“I was coerced into writing a 5-star review”

The TEFL Academy review, submitted by Anonymous.

This is my honest review of the (TTA) The TEFL Academy 168-hour Level 5 TEFL & TESOL course I paid for and completed last month (February 2025).

I chose this program because of the hundreds of 5-star reviews on the Go Abroad reviews website.

It seemed like it was obviously a legit program so I signed up without second thought, using the coupon code to get the discount.

I liked the practical ease of the user experience.

The login was straightforward, but I did see a number of grammar errors within the course content, and I didn’t like the time lags in the communication with The TEFL Academy.

Emails were responded to after day 4, while some of my emails never got a reply.

I steamrolled through the course because I already had a job lined up and I just wanted the course certificate.

I was taken aback by the additional high cost of the certificate (was it a hidden fee?), but it did arrive to my Inbox a week later. Not such a quick turnaround, but nothing really to complain about.

I thought my experience with The TEFL Academy was then over, until, two days later, I received an email from Megan Broccoli. She presented herself as the program’s post-course “Graduate Liaison Officer”.

Her email started off in a neutral tone, but quickly went south when she actually wrote that if I were to write a 5-star review for The TEFL Academy on Go Abroad, The TEFL Academy would say or write wonderful things about me as a graduate if an employer ever needed a character reference from them.

In other words, I was coerced into writing a 5-star review.

Against my inner moral compass, I did write the review, but then deleted it because it didn’t sit well with me.

I chose The TEFL Academy because of those 5-star reviews on Go Abroad.

It made me wonder how many other reviews on there were coerced.

Look, the program was fine and I got the certificate, but this stuff with the reviews left an incredibly bad taste in my mouth.

The way Megan wrote the email verged on the threatening, like if I didn’t do it they would say or write bad things about me for a character reference?

I did vent on the r/TEFL subreddit, but my comment wasn’t published, which also seemed very odd.

My comment was pretty lame in comparison with other comments for other TEFL & TESOL programs.

Seemed to me The TEFL Academy has some kind of agreement with that subreddit.

For these reasons, please label my review “Anonymous”.

---

Read more The TEFL Academy reviews

New! Click here for the online TEFL/TESOL international certification course Teachers’ Choice Award winner. International Online TEFL/TESOL course certification at its best.

---

Verified Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program reviews, ranked in order of customer satisfaction: TEFL Course Directory

---

TEFL Accreditation Guide | 6 TEFL Red Flags | TTR Home | TEFL Course Special Offers

---