Writing Feedback / TOEFL topic: which one do you prefer? studying alone or studying with a teacher. [5]

People have different ideas about either studying alone or studying with a teacher, which entirely depend on one's personality and determination. I would personally rather to study alone for two main reasons. First, self-studying is more challenging and engaging. Second, it confers more control over timing.

The most important point to take into account is that self-studying makes an individual more actively involved in the study process, since he has to understand and analyze the materials by himself. He knows that he has to overcome his problems on his own, and this itself makes him much keener on his studies. Self-studying challenges the person to approach the answers from different angles, find them by trial and error method, or research more by using other study sources such as the Internet. Moreover, it demands more energy and creativeness evoking one's instinctive talents and mental abilities. When someone studies on his own, he intellectually pushes himself to clarify the subject for himself, which is very good for the development of his general brain abilities. For example, back to bachelor education time, we had a tough course. Nobody, including me, could comprehend it. So I decided to study it on my own. I toiled for one week trying to solve the chapter's final questions without any help from others, and I made it. I learned a lot from my failures during many attempts that I made to find the correct answers, and I got the top grade in the class which was far better than others'.

Second, studying alone helps us control our study schedule and pace according to our personal learning capacities, and our optimum leaning time as well. Some people learn well early in the morning, while others do more efficiently during night. Moreover, some can continuously focus on the subject for more than one hour, while others need frequent breaks. Everybody is aware of his own study habits, so he can adapt his study plan to these habits, and get the most out of it. For instance, I have noticed that I am more concentrated on the study issue early in the morning, so I try to use these hours more. However, I do not think any teacher would accept to teach at six a.m.

In conclusion, I prefer to study alone because I think this way we study more actively, and we plan our time more effectively. Although learning from a teacher has its own benefits, I would like to depend on my own.

Writing Feedback / Same amount of money for students' sports activity/ university library? [6]

TOEFL essay
I would appreciate any help. (I am not quite sure about the bold parts.)

Education and scientific achievements are always the first priority of universities, and they cannot fulfill it unless by providing well-equipped and high-tech libraries. I believe university library demands much more amount of money than sports activities do. I think this way for two main reasons. First, library is an indispensable part of university. Second, some study sources and research materials are available only through university library. For these reasons, I feel that it is wiser to finance library more than other recreational activities.

First and foremost, libraries are vital parts of universities, and this is why universities are recognized by the richness and modern technology of their libraries. Nowadays, libraries have to keep up with the most recent progressions and changes in the world of science and technology so as to maintain the university competent among other universities. They have to provide students and professors with the most up-to-date books, journals, computers, search engines, and databases. These all cost a great deal of investment. Furthermore, students almost entirely count on the university library to study for their courses, to do variety of necessary researches and assignments, and even to make breakthroughs in science. For instance, during my master education, I needed some special reference books for completion of my thesis that unfortunately our library lacked. I had to squander a lot of my precious time on exploring those books at other universities, instead of doing the essential experiments in the laboratory. It was really waste of time to seek other universities for very rudimentary handbooks. At that time, I really wished that our university had invested more on its library than it had invested on luxury sports activities such as horse riding.

Another important point to take into account is that some study materials and research sources are inaccessible out of universities libraries. Handbooks are too expensive for students to afford it, and the student might refer to it just one single time, so it is not worth to buy it. Aside from that, some of them are very scarce, and they only might be available upon an academic institution's order. Moreover, students are widely in need of scientific databases, offering journal articles and book chapters, for accomplishment of their research reports, experiments, and theses. Only institutions and limited individuals under some special circumstances and regular payments have access to these databases. For example, last summer our library did not renew its account with scientific databases. It was a mess. Many students suffered from this shortage because they would not be able to finish and hand in their reports.

To sum it up, universities should greatly fund their libraries in order to benefit their students and faculty properly. This is because libraries are crucial for universities, and they assert students and researchers with unique and infrequent study sources. Universities should make libraries their first concern.