Allan is looking for a TOEFL course to continue in his battle to score at least 90/120. Like most TOEFLers, Allan, a native of Brazil, is studying hard so that he can meet the TOEFL requirements to start his PhD program in Computer Science in Canada. Thus far, he has taken the TOEFL iBT two times.
He first took the TOEFL iBT on January 28th and scored 55/120: Reading = 10, Listening = 11, Speaking = 14, and Writing = 20. Lower than he thought it should have been, his low score awakened a sleeping giant within his soul, and for two months Allan worked furiously to improve his academic English proficiency. On April 19, he retook the TOEFL iBT, this time scoring an impressive 74/120: Reading = 18, Listening = 16, Speaking = 18, and Writing = 22. “I think that I could have achieved more than 18 in the reading section,” says Allan, “if I could manage my time better.” Had he not become tired, which caused him to lose his concentration, Allan thinks he could have done much better on the listening passage. We can always do better, right? Have you ever met a TOEFLer who is 100% completely satisfied with his/her results?
Having realized the sweet taste of success, Allan knows that his goal of scoring 90+ is within reach of his finger tips. But he needs someone or something to take him to the next level. Therefore, he landed on the Better TOEFL Scores web page in search of an online TOEFL service. He E-mailed founder and materials writer Michael, and asked, “Based on the last score what advice could you give me? I would like to reach this score in a period of three months.” Before E-mailing Michael, Allan had watched some of Michael’s promotional videos and thought that “The 7-Step to Pass the TOEFL iBT” could help him reach his goals. Also, in the E-mail to Michael, Allan said that he wanted to reach a score of 90 within a 3-month period.
Michael carefully thought about Allan’s questions and the possibility of his reaching his target score of 90/120. Michael was inspired by something Allan said, “My goal now is to achieve at least 90; I think that, if I put this goal in my mind, it is more easy to reach 80.” Yes, Allan was raising his own standards, trying to reach an even higher score than he was required to meet. That he had this type of mindset made Michael think that Allan had all the necessary ingredients to improve his academic English proficiency: time, motivation, and a willingness to practice.
Here is the You Tube video that Michael sent to Allan:
| This article was written by Michael Buckhoff–co-founder and materials writer for Better TOEFL Scores and The 7-Step System to Pass the TOEFL iBT, Composition and Linguistics Professor, TOEFL Specialist, ESL Master Instructor, and Placement and Testing Coordinator for California State University, San Bernardino.Follow more posts and videos from Michael at Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube. |