TOEFL essay What will you study

explain your choice of study

If you could study a subject that you have never had the opportunity to study, what would you choose? Explain your choice, using specific reasons and details. (wrote it 30 min, didn't change anything)

Most people agree that everyone in the world should have the chance to study what they want. Personally, if I had the opportunity to study the subject I had never tried before, I would choose Music, more specifically the History of Music. I feel this way for several reasons, which I will explore in the following essay.

To begin with, history of music starts from the folk music and it is the root of any culture. The subject would introduce me interesting facts about development music from ancient times till present day and it is great not only to read about it, but to listen to melodies too. During my trip to India and Turkey I had visited incredible museums of different eras of oriental cultural history and there were informative lectures in exhibition halls which were accompanied by folk music. It had great impact on visitors including me. I am passionate about both history and music and I would study the history of world music with pleasure.

Furthermore, attending the history of music class, I would enrich my knowledge on other cultures of the world. There are so many fascinating places, nations and cultures, which are still not studied well. As every culture has it own music and history, I would study them and present my knowledge and research results to the world. For instance, the culture of my country. Kyrgyzstan is small Central Asian country with rich cultural background, however most of the world do not know about kyrgyz history and music. We have so many outstanding composers and musicians, whom should know everyone in the world. If there were more people interested on the history of music or culture, kyrgyz culture would be familiar to more people.

In conclusion, if I decide to study some subject which had never studied, I will choose the History of Music. This is because both music and history study culture and making research on them improves our understanding other cultures.

While the writing allowance is 30 minutes, you are not expected to use all of that time just writing the essay. You need to work on your time allottment skills in this case. No more than 20 minutes should be used to complete the opinion paper draft, with the remaining 10 minutes being used to correct and polish your presentation. Do not fall into the habit of using the full time allowance for the writing alone. You will definitely leave some errors uncorrected, which will lead to a lowering of your final score.


This is not a good way to kick off your TOEFL introduction paragraph. Just like the IELTS test, you do not need to provide an empty transition sentence at the end. You need to provide the start of the discussion instead. In fact, the difference between the IELTS and TOEFL tests is that the first requires a thesis statement while the second, does not. You should begin your discussion of your opinion within the first paragraph due to the shorter writing time allowance.


The last few sentences of this paragraph should focus on the way that the music at the museum impacted your interest in traditional and historical music. Shorten the discussion about non-related, but introductory activities next time. Always focus your explanations on the main discussion point.

Overall, you have shown a keen understanding of the prompt. Your efforts to discuss your opinion remained on the relevant side although there were instances of straying from the original topic which is historical music. While the sentences are not perfectly written in the English language, the opinion of the writer remained clear throughout the presentation.