Start Here: Your To Do List

I know that you’re excited to dive into the video content. But first, you need to get organized to study.

Step 1: Download, print and organize the study material

It may seem excessive, but you know from your days in university that you do better when you have textbooks to highlight and take notes on. In fact, I’m convinced that one of the reasons why so many adults struggle with TOEFL iBT is simply because they’re trying to learn from digital videos… without a notebook, a notetaking system or any kind of documents to review.

I’ve watched adults study for TOEFL for 11 years. The ones who take notes get better results. The ones who don’t take notes waste their time and later wonder what went wrong.

You need to treat the TOEFL Speaking section the same way that you treated difficult courses in university.

So… Especially if you don’t have a lot of time, you should not skip printing the documents.

Step 2: Download the Phrase Thief documents

Use the link below to download the documents for Tasks 1-4 from Google Drive. You can save them as Microsoft Word Documents. If you want them as Google Docs, let me know by emailing me.

Step 3: Gather these study materials.

To follow me and do the same as I do in my video classes, you must have the following:

3 pens: red, blue and black. Why? Because I color code my notes, and you should too
4 index cards. I suggest 3 inch by 5 inch index cards. Why? Because we’re create visual symbols that help you envision how to talk for each of the 4 speaking responses
Tape. You need clear tape or Scotch tape. Just trust me.
1 notebook. Why? Because you’re going to take notes. Especially if you want to improve quickly, you won’t have time to re-watch video classes. For that reason, you should take excellent notes the first time that you watch.
1 binder. Why? Because you need a place to put all of the pages that you printed above.

Step 4: Set rules with your family to minimize distractions

You will learn much better without interruptions. You must be sitting down with the things on the list above.