By David White

If you are an international student who intends to apply to a university in an English-speaking country like the United States of America, you can expect to be tested on your English language skills. Colleges require this step because they wish to determine whether you can read, speak, and write English well enough to succeed in their programs. Schools typically rely on one of two standardized tests: the Test of English as a Foreign Language (or TOEFL) or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

Perhaps you have heard quite a bit or relatively little about one or both of these exams. These tests assess similar skill sets, but beyond that, there are significant differences that could leave you wondering which exam is right for you. If you are not sure which standardized test you should take, it can be useful to explore their similarities and differences before making your decision.

Similarities
In the broadest sense, both the IELTS and the TOEFL assess your English-speaking abilities, so if you are confident in your English skills, you will likely do well. 

Differences
When determining which exam is right for you, one of the most important items to take into consideration is the type of learner or test-taker that you are. For instance, the TOEFL is often administered on a computer with little human interaction. If you are not comfortable with computers, or if you type at a slow speed, taking an exam on the computer could affect your overall score.

Similarly, the Speaking portion of the IELTS has a very particular format. As it is computer-based, the TOEFL’s Speaking section involves a microphone that records your answers. The IELTS Speaking portion, however, is conducted with an actual person. 

Most test-takers likely wish to know, “Which exam is easier?” Ultimately, this is a difficult question to answer. As previously mentioned, if you dislike computers, the TOEFL may not be ideal for you. 

In addition, the IELTS may seem more flexible to some students, particularly in regard to context. For example, the questions on the TOEFL assess you on academic knowledge, like that which you have learned in a textbook or classroom environment. The IELTS sometimes involves more familiar or “real world” contexts.

Finally, the IELTS is quite a bit shorter than the TOEFL—a bit under three hours, whereas the TOEFL is about four hours. Make no mistake, both tests are formal measures of your language abilities, and both are rigorous. The most important differences are primarily in their formats.

It is also important to keep in mind that, while the TOEFL is widely available and accepted at nearly every college or university, the IELTS may not be. Before making your decision, speak with each of the schools to which you are applying, and ask which exam scores they accept. If you are free to take either assessment, make sure whichever you choose is available in your area and is offered regularly, to allow for repeat testing should your results require it. 

Good luck!

David White is a contributing writer for UniversityTutor.com, the world's largest global marketplace for finding independent tutors. 

By David White

For the average college student, the summer is a welcome vacation from classes, intellectual discourse, and homework. This is likely true for international students, as well, though the extended break may come with unwelcome anxiety, as the downtime can serve as a disruption in building or improving your English language skills.

While you may not be engaged in academic activities over the course of the summer, that does not mean that you cannot continue to improve your English. The following activities are a great way to blend language learning with summertime relaxation:

1. Walking tours
Whether you live in a city or a rural area, there is a very good chance that you are close to a museum, library, or historical society. These groups often offer presentations and historical tours at little or no cost. Tours can be a great way to explore your temporary home, while also practicing your language skills with native speakers.

If there is a particular subject that interests you, do an online search for groups or organizations in your area that focus on that subject. For example, if you live in Boston, you might search for “historic house tours.” You will have the opportunity to get outside, get some exercise, and still ask questions and speak with others.

2. Community events
If walking tours do not sound enjoyable, those same groups may offer many other activities that are less physical, but no less educational. If, for example, you looked up the monthly schedule for your local library or bookstore, you would no doubt find a variety of events like reading groups, author presentations, or other events that could help you further develop your conversational skills.

One of the best ways to improve your conversational English (and most other language) skills is to get regular practice in real world environments, with native speakers. Given that, exploring the low-cost or no-cost events in your community is a great way to expand your abilities, while also meeting new people and having fun.

3. Volunteerism
For some international students, the idea of volunteering might seem intimidating, particularly if you are not confident in your language skills. This is entirely understandable, but not all volunteering requires extensive verbal communication. For instance, if there is a charitable organization that you want to support, you could ask if they have any administrative work that you could volunteer to do. This puts you in a social environment wherein you can practice your English, but it also gives you the chance to contribute to your community and support a cause that you feel is deserving.

4. Goal setting
The previous recommendations have focused on social activities that can help improve your language skills, but there are other activities that can be just as effective, like setting reading and writing goals. If you have a schedule set up for yourself over the summer, consider scheduling an hour of reading and/or writing English each day. These activities can include items like writing 800 words each day or reading a certain number of books over the course of the summer. Whatever the activity, it will help you gain more experience with English beyond what you might get just by conversing with native speakers.

5. Group activities
For some people, casual interaction is too informal to be of much use in expanding your language skills. If this describes you, there are other options that are more formal and structured, including summer language classes and study groups. Because you would be joining these groups outside of the usual school year, there is a good chance that there is flexibility when it comes to where and when they are held. For example, if you wanted to join a group for people interested in improving their English grammar and writing, it could be a group that meets at a restaurant or public park to share work or give feedback on writing. 

In this case, you would be getting the best of both worlds: improving your language skills and enjoying the summer with new friends.   

David White is a contributing writer for UniversityTutor.com, the world's largest global marketplace for finding independent tutors. 

by Kate Funk
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The first thing people think of after starting an online study program is freedom! You’ll be able to manage time in the way you want and you will go with your friends whenever you want and spend the days, even before noon, hanging with friends. 

But, the reality has hit you in the face. After the first examinations, you realize that things are not that easy, especially with time planning and the fact that you have to change something in your daily habits if you want to finish college on time. The first thing you should do is to manage your time.

Many students actually don’t know how to behave in an online study setting. They think that everything is easy when you work from home, including making time for studying and meeting with professors. But working from home can be successful only with the precise planning of time and every needed step in order to improve performance and achieve success. Here are some useful tips on how to arrange your time for excellent results.

1. Adopt a place that will allow you to learn best. Usually, people don’t change anything in their rooms, expecting that learning from home will provide easy studying, but that’s the first mistake. You should find a place where you can learn without any distractions. That can be a place where you used to successfully learn before, like a public library, and your old room in your mom’s home.
2. Predict all possible interruptions. Tell your friends that exams are soon, and restrict all visitations and dropping by. You know your friends and family, and their habits to come to your place to make a small party or just stopping by with the box of beer. Be sure to consider all possible visitations, from visits by your mom to interruptions from a jealous girlfriend.
3. Put all important things on paper and know your priorities. Sometimes the small things can steal more time than the big lessons. Include all paper work, proofreading, video watching  and reading of extra literature in order to learn information not provided in the basic literature. Try to count how much time you’ll spend on each of these tasks and try to predict all possible changes and misunderstandings of the professor's instructions.
4. ​Create a schedule, on paper. Why on paper? Because you will be able to make a scheme of the important overlapping tasks, and you’ll be able to easily combine the lessons and communications with the studying and writing papers. It’s hard to do all of these things on an Excel sheet, for example, so use a pencil and paper for this. 
5. ​Speaking of schedules, plan your small steps, as well as your entire year, in advance. You know when the important tests will be, so you can count how many weeks you have for preparing for every test, and you can include the small meetings and consultations with professors, which must be planned along with the main exams. Small steps are there for an additional reason. When you see a mountain of obligations and dates, you can become overwhelmed and simply stop with all of your planning and learning. Separating your timeline into small steps helps with making a plan, and therefore with accepting even your biggest task.
6. ​Include all priorities into your plan, in case you lose time on something outside of college. This usually means that you can plan everything well, and then, for example, someone in your family gets sick and you spend weeks helping him. You should know what you’ll need to do in such an instance regarding exams, and what can be delayed or skipped due to unplanned circumstances. Sometimes it is good to forget about receiving a good evaluation and focus only on finishing an assignment on time.
7. ​Include time for walking and practicing between long study lessons. Yes, you are human and you need  fresh air and time away from study. So, don’t just sit on your chair and forget to move. After a couple of hours, go for a walk or spend some time with friends and family. That will clear your mind and prepare you to learn new material. This is not wasting time, especially if it's been included in your initial plan.
8. ​Always check the success of your study routine. If  you're not satisfied with the results of your last test, change something. Include your feelings and emotions, too. If you feel isolated in your room, change the place you do your reading and studying for the next exam. If you can learn only in the public library, go there. Sometimes things are not as we first perceived them and not all study habits are good for all people. Find your own way.​

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Kate Funk is an experienced educator and part-time blogger who wants to share the experience she has gained at   Aussiessay, a company that offers assignment help for students. Kate is always ready for new challenges, especially those related  to  discovering and implementing new educational techniques.

By Joan Selby

English is one of the most common languages used by various countries all over the world. Known as the universal language, almost everyone knows at least one English word or two, or is fluent enough to speak it in their own culture to guide tourists. But sometimes, there are people who don't speak English at all, or aren't very fluent and would like to be. That's why there are language classes that help with just that. Many people would love to learn the English language to become diverse and be able to communicate with more people, as well as maybe traveling purposes. Plus, it does help knowing other languages, especially one that everyone uses!
Being a challenging language to learn, it does take time to learn how to write properly and in correct grammar, so here are some ways on how to improve your writing skills as an ESL student.


Preparation

Paper or laptop for basis of writing
Multicolor pens or pencils
Thesaurus or dictionary
A friend! This is actually optional, but it's best to learn together.
Some quality novels or books
Improving Writing Skills


Enhance vocabulary

Just like when you were young and learning your first language, learning new words and their meaning will help with your writing skills. Using your thesaurus, try learning at least one new word a day to acquaint yourself with the English language. Incorporate the words you use in daily conversations and see where that takes you! Writing sample sentences will also help improve your writing skills. The more words you know, the more vast your imagination and creativity with the language will be, so open up your thesaurus and get to writing. 


Learn from mistakes

When learning a language, may it be English or any other, you will make mistakes. From grammar to punctuation, having errors when writing or speaking is inevitable. Even in your own native tongue do we make mistakes! That's why we must learn not to be so bothered by it and give up. Learn from your mistakes and try to correct them. That way, you'll know what not to do the next time. Nobody's perfect, not even those who are native in the English language, so don't kick yourself over the mistakes you do when writing or speaking, because that's just how the process works.


Read

Your teacher probably told you that the best thing to do when studying English is to read and keep reading. Even when learning your first language, you must have started reading in order to learn the proper grammar and words! Reading quality books will have you learn the ways on how to write properly, with good grammar and creativity in your words. Read it out loud and slow, that way you'll be able to also learn proper pronunciation as well. There's no need to rush when reading, especially when English isn't your first language. It isn't a contest, so try to understand and study the correct form of grammar and punctuation, as well as your pronunciation with words. That is where your thesaurus will help you, too!

Check out bestsellers and critically-acclaimed books, as well as classics that will help enhance both your grammar skills and vocabulary. That way, you'll start penning your own stories and get to learn how to write properly as well. You can find a lot of these books in your local library to borrow for free, or bookstores that you can get deals and discounts from. You can even join a book club and enhance both your writing and communication skills.


Read backwards

It may seem quite odd that reading backward will help you learn how to write, but trust me, it works! Reading backwards will help you understand the flow of words, as well as you being able to focus on the individual words you read. That way, you will be able to easily identify mistakes. And it is said that reading backwards helps you read slower and lets you understand the text better than if you were reading normal and at a quick pace. While it might sound weird if reading it backwards out loud, it will help and that's what matters.


Feedback
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Feedback from your teacher or loved ones who are fluent in English will always help, because you will get a different perspective on your work. They may criticize it or identify mistakes, or they may commend the good grammar and content, but either way, having someone checks your work is an effective way to improve on your writing skills. You get to share your experiences with others, as well as get feedback for what you need to improve with your writing, so it's a win-win situation.
Do an activity and write something about it, then share it to your teacher for evaluation. A little bit of tips will always help you improve your writing. Don't worry about being embarrassed; they are just there to help improve your writing skills! If you are hesitant with sharing it to others, have a trusted family member or friend fluent in English check your writing and grammar, as well as a teacher if you have one, just to start. Once you feel more confident with your words, you may even post your work online for others to give their verdict.

Whether you use a laptop or paper for writing, the things you can write about to practice the English language are limitless. With these writing techniques, you will hopefully be able to enhance your skills in the language, as well as improve your imagination and creativity when it comes to thinking in English. Though it may be challenging, it's definitely worth it, so write up a storm and try these techniques to help yourself out!

Joan Selby is a an English grammar tutor at Edugeeksclub.com which provides online assistance to students. A writer by day and reader by night. Find her on Twitter and Facebook.