Simple Tips for Success in TOEFL Written Exam

Simple Tips for Success in TOEFL Written Exam You might be able to understand English well when you hear it. You might even be able to speak it perfectly. But how well can you write in English? How would you respond to the sample question below? You have 30 minutes to plan, write, and revise your essay. Typically, an effective essay will contain a minimum of 300 words. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Always telling the truth is the most important consideration in any relationship. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. Don’t panic. Here are some tips to help. Start With An Introduction Your essay must start with an introduction, setting out the ideas you will be developing in the body of the text. Some useful sentences in the introduction are: This essay will set out…Here, I will be looking at…..The idea I wish to develop here is… Know How To Develop A Thesis An essay isn’t a set of random sentences. It’s actually about developing an idea or thesis. To do this effectively i n English you will need appropriate words. These are called connectors. They include: Therefore,For this reason,With this in mind,Consequently,As a result, Use Examples To Support The Thesis Rather than making a set of statements, your thesis will be much better if you can support it with examples and evidence. You can introduce these by saying: Evidence to support this idea is included in…This is borne out by the fact that…A great example of this idea is… Pay Attention To Spelling And Punctuation It’s wonderful to have a great idea for your essay, but don’t get so carried away with it you make a lot of spelling and punctuation mistakes. This will take away from the examiner’s impression of your work. Don’t Overcomplicate Ideas or Grammar It might be tempting to try to develop a complicated theory or idea in your essay but this would be a mistake. By keeping things simple you are less likely to make mistakes. Also, as they saying goes in English, less is more! Conclude Just as an essay needs an introduction and main body, it also needs a conclusion where you sum up the ideas you developed in the texts. Words to lead up to a conclusion include: To finish, To conclude,To resume, Did you find this blog helpful? Feel free to share it on Facebook and Twitter.

Should you tutor your own family

Should you tutor your own family Super-tutor Mark Maclaine opens up discussion on the highly debated topic of whether tutoring should happen within the family. A few years ago I tried tutoring one of my cousins, and to say it was a failure would be a huge understatement. We’d always got on well but this normally well behaved 9-year old turned into a monster, and my usually calm demeanor disappeared into thin air. After two days it became clear that there was little possibility of him doing any work with me so I had to find another tutor. This tutor got on very well with my cousin; so well in fact that they were able to get through double the amount of work that we had in only half the time. I found myself somewhat deflated and slightly confused. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Seven years later, and in hindsight, I can see why it didn’t work. It is not unusual for people to find tutoring their own families difficult. In fact, this problem is remarkably common. I do know parents who have successfully home-schooled their own children, but I know far more who have failed miserably; even just helping with homework seemed to them like getting blood out of a stone. I spoke recently with performance coach Gary Leboff. He recounts that in his work “”the biggest mistake you can make as a parent is to care too much. You will end up putting too much pressure on your child.” He goes on to say, “from a coach’s point of view, you do need to care, but from a detached perspective.” I’ve heard a great number of ideas proposed for why it is so hard to work with your own family. Whatever the reason, I know first-hand how hard it can be. I’d like to open up the discussion on this post. Have you got any experiences of tutoring your own family or close friends? Please include both good and bad experiences, and tell us what has worked particularly well for you.