Cheap TEFL Course | IOA TEFL | Trusted TEFL Reviews

Cheap TEFL Course International Open Academy review, written by Samantha.

This online Tefl course was on promotion on Groupon, and the heavy discount was seriously enticing. Only $19 for a distance learning Tefl course! What did I have to lose? I grabbed the deal!

It was when I opened the first module, when I knew that there was a reason why the course was only $19.

Each of the modules contain about a page of text, followed by quiz questions that were an insult to my intelligence. They were just ridiculous.

Still, I soldiered on and completed the course in 2 days. If you do decide to pay the $19 for this course, just skim the reading and take the quizzes. There really isn’t much of value anyway in the texts.

I then printed out the certificate, which looked like a template you would find if you Googled Tefl certificate template. It just didn’t look believable at all.

I again soldiered on and started the process of job hunting.

I began a conversation with a school based in Chengdu, in China, who were looking for a native speaker from the US or Canada, to teach in an international school – teaching kindergarten kids and teenagers.

The pay was very good and there were other perks, such as free airfare, subsidized accommodation, end of year bonus, and so on.

A college degree and international Tefl certificate, as well as a clean criminal background, were the main requirements for the job. Tick, tick, tick! I forwarded copies of the documents to the school.

And, my application was rejected. All on the basis that my International Open Academy Tefl certificate wasn’t accepted. I asked why. The school replied that it’s not on the official list of recognized Tefl programs.

So, I asked for the list. The school obliged and I couldn’t see International Open Academy (IOA) anywhere on that list.

What could I do? I had to write off the $19 I’d spent on the cheap Tefl course with IOA and chose a different school, from the official list.

I chose Tefl Online Pro, because they have won awards and have very good student reviews.

I took the course with Tefl Online Pro, it was obviously a much more in-depth course, and it took me 2 weeks to complete. I worked on it 6 days a week.

I then went through the process of resubmitting my documents to the school.

And, I got accepted! 🙂

The one big take from this whole experience is not to be fooled by a really cheap Tefl course.