This is an old success story 😂 but it shows how long I’ve been helping people in this situation!
Seyma is Turkish and she’s living in New York where she’s applied to a program to be a PhD student.
In 2011, she first took TOEFL and got a score of 104 with a speaking score of 23. Then she took TOEFL again in late December 2012 / early January 2013. This time she got a S24. She didn’t study again because she thought that because she had been living in New York, her English was better – but her speaking score was still just 24.
In mid-February of 2013, her PhD program told her that a score of 24 was unacceptable. She had to have 26 to be accepted.
In late February, she took it again. The next exam was not good; she was very stressed. She didn’t wait for the results of this exam and she wanted to try once more. One week after, she scheduled another TOEFL. During that time in 2013, she got my feedback and found out what her blocks were. (Today, that service is called “Understand How to Fix Fossilized Errors.”)
One week later, in early March 2013, she took TOEFL for the third time. She got a 27 on TOEFL iBT Speaking.
Here’s our interview!
0:45-9:00 – Tell us about your history with TOEFL.
17:20 – What happened the morning of your last TOEFL exam and what did you do to be positive at the exam?
21:25 – If you had gotten another score of 24, what would your future look like now?
27:53 – If you had a friend who was going through a similar situation, what would you suggest that they do?
32:00-33:00 – The importance of a personal relationship with a teacher.