How to Pass Your English Exam in 10 Minutes

"You are now under exam conditions.  

You must not communicate with, ask for help  from, or give help to any other candidate  

in the exam room. If you have a question at  any time you must raise your hand and wait..."

Taking these TOEFL tests like they're pretty exhausting.

I'm not used to listening to somebody for five minutes.

Like, there's a five minute lecture where this person

is talking about some topic that I don't care about for five minutes.

I'm not used to that.

I haven't been to school in like 20 years.

So like, I'm not used to that type of experience.

And so, you know, it is.

It does take a lot out of me to just like, sit down and take one of these tests.

So I imagine it take a lot of the students to,

If you ever questioned when is the  right time to sit for a proficiency exam  

or if you are already ready to do so, then keep watching! 

My guest today is Josh MacPherson from TST Prep.  Josh is an English teacher specializing in helping  

students like you to prepare for the TOEFL  exam and Duolingo English Test, two of the most  

popular proficiency exams used by universities and  other institutions in English-speaking countries.

We'll talk about why taking an English  examination can be a good thing  

and share practical tips for  taking proficiency tests.

Josh, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me, Ethan. I appreciate it.

Now, before we jump into the lesson, did you  know that every week we create lessons to help  

you to understand fast-spoken English, be  understood by anyone, and connect to the  

world? Subscribe now so that every week you  don't miss a single one, and we will help you  

to reach your English goals whether it is  to pass a test or just speak confidently!

Now, Josh, why should a learner take one of these proficiency tests?

If you do this formalized test, they do kind of force you

into uncomfortable things and hopefully you consider it a growing experience.

That's one thing that I kind of like about teaching these tests is that

it gives you clear goals, you know, like saying you want to be fluent

in English, saying you want to speak more English, want to learn more vocabulary.

I was teaching advanced level students in the States.

And you know, it's it's hard

to kind of really measure your progress when you get to that higher level.

You know, they're at a very advanced level of English, but they're still not happy.

You know, they they feel like there's still things missing

and then it just becomes really hard to track.

What am I missing? What I need to do?

And so these tests, while they're pretty stressful

and you know, for some people, they they take up quite a bit of time.

I think for a lot of people, it is a kind of proof of what you did.

You know, like of your accomplishments.

How can learners choose what is the best test for them?

Yeah, it's a good question. You know, I would say that,

of course, figure out what you need to test for

and ask that institution what tests they take, you know?

So that's the most practical thing.

If you want to go to the University of South Dakota, check what they

their requirements are,

see what tests they take and then decide which one you want to take.

one thing I will say about these tests

IELTS and TOEFL in particular, is that the they are pretty dense.

And what I mean by that is that it's hard

to figure out what's going on in these tests.

It takes a bit of time.

You really have to like sit down one day or two days and just

and just kind of spend the day wrapping your head around the test.

You know what type of questions there are? How long is it?

What do you have to do? Checking a sample test, it takes...

So I mean, the total test takes three and a half hours to finish.

So I mean, that's that's a long time.

And then you have to learn all this stuff, you know, like the types of questions

there are, how long they are, which you're expected to know.

The one that has the lowest barrier of entry

in terms of like learning about is the new one, the Duolingo English test.

That's the one that to me, is the easiest one to understand.

You'll take a practice test.

There's only ten different question types.

It's pretty clear what you have to do.

It's pretty refreshing after doing TOEFL and IELTS, to be honest.

But yes, that's the one that's a little less dense.

And you know, you kind of you.

You get it quickly.

So if you're a student on your own

and you have a choice, I would say that that one is probably

the one that that you can really wrap your head around the fastest.

Yeah, I think that such a big part of taking this test is not only

having the information, like knowing enough

English, knowing the grammar rules and all these things, but actually knowing

having those kind of like meta skills of being able to manage your time

while you're taking the test of knowing what the different sections are of knowing

the what do you call it, the scoring for the different sections.

And so like, what are the

what is the Examiner going to be looking for in your your answer

and making sure that you're hitting all those different things.

Feeling a little nervous  before a test is completely  

normal and can even help you focus!  But when suffering from test anxiety,  

feelings of worry and self-doubt can interfere  with your test-taking performance. As you've seen,  

English learners like you have many different  options to choose from, such as the IELTS,  

TOEFL, Cambridge Exams, and the Duolingo  test. If you want to know the main differences  

between them, then I recommend you check  out this lesson over on our Instagram.

Now, regardless of the test that you choose,  

here are some practical tips if  you are considering taking a test.

But one thing is that I would say to set a set a date.

You know, that you want to take the test.

Setting a date will make it a little bit more real, you know,

and you'll be like, OK, well, so I had to know all this stuff by this date.

And then you want to make a plan about how you want to study.

Usually I recommend people have a kind of overall plan general kind of overall plan,

not very specific, but just do something like,

you know, how many tests you plan on taking before the tests,

how many practice questions you want to answer.

What courses you want to take? Very general.

And and then what I would do is try to set up

your schedule on a Sunday.

I always give the example of people

who are on a diet and they cook all their lunches on Sunday.

They have them all prepped and ready to go.

Go. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, they don't have to think

they could just take their lunch and not think about it.

You want to do the same thing for TOEFL because what's going to happen is is that.

Every day you're going to sit in front of the computer

and you're going to say, OK, time for me to study TOEFL.

What am I going to do?

And then you're spending 10, 20 minutes trying to look at what you're going to do.

It's much better to kind of plan everything out for the week.

So, you know, OK, on Monday,

I'm going to I'm going to do this video and answer these questions.

On Tuesday, I'm going to do this video and answer these questions, on Wednesday

I'm going to do this again.

So you kind of know what to do every day.

And then you kind of tweak it as you go.

You learn every week like, OK, studying. A lot of times when I meet students,

they'll say that they're going to study four hours a day. You know, some crazy,

you know, I would say, I would recommend being very practical.

If you're introducing something new in your life,

it's going to be hard to

to kind of make a habit of anything new, be hard to make a habit of.

So anyway, just just take it slow and expect that

it's not going to go as planned, and that's totally OK.

You know, that's the thing is that most people would take these tests

they have lives, you know, they're a student,

they're their parents, you know, so.

So you want to try to be practical and try to plan about an hour

a day of studying.

So that would be my big advice just to be practical.

Don't expect to study four hours a day.

Nobody wants to study four hours a day and and take it one week at a time

and kind of see how it goes, but definitely set a date as well

- to make it more real. If you're enjoying this lesson,  

there's so much more. Josh and I also shared  our experience taking the proficiency tests  

for Japanese and Catalan and I even took  a TOEFL and Duolingo mock speaking test  

and Josh evaluated my performance. If you  are curious to know how I did on those,  

then you can listen to the full interview for FREE  and follow along with an interactive transcript,  

by downloading the RealLife App! You might  be surprised to find out that these are  

even a challenge for native speakers! But, wait, that's not all. With the  

RealLife English App, you can also  speak in English anytime, anywhere  

with someone in another part of the world! As Josh told me, getting regular speaking  

practice is an essential part of passing  any exam! It's not enough just to study. 

So download the app now for free by  clicking here or in the description below. 

Or you can simply search for RealLife English  in the Apple App or Google Play store.

So, here are some quick thoughts  about proficiency tests.

Number one: Take a practice test and kind of gauge where you're at.

See how much you think you need to improve

and then take it from there. Yeah.

So I would gauge where you're at first before you start, you know,

making a three month study plan, you might not need it.

Number two: You have that kind of as a target, and it also just gives you

some accountability and pressure.

I mean, I know, I did like the C1 for Catalan.

And just having that knowing that was coming up and everything,

it was kind of like the,

you know, the kick that I needed to sit down and study every day, you know.

Number three: A teacher doesn't

hold the magic key to the secret strategy that

that's all you need, which is a myth anyway.

But you know, it's

that secret strategy you need to to get this question right all the time.

And finally, number four: I think the the European scale is a nice one.

I think the CEFR scale that goes, you know, A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2

is a valuable scale, and I think C1 is a reasonable

place to put the line where if you have a C1 certification,

I think you can pretty reasonably say to anyone, Hey, like,

I'm fluent in this thing

and not be unreasonable.

But that said, like I showed up to Austria with a C1 certification in German,

and I went to like a normal like a farmer's market

and I died like it was just brutal.

Like they were speaking to me in dialect and I had, someone gave me a

like a two minute speech on how to take care of a basil plant.

And the only word I picked up was water.

And this is with the C1 certification.

So like, is that fluency?

Well, like I could, I could handle the whole graduate degree in German.

So I think reasonably so.

But did it feel like fluency like, hell no, it was awful.