Hadeel was a student of Michael Buckhoff, who teaches at California State University, San Bernardino, and, after she moved back East, she decided to enroll in Michael’s Online TOEFL course “The 7-Step System to Pass the TOEFL iBT.” Since her biggest weakness on the exam was reading, she really hit the books so to speak when it came to the reading section. Her initial reading score was 13/30 points.
First, Hadeel took Michael’s advice and started reading extensively for about 45 minutes each day and did not stop each time she saw a word she did not know. Instead, she focused on getting the gist of the magazines, newspapers, and books that she was reading. Gradually, as she practiced, her concentration and comprehension improved.
Second, Hadeel began learning 1,700 TOEFL words from the vocabulary section of her Online TOEFL Course. “This is hard work!” she exclaimed one day as she was creating her note cards, with the new vocabulary word on one side and the definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and sample sentences on the back. “It just plain sucks.” However, despite her frustrations, Hadeel knew that, if she prepared her note cards and downloaded the audio files of all the words, she would more likely remember them for all time.
Third, Hadeel began studying the lessons in the reading section of her course which were introducing to her all the reading question types and the strategies for answering them. She was especially interested in the lessons about completing charts and schematic tables which were always difficult questions for her during the reading section of the exam. “Practice makes perfect,” she thought as she continued to learn the lessons.
Fourth, having always been a slow reader, Hadeel started completing the academic speed reading tests. She first started with the 100 words per minute speed reading test and gradually improved her reading speed to 295 words per minute with 80% comprehension. As she learned to read faster, Hadeel was surprised that she could concentrate better and remember more. Contrary to what she once believed, faster readers DO have better concentration and comprehension.
Now having completed most of the reading and other lessons in her Online TOEFL Course, Hadeel was ready to retake the TOEFL exam, this time with the hopes that she would score over 80/120. Here is the E-mail that she sent to Michael:
hi michael,
I’ve used your website bettertoeflscore for almost 2 months, also i was a student on your Toefl classes at ESL in CSUSB. i improved my reading and listing and i liked the most the reading speed exercises because I’ve struggled in the reading section on the test. i took the test on may 25th.I got R:20 L:22 S:24 W:21 Total:87
Thank you very much for your helping and i hope all the other students learn from your experience.
hadeel
Of course, Michael was overjoyed to hear about her results! You are welcome, Hadeel.