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Studying Strategies

Practice English Outside Lessons

Jane Birkenhead, July 24 2024

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 Exam Preparation

Coping with Exam Noise

Jane Birkenhead, June 17 2024

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 Speaking

About SpeechRater Scores

Jane Birkenhead, May 24 2024

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

Are you Fighting the Exam?

Jane Birkenhead, April 26 2024

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

Jane Birkenhead, March 22 2024

“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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TOEFL Speaking

How to Correct Fossilized Errors

Jane Birkenhead, March 18 2024

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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TOEFL / IELTS Exam Preparation

How TOEFL and IELTS Teachers Help

Jane Birkenhead, February 29 2024

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 Speaking

Other People don't Correct Mistakes

Jane Birkenhead, February 15 2024

“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 Exam Preparation

Choose TOEFL Resources Carefully

Jane Birkenhead, January 25 2024

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 Lessons

Are TOEFL Lessons Worth the Money?

Jane Birkenhead, January 19 2024

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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