hi I am Makoto yatta I was born and
raised in Japan and I studied English in
Japan so English is my foreign language
I consider myself very fortunate because
my English instructors gave all the good
instructions to help me improve my
overall English skills so that when I
first took the TOEFL test I didn't
really have to study for the test I got
the score I wanted now my tips today is
the balance between learning the test
taking strategies and improving your
English skills what's most important is
doing the process well let's see there
are many people I see who who tend to
focus on test taking strategies
strategies only believing that that is
the most effective and efficient way of
raising their scores so they go over the
tests practice questions in the textbook
but that might not work too many people
of course if their English skill is
already good enough that might work best
but if their English is still low of
course it doesn't really help them too
much so doing the right thing means for
example improving their English skills
first and take for example in Japan
there are many people who are afraid of
the speaking section it's very difficult
to improve the score in the speaking
section so they have to of course spend
time on improving the score however they
almost give up on it because no matter
how many times they go over test
questions they can't improve their score
but they need to do is of course improve
their speaking skill but they think it's
a waste of time to work on improving
their speaking skill this is unfortunate
because as you all know if the speaking
section score is not as good it's very
difficult to raise overall scores even
if they work on
learning other test-taking strategies
for other sections to compensate their
lower score in the speaking section with
higher scores and other sections it's
still difficult and after all this test
is testing the ability of integrated
skills in English English so well it's
not just a test if one wants to improve
their English they have to work on
overall skills if he lacks speaking
skill it's difficult for him to improve
other skills and sometimes by improving
the speaking skill they can find
listening and other things much easier
so you are actually watching many tips
from other instructors I think there are
many tips useful for you so if you watch
what other instructors say and you find
them interesting spend time doing those
things rather than hitting the book one
more thing for example note-taking
strategy note-taking skill I mean it's
very important when you go to college
you have to be able to take good notes
again my fellow Japanese students tend
to tend omit and practicing how to take
notes because they think is too
difficult and they give up but the test
gives you a chance for you to see but
skill you need to improve so think of
the test like that don't let the fear of
the test conquer you but conquer the
fear of the test by doing the process be
patient you get you get it if you're
patient so good luck to you