Hello guys
and welcome to my channel.
Something amazing happened last week.
One of our students who took classes with Jonathan,
who is our teacher who prepares
people for TOEFL
and helps them learn English
This student scored
119 out of 120 on TOEFL
I'm gonna call her now
she's based in Italy
and I'm gonna ask her
everything about her TOEFL experience
tips and tricks
and I'll ask her some advice to you guys.
If you're interested, please continue watching.
Could you tell a litle how you prepared
or what was your level of English
before you decided to take TOEFL.
I studied foreign languages and literature
at the university.
English was my first language of studying
I graduated in American literature.
I hope my level was fine
before preparing for the TOEFL
I was not sure however.
It's very specific,
I had to go through all parts
how to carry out the task.
It is an important thing.
It can be your mother tongue
It is not easy to understand
the phrases.
I know that a couple of teachers
like native speakers
took TOEFL
and ended it scoring 115
because there are a lot of tricks you should know.
How long overall
did it take to prepare for TOEFL?
2 months
I was working in the main time
I could not prepare like
24 hours per day
But I did every day.
Just to understand the tasks
and practice during the last three months
I just practiced.
Did you download practice tests?
I downloaded something
I found something online.
Cracking the TOEFL
after watching your video.
And I and Jonathan had
a session
What did you do during the session?
I wanted to focus on the speaking part
because at the university
we usually write a lot
I was quite sure about the writing part
especially for the essay.
Because that's what we do at the university
But I was not sure about the speaking part.
I wanted to prepare more for speaking
and he gave me some tips
and some hints.
especially not to panic
That's so important.
What about writing? Did you have anyone to check it?
Jonathan checked two essays
and a task
and he said I was on the right track.
I was doing just fine.
I was quite happy with that.
No problem with that.
I know how to use the connectors.
That's very important.
You just have to learn to insert them
in every sentence.
That's typical for TOEFL.
How much did you score in every section?
30 in Reading
29 in Listening
It's strange because I thought
it was the best section
It is always like that
I thought writing my best part, scored 27.
And then
30 in Speaking.
That's amazing
It's amazing that you scored 30 on writing
I think it's really difficult.
You never know what TOEFL exam makers
want you to write.
and how they're going to access it.
Depends on who's checking your essay.
I guess so but
I was afraid because
I didn't have time
to check and to reread
the essay because
I wrote like 600 words.
I was like writing, writing
I didn't check.
That's one of the tricks.
Exceeding the word limits
Exactly
Jonathan and I
we had a competition
about typing
and the speed of typing
I was faster than he
And it wasn't my mother tongue.
That's amazing.
Congrats.
Great score.
Have you used the tip when you start speaking later?
So you could hear first questions
I guess I entered
in the middle of other part
When I was doing the listening,
there were some people
who were doing the speaking part.
That was a bit disturbing.
But then I heard something.
Also the testors
they told us
please have your break but
come into the room before the break stops.
I entered like
20 minutes before
the end of my break
I could hear others speaking.
I could hear something about space
and okay, maybe it is somethig about the universe
Great
Everybody's using that tip.
It's really helpful.
Can you name like
3 resources that you used
a session with Jonathan
to have feedback on your speaking
Cracking TOEFL
and what else did you use?
like where did you find practice tests?
Did you downloaded books?
I downloaded lots of books
then I found the book, maybe it's not in the top
5 books for TOEFL
but it was useful because there are some resources
online
and it's the guide
Complete guide to the TOEFL test
by Bruce Rogers
You can find all the CDs online
and that's really useful.
You don't want to spend a lot of money
on books.
You just download the books
and everything is online
that's really useful.
You don't need to wait for somebody to ship the book
If you want just to practice
more you can download or buy the official guide
it's fine
but the more you have,
the better.
That's true
What are you going to use your TOEFL for?
Are you going into a foreign university?
I'd like to apply for phD
courses in Canada,
in the USA or in the UK.
I thought TOEFL was the best option
for all those three.
Fingers crossed with your PhD
When is your application round? November?
December or January
I'm writing a project now.
Now that I've done this one.
Maybe I have to take another exam.
GRE
for the US
That's a more complicated one.
I passed GMAT
pretty much the same
a little more complicated
They just want me to score well
in the rhetoric part
not in maths
That's a relief
Cool
Maybe you can give some advice to people
who're watching my channel
and praying to score the same score you have
First of all I was really nervous
at the beginning so
for the reading part
it is normal to be a bit anxious
I don't know how I scored 30 out of 30
in the reading part
because I was really anxious
at the beginning and
everyone was coming
Just keep focuced on
what you're reading
even though it could be really difficult
because I noticed that the first
article was
quite easy
a lot about art and cinema
but the second one was
a mess and the third was complicated.
Focus on what you're doing
and don't think about the reading passage
when you go to the listening
Keep focused on what you're doing.
This is the first tip that I can
give them
Prepare as much as possible
continue to write
and write down all the words
that you don't know
that you'd like to use in you
essay
For example, I studied
some idiomatic expressions
that I didn't know
or that I'd like to use in my essay.
And learn them by heart.
And also some
During the speaking part
In think in the second part
In the second task
I used some old sayings
or idiomatic expessions
I think it was useful
for example, I don't know
to kill two birds with one stone
something like that.
It could be impressive also
as an ending for an essay.
Very useful tip
I didn't use it
I have a blog
in English
So I usually write on my blog
just to keep practice in writing.
So maybe you can start
just by writing something
his own thoughts,
his own ideas.
Something like that.
We can actually leave a link to your blog
Maybe you could write about your TOEFL experience
on your blog
Oh yeah
People will also read it.
Cool, thank you so much
You have the best results so far
Congrats
That's amazing.
All the best for your GRE
I hope you get into phD program.
The United States, Canada, the UK
I hope so
The scholarship maybe
In the States
PhD is 99% funded.
That should be fine.
I'm not sure about Canada.
Probably
At least it's better than in Italy
I think the most important thing
about TOEFL is that
it gives you the possibility of
going abroad.
And doing whatever you want.
Now I'm more confident.
I'm not usually as confident
as I should
But now that I've passed
with great results
I'm more confident.
My advice is just give it
take the exam
and see what happens
because it's really for your future.
Now you have like an official proof
that you're a great English speaker
You can do that.
Thank you so much
because I found your youtube channel
by chance
like just typing TOEFL
like in suggestions
and it was really useful
especially for my own character.
I need some "you can do that".
And it's what Jonathan said.
Thank you so much
I'm glad we could help
Keep me posted.
if you have any updates
please feel free to write an email,
say "hey, I got into this program".
That would be great.
Thank you so much