TOEFL essay: Some students prefer to study alone. Others prefer to study with...

English as a Second Language Preparation for and help with the TOEFL® Test and
#1

Some students prefer to study alone. Others prefer to study with a group of students. Which do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Despite of being a lot of advantages in a study with a group of students, I would prefer to study alone. But certainly that does not mean that it would be better for everybody. The choice will depend on students’s character and brain abilities.

There are some subjects where existence of opponent is essential. For example, group exercises are vital and indispensable for language study. You can not start to speak foreign language fluently just after reading grammar and dictionary. Study with a group is effective as well because you can see the achievement of other students and compare it with your own progress. By observing other students results it is possible to find out your own strong and poor qualities.

By studying alone nobody can help you, listen you, correct you or give you advice. Nevertheless, at the same time you are just with yourself and nobody can disturb or divert you. There is no such convenient and comfortable conditions as working alone. In that case it is possible to take a break at any time, repeat each exercise that is difficult for you as much as you want, determine the sequence of studied material. Nobody knows your abilities and learning requirements better than you. The better you are mastering by you own, the more independent you are getting. Thus, simultaneously ability of independently thinking and decision making is improved. It is known that the most incredible world inventions were made by scientists, who worked alone at their own projects.

What about me, so the most essential condition for myself is silence. Furthermore, in general I have the character property to understand and remember words and equations more slowly than other students. That is why I choose self-study.

TOEFL listening discussions: How long should the student’s essays be?

#2

HI,

Despite THERE being a lot of advantages in a study with a group of students, I would prefer to study alone. But certainly that does not mean that it would be better for everybody. The choice will depend on THE/A students’s character and brain abilities.

There are some subjects where THE existence of AN ADVERSARY/opponent is essential. For example, group exercises are vital and indispensable for language study. You cannot start to speak A foreign language fluently just after reading grammar and dictionary. Study with a group is effective as well because you can see the achievement of other students and compare it with your own progress. By observing other students’ results it is possible to find out your own strong and WEAK qualities.

By studying alone nobody can help you, listen TO you, correct you or give you advice. Nevertheless, at the same time you are just BY yourself and nobody can disturb or divert you. There ARE no MORE convenient and comfortable conditions THAN working alone. In that case it is possible to take a break at any time, repeat each exercise that is difficult for you as much as you want, determine the sequence of studied material. Nobody knows your abilities and learning requirements better than you. The MORE you are IN CONTROL ON you own, the more independent you GET/BECOME. Thus, simultaneously THE ability TO THINK independently and MAKE A decision is improved. It is WELL known that the most incredible world inventions were made by scientists, who worked alone at their own projects.

What about me? The most essential condition for myself is silence. Furthermore, in general I have the TYPE OF character to understand and remember words and equations more slowly than other students. That is why I choose self-study.

Alan

#3

Some students prefer to study alone. Others prefer to study with a group of students. Which do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Everyone has their own ways to study. They know what the best ways that they can get new knowledge or information, what subjects they are good at or not. I do not deny the advantages of studying alone, which have many good points such as I can do or learn what I like without someone’s disagreements. But I would choose to study with a group of student.
First, studying with a group of students, we can help and support together. Nobody can be good at all of subjects in school. Maybe, they are good at math, physics or chemistry but they aren’t good at literature, history or biology. We have also our own advantages. That’s why we can balance our level of studying.
Second, when we study with a group, we must unite to finish our work as well as possible. It’s called the team’s spirit. For example, when I did not finish my tasks yet at the deadlines, which would be influenced the group’s grade. That means I don’t have responsibilities for what I worked and my group. If I do not want to kick out the group, I must study and finish my homework as well. That’s also the good way to train my social skills.
It can be argued that studying with a group, I must follow those steps that my team ordered or I must learn something I am not interested in. Sometime, it’s waste of time to decide what my team would learn today, this week, etc. Or just for simple reason, we meet together to have gossips not our lessons. It’s true but I’ll do that in the rest time. I can not sell my knowledge to buy these conversations.
To sum up, nobody perfects. We have our advantages and disadvantages. It’s better for us to study with a group, instead of studying alone. When I don’t know or understand something, my friends can help or support me. Why I have to study alone while I have many supports from my team?

#4

I think everyone of us has their own a way of learning. Many people prefer studying with group to studying alone, they like to have their classmates nearby who can help or encourage them. In this way, they can achieve a new good results. Personally, I really accord with above the way of learning.
There are a lot of advantages in a study with a group of classmates. First of all, when I encounter a difficult about something that I also try my best but can not pass over, I can share these to my friends and we would solve these obstruction with each other. In more important, I could learn method of solution for difficult question. Secondly, Study with a group not only help each other with answers but also share team working skill. This is quite important skill that I work for a company or a organization in the future. Moreover, Study with a group is indispensable for foreign language learning. For example, learning English, we usually have to speaking with member in group so our English could be more fluent.
For the above reasons, I like to study with my friends. Each person is different, however, the whole choices will depend on your abilities.

#5

Part of the reason you will score lower on this essay is because of your vocabulary usage. Here is an article I wrote that I think applies directly to you:

Idiomaticity of Language and the TOEFL iBT Speaking and Writing by Michael Buckhoff

In terms of language use, the human raters on TOEFL iBT speaking and writing will judge the Idiomaticity of your language use. But what does this mean? They will determine how natural sounding your speaking and writing is. In other words, would a native speaker express your idea the same way? One of the more difficult hurdles for advanced learners of a new language, idiomaticity of language requires that you avoid unnatural or odd-sounding words and phrases. For example, a native speaker of American English would never say, “Merry New Year?” Or, it would be quite odd to ask a native speaker of American English, “How many years are you since birth?”

Of course, being as natural sounding in your writing and speaking will help you to get a higher score on the TOEFL iBT. It will demonstrate to the human raters that you have had extensive experience using the English language and therefore understand the appropriate words and phrases that should be used in academic contexts.

Despite the importance of this, many of my advanced TOEFL students continue to use expressions like “on the other foot” instead of “on the other hand,” “get a vacation” instead of “take a vacation.”
Consider the following two sentences, one of which was written by an Advanced TOEFL student in my class:

Then usually students have two of three part time jobs needless to pay tax as much as extra work.

Then, some students may have two or three part-time jobs without having to pay taxes for this additional work.

Which sentence sounds more natural to you?

Why do advanced learners have trouble with idiomaticity of language? Most likely, it is because of the students lack of experience with speaking and writing the English language. These same advanced learners often depend heavily on translation dictionaries, further worsening their language use problems. Differences between expressions in languages can cause advanced learners to use odd or unnatural sounding expression.

So, what can you do about this? The answer is simple: immerse yourself in the English language so that you get exposure to natural sounding American English from television shows, movies, music, magazines, newspapers, and books.

#6

Some students prefer to study alone. Others prefer to study with a group of students. Which do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Some students study in a group. Group study may has many advantages like one person may tell a point which is very essential for the other persons to know. In a group, arduous problem can be solved very easily by the cooperation of every student. On the whole, however, I would prefer to study alone because of many reasons.
In case of certain subjects, we need to study alone. Elementary biology and chemistry are such subjects. In these subjects, we have to memorize and engross the facts. It is very difficult to do this in a group. Individual study is required for this memorization. Moreover, in case of history and geography, we have to remember dates, places, names etc. which we can memorize alone and not in a group.
In case of advanced studies, study alone is preferable because before discussing any topic in a group we should have the knowledge about that topic and that is possible only when we study it alone and profoundly. For example, in case of advanced poetry the person should first understand it, study it profoundly and memorize it then he can discuss it in a group.
In concise, group study has its advantages but sometimes individual study is more beneficial specially in case of certain subjects like chemistry, history and geography and in case of advanced study.

SIR, PLEASE CHECK MY ANSWER AND TELL MY MISTAKES. MY TOEFL EXAM IS JUST AFTER 4 DAYS. SIR, I WILL BE REALLY THANKFUL TO YOU.

#7

Your essay, unfortunately, will score around 3.0/5.0 on TOEFL iBT writing. You spent so much time on the counterargument(i.e., why others like to study in groups) that you were not able to give enough reasons to defend your argument. Notice the question did NOT ask you to discuss the advantages of both positions but rather which one you preferred. In fact, it was not really until the end of the essay that you actually began to assert a convincing argument.

Good luck!

Michael

Michael Buckhoff is an ESL and English Professor at California State University, San Bernardino and has been teaching TOEFL preparation courses since 1994

#8

Thank you very much sir. I will try to improve my essay and keep your suggestions in mind.

#9

Hey everybody! I tried to write an essay about the same topic within the timelimit. I would appreciate if someone could have a look at it, unfortunately I have to reach a score of 24/30 and I don’t really know where I’m at.

Studying is an important part of everyone’s education. The way how everyone studies however varies out of personal reasons. In this essay I will explain why in my current situation group work is a minor part of this process and will try to explain where this group work might be useful under different circumstances.

As a postgraduate, the research that I am doing is so complex that I am the expert on my field. Other scientists that are working on the same questions are distributed over the world and, except for conferences, hard to reach. Thus, to study and to improve knowledge of other peoples work mostly means to read papers and publications. As a consequence to stud means to work alone for most of the scientists. In order to establish a group work colleagues would have to begin to work on topics that are not in their interest, hence making the workgroup ineffective.

The group work starts at a later point in the process, when results of a scientists are ‘weaved’ together. In this case the results from more than on person have to be considered and combined. This process requires teamwork and it is a matter of definition if one could call this situation as ‘studying’ as well as the other scientists learn about the results of someone else.

As a undergraduate where learning and studying is on a much lesser complex level group work might be more important and effective: A student that has more knowledge on a topic can share his thoughts with other students. Thus, the group profits from the abilities of each member which probably leads to the faster and better understanding of all subjects.

Concluding, In my present situation group work is to labor intensive. The preferable way to study is to study alone and to work independently on relatively complex subjects. Thus, group work is ineffective and not useful.

#10

The way (how) everyone studies however varies.
I am the expert on my field - In my field, I am an expert …you cannot be the sole expert, the greatest
distributed; scattered would be better
ARE hard to reach
peoples’ work - the work of other people (or peoples if you’re talking about the French, Spanish, Americans …)
means readING papers and publications
Studying means working alone for most of the scientists

Sorry I don’t have the time to go through it all, but you’ve got to do some (NOT major) improvements if you’re planning on getting a high score. Nonetheless, you’re not very far from your goal