The saddest e-mails I get from students who need to take the TOEFL are those that say, “I need to take the TOEFL in three weeks. Can you help me?” I received another of them this morning.

It takes time to develop language ability. It takes time to develop academic skills. And it takes time to learn test-taking strategies. Three weeks, or sometimes even three months, are not enough!

As soon as students knows that they need to take the TOEFL, they should find a way to evaluate (measure) their English ability, academic skills, and test-taking strategies. Here are two ways to do that:

1. 1.Take the TOEFL practice test. You can do this several times if you want to measure your improvement.
   

2. 2.Talk to a good, experienced TOEFL tutor. A good tutor can help you evaluate your language, academic, and test-taking skills and suggest ways to improve them.
   

The best plan would be to take the TOEFL practice test, then talk to a tutor to have him or her help you develop a plan to prepare for the TOEFL.

Please, don’t wait!

If you have any questions or comments, please write! My e-mail address is warren@successfulenglish.com.

Warren Ediger