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I've gathered together my favourite studying strategies and resources in these articles. Whether you're preparing for TOEFL / IELTS exams, or are an interested learner trying to improve your English fluency, I hope they will help you.
They are all written by me, not by AI, so they are my voice, my opinions and my thoughts.
I love to chat about all aspects of language learning, so let me know if you have any comments or questions about anything you read here.
Click on the category name above the post title (for example, Fluency in Speaking or Time Management to view ALL the articles in that category.
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TOEFL / IELTS Exam Preparation
What's included in different Birkenhead English lesson packages for TOEFL and IELTS? This is a question that many students ask and I think it's important to know what you're getting when you sign up for lessons. Every lesson package, for every student, starts with a full diagnostic assessment to assess your current level and to highlight any...
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When you learn new skills, like improving your English fluency, or preparing for the TOEFL or IELTS exams, it's important to practice. A lot. I think most people accept this. However, some people believe that the QUANTITY of practice time is more important than the QUALITY of their
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Is this you? You’re taking lessons to improve your English (perhaps to prepare for exams or an important work event), everything is going well and you have the best intentions but you can't find the time to do any speaking homework for your tutor. When you get home from work after a long day, you’re tired, and other things always seem to get in...
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One common problem that all exam students face, is finding the time to study. This is understandable as most students have to balance work and family commitments with their studying time. But let's turn this around. If you think you DON'T have time to study, then think about all the other things you DO
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In the TOEFL exam, for candidates to achieve an advanced speaking score (25+ out of 30), their responses have to demonstrate, “generally well-controlled organization and cohesion”. This means that responses have to show a logical progression, and flow smoothly from one part to the next. In other words, the response has to make sense so that the...
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TOEFL / IELTS Exam Preparation
Over the past few years, I've noticed a big difference in the way that students prepare for English proficiency exams like TOEFL and IELTS. As a result of the big increase in resources available online, especially those driven by AI, more students are choosing to study by
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TOEFL / IELTS Exam Preparation
If you’re taking TOEFL or IELTS lessons with a teacher, then you'll know that you're making a big financial commitment as well as investing a lot of your time. This is good. It means you're serious about achieving your goals! However, if you want to succeed, then you MUST practice English outside lessons. There is only so much that a language...
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TOEFL / IELTS Exam Preparation
In most places, when you do an exam, there is complete silence in the exam room. Unfortunately, this isn't the case with TOEFL exams. Unfortunately, in TOEFL exams, this doesn’t happen. TOEFL exam rooms are noisy places and you need to learn how to cope with the noise. If you’re easily distracted, if you’re nervous, and if you’ve been practicing...
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TOEFL / IELTS Exam Preparation
SpeechRater, e-rater, AI…all these tools are fantastic for practicing for exams, but they are just tools. Nothing more! SpeechRater, for example, listens to your speaking response, and then estimates your TOEFL score for that response, based on a number of components that it has been programmed to analyze in your
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TOEFL / IELTS Exam Preparation
Some students struggle with TOEFL and it’s not because they don’t have the language proficiency or the exam skills to succeed. It’s because they are fighting with the exam. Recently I gave some very honest advice to a student who'd been studying for a long time and who was really struggling to achieve her target
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TOEFL / IELTS Exam Preparation
“It’s ok to ask for help.” This is a message that's often shared during Mental Health Awareness Week, but I think it's something that anyone studying for an exam should be reminded of all year round. Let’s focus specifically on what it means for TOEFL and IELTS exam
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You know those errors that you make when you speak English? I'm talking about repeated errors - those errors that you keep making over and over again. Even though you know they are wrong, you just can't seem to stop yourself making them. They drive you crazy and make you wonder if you'll ever be able to speak English
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“People at work don’t correct my mistakes!” “I had no idea I was making these kinds of errors!” I hear this from students a lot 😊 As we work through the requirements for IELTS or TOEFL speaking together, and as I give them feedback, they often realize that they’ve been making lots of errors that they didn’t know
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TOEFL / IELTS Exam Preparation
At the start of any new year, everyone is full of enthusiasm about studying. I’m sure you’ve noticed the number of new resources being shared, and the increase in posts everywhere. I think that having access to all this information is great. Anything that you find to help you to get your target scores is a good thing. And it makes my job as a...
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TOEFL / IELTS Exam Preparation
If you're wondering if private TOEFL lessons are really worth the investment, or if you're worried about the cost of paying for them, then I hope this article will address some of your concerns. I've arranged this article into 4 separate sections to hopefully answer all your
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TOEFL / IELTS Exam Preparation
I see far too many posts on Facebook and Instagram where students ask for help with TOEFL reading and the comments fill up with advice about “learning vocabulary”. Please be aware that learning vocabulary is only a tiny part of the overall solution. You’ve got to understand how that vocabulary works in
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TOEFL / IELTS Exam Preparation
I’ve seen a few posts recently talking about the ‘magic’ and ‘secrets’ of TOEFL. Please be aware that there is no magic, and there are no secrets in TOEFL exam preparation. On one level, these posts about ‘magic’ and ‘secrets’ are simply click bait. Content creators use them to draw attention to their services. It’s an age old marketing formula....
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TOEFL / IELTS Exam Preparation
There are some English punctuation and formatting rules that you need to know for TOEFL and IELTS essay writing. However, if you Google English punctuation you will find many articles with long explanations about things that aren't important for these exams. Please don't spend hours looking at articles that explain punctuation in great detail....
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TOEFL / IELTS Exam Preparation
Many students struggle with writing notes for TOEFL speaking responses. Do you find your notes don't help you with what to say?Do you write too much? Do you waste effort writing notes you don't use?Do you focus on taking notes and forget to listen? ...If so, I can help you. I actually think that a lot of general advice about note-taking for TOEFL...
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Students often ask for a list of essential words to learn for English proficiency exams like IELTS and TOEFL. Getting a long vocabulary list and trying to memorize definitions is not a good learning strategy. It doesn't reflect the way your brain likes to learn things, and so it's rarely
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