There are so many Online TOEFL Prep Courses to choose from, right? Have you ever heard of these two popular Online TOEFL Preparation courses–Magoosh and STEALTH, “The 7-Step System to Pass the TOEFL iBT?” Both have been around for a while, and thousands of students have been enrolling in these two courses. However, which one is right for you? Hopefully, after reading the following information about these two TOEFL preparation courses, you will be able to determine which best suits your academic English proficiency needs.
Company History
Magoosh was founded in 2009 by Hansoo Lee, Bhavin Parikh, and Pejman Pour-Moezzi while they were students at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Magoosh is a play on words from the Persian word “magush,” which means a wise person.
STEALTH, founded in 2008 by California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) lecturer and ESL instructor Michael Buckhoff, is an acronym for the 7 sections used to frame the content in this course:
Super-size your vocabulary
Target and improve your pronunciaiton weaknesses
Evaluate your grammar compencies
Analyze your listening strengths and weaknesses
Learn effective reading strategies
Target and improve your writing weaknesses
Have an organized approach to speaking
Pricing and Study Plans
Magoosh advertises three different pricing plans. 1) The 1 week study plan costing $39 is ideal for last minute TOEFL preparation. 2) The 1 month study plan costs $49 and is suited for those students needing a 4 point or more improvement in their TOEFL scores. 3) The 6 month study plan costing $89 is suited for those students with lower TOEFL scores needing significant improvements in their academic English language proficiency.
STEALTH advertises five pricing plans offered to students deciding to enroll. 1) A Pay Pal subscription plan costing $45 which students use on a monthly basis until they decide to cancel their Pay Pal subscription. This option is beneficial if students do not know how long they will need to reach their target TOEFL scores. 2) A 1 month non-subscription plan priced at $49 suited for those students who are within 5-10 points of their target TOEFL score. 3) A 3 month $130 non-subscription plan designed for those students who are within 11-30 points of their dream TOEFL scores. 4) A 6 month $235 study plan designed for those students who are 31-60 points of their ideal TOEFL scores. 5) A 12 month plan valued at $412 for those lower level non-native speakers needing an improvement of more than 60 points in their TOEFL scores.
Student Support
Magoosh offers e-mail support when students have questions or concerns about what they are learning.
Similarly, STEALTH allows students to e-mail TOEFL pronunciation, writing, and speaking specialists when they are in need of support.
Lessons and other Teaching Materials
Magoosh has 100+ video lessons, more than 500 practice questions, and explanation videos for every question. It also offers study schedules for those students needing a more structured lesson format.
STEALTH has more than 700 video, PDF, and web-based lessons, more than 5000 practice questions, and study schedules to help those needing more organization in their study routine. In all, STEALTH has more than 500 hours of instruction offered to its users.
Pronunciation and Accent Reduction Training
Magoosh has no accent reduction training at its web site.
STEALTH has 53 accent reduction video lessons helping students to improve their intelligibility in the following areas: vowels, consonants, syllable division and grammatical word endings, word stress, sentence rhythm, intonation, and thought groups and blending. In addition, students completing the voiced recordings at the end of the lessons can send the audio files to TOEFL pronunciation specialists who will evaluate and provide audio corrections of the students’ pronunciation by e-mail. In fact, students can send TOEFL specialists up to 60 seconds of pronunciation practice every 24 hours after enrolling.
Speaking Reviews
Magoosh offers no speaking feedback to students practicing the independent and integrated speaking tasks at its course. The course, however, does offer written model responses of how students can answer the TOEFL practice questions at its site.
STEALTH currently has 300+ independent speaking topics and 20 integrated speaking practice tests for its customers. Students can make 45 and 60 second recordings for independent and integrated speaking practice tests and e-mail their recorded responses to TOEFL speaking specialists who provide 3-10 minutes of audio feedback about 24 hours after the students complete the practice tests. In addition, STEALTH allows its users to complete practice tests from other web sites and send their recorded responses to STEALTH’s speaking specialists for grading and evaluation.
Writing Reviews
Magoosh provides no writing feedback for its users, but it does provide model essays showing their customers how to coherently organize and develop independent and integrated responses.
STEALTH has 40 independent writing practice tests and 43 integrated writing practice tests at its course, and students are allowed to send up to ONE writing practice test for scoring every 24 hours after joining. In other words, students could complete up to 30 writing practice tests monthly, after which they get a score from 0-30 pts and after which a TOEFL writing specialist provides some general written feedback about the strengths and weaknesses of the essay being submitted.
In addition, STEALTH offers an error correction service for $50 in which students’ essays are scored from TOEFL writing specialist Michael Buckhoff who will read, evaluate, and score the essays, even producing 30 to 60 minute videos showing students what grammatical, word choice, sentence structure, organization, and development changes need to be made in order for these essays to score perfectly on either the independent or integrated writing sections of the TOEFL exam. Finally, Buckhoff will match students’ writing weaknesses with specific lessons in his online TOEFL course so these students know which lessons they should focus on in order to advance their writing proficiency.
Discounts, Special Offers, and Score Guarantees
Magoosh’s prices are heavily discounted from the originally posted prices, and it offers a 7-day trial of its course with no obligation. For instance, students can sign up for the limited free trial so that they can get access to 19 video lessons and 20 practice questions. Further, Magoosh offers a 4 point score guarantee for its users, and, to qualify, users must have already taken the TOEFL before and must complete all the lessons. Magoosh also offers a 7-day money back guarantee and does not refuse any students who ask for a refund during the first 7 days of using the course.
STEALTH has discounts of 10%, 20%, and 30% on its 3, 6, and 12 month price plans. In addition, students, if they choose the monthly subscription plan, can get unlimited access to all parts of the course for free for the first 7 days of using the course. STEALTH offers no score guarantee for its users, but, those students enrolling in the non-subscription 30, 60, 180, or 365 day price plans are entitled to a 7-day money back guarantee. If they do not like the course for any reason, they can request and will be granted a refund so long as the request is made within the first 7 days of using the course.
To learn more about Magoosh’s TOEFL Prep Course, go here: https://toefl.magoosh.com
To learn more about STEALTH’s TOEFL Prep Course, go here: http://onlinetoeflcourse.com