Like many people, I’ve been closely watching the final season of the American TV show Breaking Bad. I just watched one of the final episodes, named “Ozymandias.” This is a reference to a poem of the same name by the 19th century poet Percy Shelley. I know this little piece of trivia because I memorized that poem in the 6th grade, many, many, MANY years ago. Read more »

In Part 1, I stated the first reason why students need to take practice TOEFL tests: Students need to become comfortable taking the test.

In Part 2, I stated the second reason: Students need to find their specific weaknesses and target them.

In this post, I’ll give the final reason why students need to take practice tests. Please emphasize these reasons to make sure your students take their practice tests when assigned, and when they do take them, to do so seriously. Read more »

In my last post, I stated the first reason why students need to take practice TOEFL tests: Students need to become comfortable taking the test. In this post, I’ll give reason #2. Please emphasize these reasons to make sure your students take their practice tests when assigned, and when they do take them, to do so seriously.

(I had one student who would always do his practice tests at midnight or later–I could see the time stamp on his score report. He then wondered why his performance was improving ever so slowly.) Read more »

Taking a test is unpleasant. It’s stressful, tiring and the resulting score is a judgement on the test-taker’s competency–and most people really don’t like to be judged.

Keeping this in mind, I’d like to share three important reasons to emphasize to your students why they need to regularly take TOEFL practice tests. In this post, I’ll post the first reason. Whenever you sense one of your students dreading the prospect of taking a practice test (which can be perfectly normal), these are some reasons you can cite. Read more »