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Two major changes occurred in the TOEFL world last week. ETS announced updates to the format of the TOEFL iBT exam and the NAPB revised the score requirements for pharmacists. These are both major developments and will affect many students. Let's break down what these changes mean in reality and how you might need to adapt your TOEFL studying to...
Read MoreIt’s perfectly natural to feel nervous the day before big exams. I’m sure you’ve taken many exams in your professional lives and you know that feeling only too well. If you’re getting ready for an English proficiency exam like TOEFL or IELTS, then how you prepare in the last couple of days before your exam can definitely affect the
Read MoreI see a lot of questions from students asking for resources about how to get ideas for writing task 2 in TOEFL, the academic discussion response. And there are indeed many resources devoted to this topic including the best Google searches and AI prompts to use. But I actually think this is the wrong approach. Let me
Read MoreI’ve been tutoring TOEFL students for 10 years and in that time, I’ve reviewed hundreds - maybe thousands - of essays and written responses. While it’s true that every student is unique and has their own personal challenges, there are also patterns to the errors that I see in TOEFL writing. And these errors are repeated
Read MoreWhat'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...
Read MoreOver 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
Read MoreIf 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...
Read MoreIn most places, when you do an exam, there is complete silence in the exam room. 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 in total silence, then it’s likely that the...
Read MoreSpeechRater, 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
Read MoreSome 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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