THE TRUTH ABOUT TOEFL AND IELTS

By: Fernando Calle

A lot of you may have many goals, hopes and objectives; personal as well as professional. Many of you plan to study abroad, get a masters or doctorate or maybe do an internship. This is when the TOEFL and IELTS comes into play, depending upon where you want to go.

The TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) is an English language proficiency exam produced by the ETS, the same organization that develops the GRE (an exam for grad school admissions) and several other tests. Over 9000 institutions around the world accept TOEFL scores. For schools in the United States, the majority of schools surveyed stated they preferred TOEFL scores over scores of other English-language tests.

The IELTS (International English Language Testing System) is another English language proficiency exam jointly owned by the British Council and IDP: IELTS Australia and Cambridge English Language Assessment. There are two versions of the IELTS: the IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training. IELTS Academic is for people applying for higher education or a profession. IELTS General Training is for people traveling to English-speaking countries for secondary education or work experience.

Now a lot of students of course want to achieve very high scores and seek for tutoring and preparation.You must understand that a Tutor's job is to provide tools, tips and as many scenarios of practicing possible your scheduled time allows. He/She also must be experienced because the approach of methodology is very different than just teaching regular English classes. Also you must be aware that the tutor can not take the test for you and that you must sacrifice time and do your part, which means follow through with the exercises and homework given. A tutor should also assess your skills and evaluate your strengths and weak points and focus on those. As I mentioned before “if you don't do the work, do not expect the rewards”