[TOEFL] Students take distance-learning courses or in a real class. Which one is better?

Some students enjoy taking distance-learning courses on the computer or television. Other students would rather take all of their courses with a teacher in a classroom. Which of these options do you think is better? Use specific reasons and examples in support of your opinion.

taking courses in a real class or remotely?

A wise man once said, "Genius without education is like silver in the mine."; to get educated and learn from courses are important for people, especially for students. Some students seem to enjoy taking courses on the computer or television while others tend to be in the classroom with a teacher. As for me, taking courses with a teacher in a classroom is more favorable.

First all, if students take courses in the classroom, they can interact with the teacher directly and be more concentrate on the class. Take my personal experience as an example. When I was a high school student, I went to tutorial school after day school. Sometimes I would watch the videotape on television instead of being in the real class, for its limited class availability. After watching the videotape, I noticed my understanding of what the teacher has taught was not as decent as being in the classroom with the teacher, given that I was bored and easily distracted. Physically seeing a teacher in the class, students can be attracted by his/her body languages, such as tones and facial expression. In addition, teacher standing at the front will offer you the opportunity to ask questions, facilitating you deepen the subject. Therefore, only through being in the surrounding can a student learn even more than the textbook.

Second, when you are in the real class, you can make lots of friends. As the old saying goes, "A friend in need is a friend indeed."; having friends around will assist people in every aspect, especially for students, on their learning. Whenever the students bump into questions during their practices or assignments, they can discuss with their friends and have the puzzle solved immediately. In other words, being in the classroom will provide the students the chances to make friends and improve their grades. On the contrary, if the students take the distance-learning courses, they probably will stay at home by themselves. Without anyone besides them, they will have plenty of questions hanging in the air, affecting their understanding of further courses. Hence, it is excellent scores that students can achieve if they are in the classroom with the teacher and classmates learning together.

Undeniably, there might be few advantages to taking the distance-learning courses. Those who bolster the idea may consider it either saving plenty of time for the transportation to the classroom or having a more flexible schedule. A case in point, if students live in the suburb, they might need to take the train to and from school for at least 1 hour. However, the advantages of learning in the classroom outweigh them. Not only do students achieve high academic performance but obtain their lifetime friends when being in the classroom. Students can, moreover, utilize the time on the way to the classroom, reviewing carefully what teacher taught at the last class. When they arrive there, they can interact with classmates, discussing the content of the textbook. After all, even though people are born alone, we tend to find partners and have companies, just like taking the courses in the real class and have others around us.

Vivian, even though this essay has some minor grammatical flaws and lacks an appropriate concluding paragraph, I can safely tell you that you have the ability to get the highest mark of 5 in this section of the TOEFL test. You have used the "hook" to reel in your reader very effectively in the opening statement and you clearly and accurately paraphrased the prompt requirement, issuing a personal opinion, without actually discussing it in the opening statement. The opening paragraph alone is already worth applauding. A point for correction though. When you are going to be relying on your personal experience in defense of your stance, then take ownership from the very beginning. Try to avoid using too many idioms or proverbs in your next paragraphs because those are most effective only as hooks in your opening statement. In the body of the essay, those just become word fillers to meet the minimum requirement. When you are discussing from a personal point of view, a personal experience is always the best narrative to show. For example, when you mention the need for friends in the classroom, don't be hypothetical about it. Make the paragraph stronger by using a real event that happened to you. When you discuss the drawbacks, one will be enough. There is no need to over discuss the issue. Remember, you only have 30 minutes to draft, review, edit, and finalize your essay. Keep the essay short but informative. Don't forget to conclude the essay with the summary of the discussion at the end. That is the only unrepresented paragraph in your essay that would have possibly pulled your score down to a 4. Overall, your command of the English language is almost at a native speaker level and that will help you pass the TOEFL with flying colors in the end.

@Holt
Thank you very much for the careful comments. I didn't notice I missed the conclusion at the last paragraph, but I will put more attention on it.