Did you know that the main idea question and the purpose question are best friends? They stick together. In fact, they are so tight they almost feel the same. When you understand the purpose, you can easily determine the main idea. Find out how to get the main idea question right in the video below ..read more

What do you do when you tried your best to take notes on every detail, but you still know you are missing points from the lecture? You make something from what you do have. Your speaking is a performance. Proceed with confidence and certainty as you summarize the points of the lecture you heard. Even if you think that it's not enough, you're going to act as if it is more than enough! For more about this check out the video below ..read more

Becoming a pro doesn't happen overnight; it takes practice. But no one really gets excited about practicing grammar alone. On the TOEFL Writing section, there are some instances where you may want to use this verb become. Yet, in my experience many students will use this verb incorrectly. Let's start with the basics. Simple Present Tense Use when it's a fact, habit or regular occurrence Example: When I do not wear socks I become cold. This is a fact. Every time I don't wear socks, my body temperature drops. Simple Past Tense Use when an event is done, finished and over. Example: Y ..read more

Students don't want to hear that grammar mistakes are keeping them from hitting their target writing score. Yet, most of the time students know how to answer the question (YAY!) use correct academic structure (smarty pants!) have time to write a powerful conclusion (impressive!) So, what's the problem? The two most common problems are subject / verb agreement use of articles (a, an, the, or no article). And you want to know something REALLY interesting? Often those common problems occur because the student may not realize what kind of noun they are dealing with. You see, cou ..read more

I can't tell you how important it is to study word groups. When you come across a word such as "slope," for example, look up other similar words. Maybe you'll find words like: incline, slant, hill, gradient This person is scaling an extremely steep incline! These word groups are SO helpful on the TOEFL because this test loves to use synonyms in the answer choices. If you didn't know that slope was also an incline, then you might disregard this answer choice and select the wrong answer. If you want to learn word groupings, simply look up any word on a thesaurus. My favorite thesaurus thes ..read more

Are these traps ever going to end? TOEFL traps end as soon as you get your TOEFL score! So, if you haven't achieved your desired score yet, then watch this video and notice tricky traps galore! The faster you can eliminate traps, the better you are at determining the correct answer choice ..read more

**UPDATE** As of July 26, 2023 Writing Task #2 will now be an Academic Discussion Writing Task. Therefore, the following advice will not apply to TOEFL. You can find out more at ets.org or click here and scroll to "New Writing Task." Ok, so you've done all the things you are supposed to do for Writing Task #2. You have an introductory paragraph. You've got 2 supporting paragraphs with good grammar. You've got a conclusion. You even have some cool idioms and expressions. Then, you see your score. It's the SAME as the last score. WHAT is going wrong?!? Well, you might have heard that you ha ..read more

So, you've got 3 MAIN ideas to select. Time is running out. What do you do? This scenario is all too common on the TOEFL reading section. Most likely this scenario causes stress, anxiety, nervousness -- ALL the things that won't help us answer the question and move on to the next. What if I told you that TRUSTING yourself was the key? This week I did a FREE class ALL about the main idea summary question. Sure, students learned approaches to this summary question, but more importantly they learned how to TRUST themselves. Not so sure you can trust yourself? You build trust by practicing ..read more

It's important to take breaks while studying. This can be a short 30-minute break after a 2-hour study session or if you’ve been diligently studying every day, take the weekend off. Give your mind a rest from all things TOEFL. This helps you better understand and retain everything you’re learning. Otherwise, you’ll burn out quickly. When I brought this up to a group of students one responded by saying: “Sometimes taking a break turns into indifference. If I pause from my studies, it’s really hard to start studying again. It’s like I don’t care anymore. I’m over it.” indifference: Lack of ..read more

**UPDATE** As of July 26, 2023 Writing Task #2 will now be an Academic Discussion Writing Task. Therefore, the following advice will not apply to TOEFL. You can find out more at ets.org or click here and scroll to "New Writing Task." This advice does apply if you are planning to continue academic education in English and want to improve as a writer. Coming up with two separate and distinct ideas is the key for a successful Writing Task #2 essay. At times during our brainstorming process we may think we have two ideas when we really don't. Here's an example of what I mean: Question: Which do ..read more