TOEFL: how to score 119 out of 120

Hello guys

and welcome to my channel.

Something amazing happened last week.

One of our students who took classes with Jonathan,

who is our teacher who prepares

people for TOEFL

and helps them learn English

This student scored

119 out of 120 on TOEFL

I'm gonna call her now

she's based in Italy

and I'm gonna ask her

everything about her TOEFL experience

tips and tricks

and I'll ask her some advice to you guys.

If you're interested, please continue watching.

Could you tell a litle how you prepared

or what was your level of English

before you decided to take TOEFL.

I studied foreign languages and literature

at the university.

English was my first language of studying

I graduated in American literature.

I hope my level was fine

before preparing for the TOEFL

I was not sure however.

It's very specific,

I had to go through all parts

how to carry out the task.

It is an important thing.

It can be your mother tongue

It is not easy to understand

the phrases.

I know that a couple of teachers

like native speakers

took TOEFL

and ended it scoring 115

because there are a lot of tricks you should know.

How long overall

did it take to prepare for TOEFL?

2 months

I was working in the main time

I could not prepare like

24 hours per day

But I did every day.

Just to understand the tasks

and practice during the last three months

I just practiced.

Did you download practice tests?

I downloaded something

I found something online.

Cracking the TOEFL

after watching your video.

And I and Jonathan had

a session

What did you do during the session?

I wanted to focus on the speaking part

because at the university

we usually write a lot

I was quite sure about the writing part

especially for the essay.

Because that's what we do at the university

But I was not sure about the speaking part.

I wanted to prepare more for speaking

and he gave me some tips

and some hints.

especially not to panic

That's so important.

What about writing? Did you have anyone to check it?

Jonathan checked two essays

and a task

and he said I was on the right track.

I was doing just fine.

I was quite happy with that.

No problem with that.

I know how to use the connectors.

That's very important.

You just have to learn to insert them

in every sentence.

That's typical for TOEFL.

How much did you score in every section?

30 in Reading

29 in Listening

It's strange because I thought

it was the best section

It is always like that

I thought writing my best part, scored 27.

And then

30 in Speaking.

That's amazing

It's amazing that you scored 30 on writing

I think it's really difficult.

You never know what TOEFL exam makers

want you to write.

and how they're going to access it.

Depends on who's checking your essay.

I guess so but

I was afraid because

I didn't have time

to check and to reread

the essay because

I wrote like 600 words.

I was like writing, writing

I didn't check.

That's one of the tricks.

Exceeding the word limits

Exactly

Jonathan and I

we had a competition

about typing

and the speed of typing

I was faster than he

And it wasn't my mother tongue.

That's amazing.

Congrats.

Great score.

Have you used the tip when you start speaking later?

So you could hear first questions

I guess I entered

in the middle of other part

When I was doing the listening,

there were some people

who were doing the speaking part.

That was a bit disturbing.

But then I heard something.

Also the testors

they told us

please have your break but

come into the room before the break stops.

I entered like

20 minutes before

the end of my break

I could hear others speaking.

I could hear something about space

and okay, maybe it is somethig about the universe

Great

Everybody's using that tip.

It's really helpful.

Can you name like

3 resources that you used

a session with Jonathan

to have feedback on your speaking

Cracking TOEFL

and what else did you use?

like where did you find practice tests?

Did you downloaded books?

I downloaded lots of books

then I found the book, maybe it's not in the top

5 books for TOEFL

but it was useful because there are some resources

online

and it's the guide

Complete guide to the TOEFL test

by Bruce Rogers

You can find all the CDs online

and that's really useful.

You don't want to spend a lot of money

on books.

You just download the books

and everything is online

that's really useful.

You don't need to wait for somebody to ship the book

If you want just to practice

more you can download or buy the official guide

it's fine

but the more you have,

the better.

That's true

What are you going to use your TOEFL for?

Are you going into a foreign university?

I'd like to apply for phD

courses in Canada,

in the USA or in the UK.

I thought TOEFL was the best option

for all those three.

Fingers crossed with your PhD

When is your application round? November?

December or January

I'm writing a project now.

Now that I've done this one.

Maybe I have to take another exam.

GRE

for the US

That's a more complicated one.

I passed GMAT

pretty much the same

a little more complicated

They just want me to score well

in the rhetoric part

not in maths

That's a relief

Cool

Maybe you can give some advice to people

who're watching my channel

and praying to score the same score you have

First of all I was really nervous

at the beginning so

for the reading part

it is normal to be a bit anxious

I don't know how I scored 30 out of 30

in the reading part

because I was really anxious

at the beginning and

everyone was coming

Just keep focuced on

what you're reading

even though it could be really difficult

because I noticed that the first

article was

quite easy

a lot about art and cinema

but the second one was

a mess and the third was complicated.

Focus on what you're doing

and don't think about the reading passage

when you go to the listening

Keep focused on what you're doing.

This is the first tip that I can

give them

Prepare as much as possible

continue to write

and write down all the words

that you don't know

that you'd like to use in you

essay

For example, I studied

some idiomatic expressions

that I didn't know

or that I'd like to use in my essay.

And learn them by heart.

And also some

During the speaking part

In think in the second part

In the second task

I used some old sayings

or idiomatic expessions

I think it was useful

for example, I don't know

to kill two birds with one stone

something like that.

It could be impressive also

as an ending for an essay.

Very useful tip

I didn't use it

I have a blog

in English

So I usually write on my blog

just to keep practice in writing.

So maybe you can start

just by writing something

his own thoughts,

his own ideas.

Something like that.

We can actually leave a link to your blog

Maybe you could write about your TOEFL experience

on your blog

Oh yeah

People will also read it.

Cool, thank you so much

You have the best results so far

Congrats

That's amazing.

All the best for your GRE

I hope you get into phD program.

The United States, Canada, the UK

I hope so

The scholarship maybe

In the States

PhD is 99% funded.

That should be fine.

I'm not sure about Canada.

Probably

At least it's better than in Italy

I think the most important thing

about TOEFL is that

it gives you the possibility of

going abroad.

And doing whatever you want.

Now I'm more confident.

I'm not usually as confident

as I should

But now that I've passed

with great results

I'm more confident.

My advice is just give it

take the exam

and see what happens

because it's really for your future.

Now you have like an official proof

that you're a great English speaker

You can do that.

Thank you so much

because I found your youtube channel

by chance

like just typing TOEFL

like in suggestions

and it was really useful

especially for my own character.

I need some "you can do that".

And it's what Jonathan said.

Thank you so much

I'm glad we could help

Keep me posted.

if you have any updates

please feel free to write an email,

say "hey, I got into this program".

That would be great.

Thank you so much