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There are certain studying habits that successful students adopt. I've been tutoring TOEFL and IELTS students for ten years, and I've seen how these studying habits change attitudes and create success. I hope you'll try them. Too many students contact tutors 2 or 3 weeks before their deadline in a state of complete panic. Don’t be one of those...
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 MoreWhen you learn new skills, like improving your English fluency, or preparing for the TOEFL or IELTS exams, it's important to practise. 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
Read MoreIs 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...
Read MoreOne 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
Read MoreIn 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...
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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