Advantages of having your TOEFL writing evaluated by a specialist

Thousands of students retake the TOEFL exam repeatedly in some cases because they cannot higher than 24 points on the writing section of the exam.  If you are one of those students, stop the madness!  If you get the right feedback from a TOEFL writing specialist, you will be able to get the feedback that you need to solve your writing issues so you can score higher. Then, you can finish the TOEFL and move in with your life. To illustrate my point, one of my TOEFL Writing Boot Camp students sent me a response to the following essay question:

Writing Prompt:

Imagine that you are in a classroom or a meeting. The teacher or the meeting leader says something incorrect In your opinion, which of the following is the best thing to do?

  1. Interrupt and correct the mistake right away-
  2. Wait until the class or meeting is over and the people are gone, and then talk to the teacher or meeting leader
  3. Say nothing

Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Student’s response:

Education is an important part of students life where students gain the knowledge needed for their professional future. Sometimes in a lecture, a student may think that the lecturer states something incorrectly and may decide to react in different ways. Some students may prefer to interrupt the professor and correct the mistake right away, some students may wait until the end of the lecture to speak with the teacher, and others might decide to say nothing. In my opinion, a student should expect until the class is over, and then talk to the professor to avoid interruption and confusion and also to respect the teacher and other listeners.

First, if a student thinks that the lecturer says something incorrect, he/she should wait until the class is over and the professor finishes his talking to avoid interruption of the lecture or talking. During a speech, the professor organizes his lecture in all component for the students to help them understand and acquire the information he is teaching. If a student is going to intervene in one point of the lecture, he might end up interrupting the professor explains the studied material as intended. In this way, students are going to miss other essential parts of the lecture. Moreover, the student might be wrong in his assumption about the mistake and might end up just creating confusion for the audience and unnecessary interruptions in the class.

Second, a student should wait until the professor is done with his talking to respect the professor and other listeners in the class that may have perceived as should the speech and don’t have doubts for any mistake in the professor’s talking. For example, I remember when I was in college, one of my classmates often asked clarifications in the middle of the lecture. This way of behaving created unsattisfactory moments for other students that were focused on the teaching. On the other side, the professors were not happy to be interrupted because most of them have already set up the last part of the class in the dispositions of students for any question or clarification needed. Thus, a student should avoid such interruption to respect others that are listening to comprehend the material that professor is teaching.

In summary, I believe that a student should wait for the professor to finish his teaching and ask a question in order to avoid unnecessary interruptions and to respect the teacher and other classmates. In this way, the lecture will not have pauses and waste of time and everybody will feel content with the flow of the lecture.

What most students do

At this point after writing the essay, many students will try to self assess their writing using a checklist from a TOEFL book or from some videos that they may have watched on You Tube. However, this student, who paid $130 for my TOEFL Writing Boot Camp Course, e-mailed me her practice test, and using my 22 years of TOEFL teaching experience and using my experience as a composition instructor at California State University, San Bernardino, I produced a 30 minute video discussing the strengths and weaknesses of her writing:

Strengths

  • Essay has a thesis and sharply-focused topic sentences in the body paragraphs.
  • Essay has adequate development in each body paragraph.
  • Essay effectively concludes the ideas by restating the main ideas in body paragraphs and introduction.

Weaknesses

Essay has some grammatical issues relating to the following:

  • Using apostrophes
  • Understanding when to use or not use commas
  • Using singular and plural count nouns with appropriate noun markers
  • Inappropriate word choice
  • Differentiating gerunds from infinitives
  • Sentence structure issues relating to sentences with multiple clauses
  • Being more concise

After watching the video, the student will learn how to correct all her grammatical errors and will also learn specific lessons in her TOEFL Writing Boot Camp course that she needs to review in order to strengthen her writing. After getting this feedback, the student will make some adjustments and will complete more writing practice tests to monitor her progress. Since her writing score on this practice test was 22/30 points, she knows that she is not ready to take the TOEFL exam. However, once she consistently is scoring 24+ on the writing practice tests, then she will know that it is time to re-take the TOEFL exam.  I also send the student a printed edited version of her essay so that she can see what changes she should make in order to score 30/30 points

Edited version of student’s essay:

Education is an important part of students’ lives in which they gain the knowledge needed for their professional futures. Sometimes in a lecture, a student may think that the lecturer states something incorrectly and may decide to react differently. For instance, some students may prefer to interrupt the professor and correct the mistake right away, some students may wait until the end of the lecture to speak with the teacher, and others might decide to say nothing. In my opinion, a student should wait until the class is over and then talk to the professor to avoid interruption and confusion and also to respect the teacher and other listeners.

First, if a student thinks that the lecturer says something incorrect, he/she should wait until the class is over and until the professor finishes his talk to avoid interruption of the lecture or talk. During a speech, the professor organizes his lecture in all components for the students to help them understand and acquire the information he is teaching. If a student is going to intervene in one point of the lecture, he might end up interrupting the professor who is explaining the studied material as intended. In this way, due to an interruption, students are going to miss other essential parts of the lecture. Moreover, the student might be wrong in his assumption about the mistake and might end up just creating more confusion and unnecessary interruptions in the class.

Second, a student should wait until the professor is done with his talk to respect the professor and other listeners in the class that do not perceive the professor as having made any mistakes in his talk. For example, I remember that, when I was in college, one of my classmates often asked clarifications in the middle of the lecture. This way of behaving created distracting moments for other students that were focused on the teaching. In addition, the professors were not happy being interrupted because most of them had already set up the last part of the class in the dispositions of students for any questions or clarification needed. Thus, a student should avoid such interruptions to respect others that are listening to comprehend the material that the professor is teaching.

In summary, a student should wait for the professor to finish his teaching to ask a question in order to avoid unnecessary interruptions and to respect the teacher and other classmates. In this way, the lecture will not have pauses and wasted time, so everybody will feel content with the flow of the lecture.

Stop re-taking the TOEFL exam over and over until you know exactly what you are doing wrong!

Think about this question for a minute: “What would you rather do: Spend 100’s or even 1000’s of dollars re-taking the TOEFL iBT over and over or enroll in my TOEFL Writing Boot Camp course for $130 for 30 days to improve to writing so you can pass the TOEFL the next time you take it.”  Then, you can move on with your life.

Good luck!

Michael Buckhoff, mbuckhoff@aol.com

https://onlinetoeflcourse.com