Beginning Again

Malvika’s challenge was to find the right resource to help prepare her for the TOEFL. In April, she was reading articles from Arts and Letters daily to get herself used to the English language. But by early May, she found out about NoteFull from a friend…

In fact, her friend found NoteFull just one day before taking his TOEFL. His main struggle was with the speaking section. And although he found our videos helpful, he didn’t have much time to practice what he learned. But he ended up scoring a 108!

He told her that there was only one reason he could even be just a little bit confident on the speaking section. And it was because he followed the speaking structures from the NoteFull videos as much as he could.

This was all the proof Malvika needed to join the NoteFull team…

Finding Help

In early May, she found her TOEFL solution in our 3-Step TOEFL Mastery Program. She found that it had everything she needed to defeat the TOEFL. The strategies for the reading sections were very helpful for her. For the listening section, the 7 or 8 YouTube videos on common TOEFL topics were very useful to her as well.

For the speaking, she did something very clever. She took notes on all of the structures that NoteFull provides. And on her test day, she went in a few minutes early before her speaking section started. Then she wrote down a rough version of the structures. That way all she had to do when she heard the question was fill in the blanks. Great idea, Malvika!

For the writing section, she followed the pattern that she learned from the 3-Step Mastery Program exactly. 

Inside the 3-Step Mastery Program, there are 180 sample speaking questions. They are all divided into different categories based on the type of question. Joseph had always told her that instead of going through all 180 possible speaking questions, she should just go through 20 again and again until she could answer them all with confidence. She took his advice to heart and went through 1-2 questions in each category. That way she covered all the possible types of questions.

A month later on the 1st of June, Malvika went in for her first TOEFL. But the night before, she ran into a problem. She hadn’t picked up her new passport from the passport office yet! So, the morning of her test she had to rush to pick it up and ended up being late.

If the TOEFL was taken in private then this wouldn’t have been a problem. But when Malvika made it to the listening section, everyone else was on the speaking section. So she could barely hear any of the questions over everyone else talking. Feeling like this was going to poorly affect her score, she chose to leave during the break.

But this wasn’t an easy choice for her to make. Leaving the TOEFL that day was the first time she had quit anything. She was very upset and her confidence took a big hit…

But she wasn’t going to stop there! Malvika signed up to take the TOEFL again on the 6th of July and started studying hard. She ended up taking 5 practice tests to get ready for the next attempt. On July 1st, she was able to score a 113 on one of her practice tests. With a score like that she was able to go into her test on the 6th with her confidence restored!

On Their Way

On July 6th, Malvika got her dream score of 112! Incredible! 

“If you’re struggling with reading, instead of doing the practice questions, you could also read some articles from Arts and Letters Daily or download the NY Times application on your phone and read some articles from there. I used to use NY times a lot for reading. It will help you to read very long passages and build reading speed as well. For listening, listen to some podcasts or watch videos on YouTube that are related to TOEFL topics. For speaking, once you speak review it and see how you can improve. Maybe you were judging yourself when you were speaking, and that makes you go blank sometimes. For writing, practice a few questions and reading articles will help your writing as well.”

Now that she’s done with the TOEFL, she is on her way to getting her GRE so she can attend graduate school. Malvika wanted to share a few more helpful tips with anyone preparing for the TOEFL:

• “I would recommend not to study one day before the TOEFL. Just take a day off and relax.”

• “In the 10-minute break, have a light snack…”

• “Don’t drink too much water before the exam because you cannot go to the bathroom in between the test.”

• “I think TOEFL is more about being calm and focused than about knowing a lot of English. The morning I had to appear for the exam, I got up early to sit peacefully and listen to some soft music. I didn’t touch any books.”
• And finally,“…please make sure you have your TOEFL confirmation letter and passport with you…”

Thank you for the great advice! We wish you the best in all you do, Malvika!

Here For You

Malvika’s story is a great example of how life can sometimes get in the way of your TOEFL success. That’s why we put every ounce of our over 10 years’ worth of knowledge into crafting each one of our programs. That way when things do happen like what happened to Malvika, you have a powerful resource to fall back on that will help you bounce right back to success!

Wherever your TOEFL journey may take you, we’re here to keep you on the path. The path to your dream scores!

To get started, you can try out:

Diamond Training for ALL TOEFL sections – This is the new version of the 3-Step TOEFL Mastery program that Malvika used. Click to see how we’ve improved it to help you reach your dream scores even faster!

Share your story

Your success IS coming too!

Review these success stories often to keep you inspired. Study the advice each success story gives for specific guidance. Register for the NoteFull courses you need to get your dream TOEFL score. And, stay in touch with us every step of the way.

We’re here to help and will support you UNTIL you pass. We want to be one of the FIRST to congratulate you when you earn your dream TOEFL score. And, when that happens, we can’t wait to invite you to be our next success story so YOU can inspire 100s of others just like Malvika.

To learn how NoteFull can help you: click here for our getting started with NoteFull guide.

To reach out to us for more personal guidance: click here to email us through our contact us page.