It is very important to practice writing essays before taking the TOEFL iBT. At the beginning, you should concentrate on the form of the essay. As you get better, you need to focus more on the accuracy, i.e. watch your grammar, spelling and punctuation. Finally, you need to work on speed because you only have thirty minutes and the essay is worth about 1/6 of your total score.
Have a look at the following samples:
Why do people go to college?
Some ideas of what to write about for a good score:
- People go to college to prepare themselves for their careers.
- People go to college because they like to learn.
- People go to college because they can meet other people who like to learn.
- People go to college for personal fulfillment.
- People go to college because going to college is an interesting social experience.
Most common errors with this essay topic:
Failure to restate the topic is one of the most common errors. For example, many essays start like this: "I agree with this point..." If we say only this, and do not restate the topic, then the essay scorer will lower your score. We need to say something like this: "I agree that having food that is easy to prepare has improved our lives." Adding this information makes our TOEFL essay stronger!
Many people did not understand the topic. Some people wrote about the difference between college and university and wrote about why people choose to study at a college instead of studying at a university. This interpretation is WRONG. In American English, when we talk about "college," we are generally referring to any four-year program. We often use the words "college" and "university" interchangeably. We need to write about why people want to study at either a college or university.
College is a place that the students can learn more and new knowledge and experience in it. Of course, different people have different reason to study in college. For example, some people want to be to go on a further study after they graduate from the college; some people hope to find a good job after their studying in the college and also some people wish to exchange their present situation through studying in the college. In my opinion, no matter what reason people study in the college for, studying in the college is just a preparation for their future’ life.
First of all, students can learn new knowledge and experiences from the studying in the college. There are many teachers, professors with abundant teaching experience who teach students lots of new knowledge and help them to solve the problems in their study. With their help, student can learn a lot of useful basic and professional knowledge which is very helpful for their future’ work. and study. After they finish their study in the college, students go to work in the society and contribute to the different fields.
Secondly, students can learn how to arrange their own time reasonably. Before their studying in college, their life often arranged by their parents and their study often arranged by their teachers. It is very different for them to live and study in college, because students studying in college have to arrange their life and study by themselves. They have right to arrange their part time, such as when to get up, when is the sport-time, when to finish the assignment etc. This is very important experience for students’ work and life in the future.
Secondly, studying in the college make students having opportunity to live with other student and learn how to cooperate with other people. Usually, people often have uncomfortable feeling to live with a stranger, because they do not know each other and perhaps their habit and personality are different. But for the long run, it is good for them. They have to cooperate with each other and solve a lot of problems they will face together. Gradually, they can learn how to care and understand other people. It is a preparation for students to go to cooperate with other people in the society.
All in all, students not only can learn lots of new knowledge from the books but also can learn much more necessary experience such as how to arrange time and how to cooperate with other people. It is ver important for their future’ wok and life.
First of all, students can learn new knowledge and experiences from the studying in the college. There are many teachers, professors with abundant teaching experience who teach students lots of new knowledge and help them to solve the problems in their study. With their help, student can learn a lot of useful basic and professional knowledge which is very helpful for their future’ work. and study. After they finish their study in the college, students go to work in the society and contribute to the different fields.
Secondly, students can learn how to arrange their own time reasonably. Before their studying in college, their life often arranged by their parents and their study often arranged by their teachers. It is very different for them to live and study in college, because students studying in college have to arrange their life and study by themselves. They have right to arrange their part time, such as when to get up, when is the sport-time, when to finish the assignment etc. This is very important experience for students’ work and life in the future.
Secondly, studying in the college make students having opportunity to live with other student and learn how to cooperate with other people. Usually, people often have uncomfortable feeling to live with a stranger, because they do not know each other and perhaps their habit and personality are different. But for the long run, it is good for them. They have to cooperate with each other and solve a lot of problems they will face together. Gradually, they can learn how to care and understand other people. It is a preparation for students to go to cooperate with other people in the society.
All in all, students not only can learn lots of new knowledge from the books but also can learn much more necessary experience such as how to arrange time and how to cooperate with other people. It is ver important for their future’ wok and life.
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Are parents the best teachers?
This essay has nice organization and good development. The author has some fairly deep ideas about this topic and conveys them well.
Obviously, the first teachers we have in our lives in most cases are our parents. They teach us to walk, to speak, and to have good manners before we reach "the real world." More than even the professional teachers that we have in school, parents are generally the most involved in the development and education of children.
Almost for sure our parents are the best teachers at the beginning of our lives, which actually corresponds to the parents' role in nature. Parents are most committed and involved in teaching their children; they have a kind of instinct to sacrifice a part of themselves for the betterment of their children. They love us and have great patience while passing down their knowledge to us. They wish us a success and thus will not teach us bad things. And of course, implicit learning occurs when children unconsciously copy some of their parents' habits and styles of behavior.
During the second stage of child development, adolescence, parents can still be in the best position to offer advice even though the children might not accept it. In this case, perhaps the child's friends would be the best teachers. Adolescents are notoriously rebellious in many cultures and may automatically reject any advice from their parents. My first marriage for instance, was solely a matter of doing the opposite when my parents tried to intrude in offering their advice. So in such matters, parents should be much more flexible and be rather the partners with their children. So we can see that being a teacher of growing child become more and more complicated case as the time passes and many parents are simply not able to meet the increased demands.
On the other hand, I would say that parents are not professional teachers and they tend to be very biased by their love of their children. So wishing good things and an easy life may prevent children from maturation. In any case, parents usually can present only one viewpoint of the world, while good teaching should be based on different attitudes. Thus, when children go to school and have a great diversity of teachers, they learn much more than their parents could probably give them. Furthermore, once our parents get older, they become more conservative and cannot always be objective in regard to modern trends and fashions. Thus we need to take their advice with caution during that period. However, some kind of intuition which I believe shared between relatives about what everybody needs and great love which exists in a families still makes our parents very good teachers and advisers at any time.
In conclusion, while parents are not the ideal teachers, and well-rounded children will generally need a great diversity of teachers in their lives in order to have a more accurate view of the world, parents are generally the most committed of all teachers and have the greatest emotional investment in their children and their future.
Some ideas of what to write about for a good score:
- Parents generally have a greater commitment to their children than their teachers do.
- Parents might not be impartial (fair) with their children.
- Parents are not professional teachers.
- Teachers are professionals.
- Teachers usually do not have enough time to spend with their students.
Most common errors with this essay topic:
Failure to restate the topic is one of the most common. For example, many essays start like this: "I agree with this point..." We need to say something like this: "I agree that having food that is easy to prepare has improved our lives."
Very few people stated that parents are very important because children have so much contact with them in the first years of their lives. Most psychologists agree that these years are fundamental to the emotional and mental growth of the child.
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Food is now easier to prepare. Is this a good thing?
Some ideas of what to write about for a good score:
- This type of food is usually not as nutritious as fresh food.
- This type of food is usually more expensive than fresh food.
- Preparing this type of food is usually much faster than preparing food "from scratch."
- Cooking is a time when we can spend time with our families. If we spend less time cooking, we will spend less time with our families.
- Cooking can also be a form of relaxation that we will lose if we spend less time cooking.
- This type of food is a reflection of the pressures and stress of life in modern cities.
- Having the option to prepare food more quickly can actually contribute to stress in our lives since we will feel the pressure to do more in less time by using these foods.
Failure to restate the topic is one of the most common errors. For example, many essays start like this: "I agree with this point..." We need to say something like this: "I agree that having food that is easy to prepare has improved our lives."
Many essays talked about the importance of good nutrition. This point is related to the topic, but it is only a point, not the topic. In other words, we should not write an entire essay about the importance of good nutrition, just one paragraph.
Some essays talked about the dangers of the technology associated preparing food, like radiation from a microwave oven. This is a minor point and should not be developed in the essay.
More TOEFL Essay Samples
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