of 25 on the Speaking.
2. NONE: There are NO grammar questions on the iBT.
3. Speaking Task 5. It is the only place where you talk about offering suggestions.

EXTRA NOTE: Make sure you see the tutor’s TOEFL SCORE. Even if he/she is a native English speaker, your tutor should have taken the TOEFL so that he/she knows exactly what you’ll experience on test day. Every Strictly English tutor has taken the TOEFL. This also means that we know exactly how the real test is different from what is taught in the books. Much of the information in the books is out of date because the books were published 3-5 years ago. TOEFL books should be updated at least every 2 years if not every year. If your tutor is not taking the test regularly, then he/she is relying on information in the books, which is usually old and out-of-date information.

Body
Mind
Heart

EX: “I really respected my chemistry teacher because he was SMART (mind) and PATIENT (emotion)”

You can also:

1. Talk about the effect this person has had on you (for example, this person made you more interested in volunteer work, or this person introduced you to jazz music)

Or: 2. talk about why you respect this person (for example, you really respect their work ethic, or you admire their sense of humor).

For more tips on how to generate speaking ideas, come back and read more on our blog!