Is TEFL Hard To Pass? What To Expect Before Getting Certified

If you’re considering teaching English abroad and are looking into doing a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) course, you are likely wondering: is TEFL hard to pass? How hard is it to get a TEFL certificate?

TEFL courses are generally not hard to pass, but they are intensive, fast-paced, and demand significant time management, especially for those without prior teaching experience. Most students find the content and pedagogical concepts accessible, though completing lesson plans and meeting tight assignment deadlines can feel demanding. As long as you choose an accredited provider and stay organised, the coursework is entirely manageable for fluent English speakers.

How hard you find a TEFL course depends a lot on you.

Think about it this way: we’re all wired differently. Some of us loved school  and univeristy while others would’ve preferred to play cricket or watch TV all day. Some people have a head for numbers, while others are musical, and still others are at their best on the sports field. So while you may have sweated bullets before your History exams, your brother may have breezed through them without even a glance at a textbook.

What’s our point? Yes, a TEFL course is hard, but harder for some than others.

A TEFL course is an intensive course of study. The shortest TEFL course we recommend you do is 120 hours long, and a lot of that time will be spent reading books, digesting information, and trying to understand theories of learning and methods of teaching. The rest of the time will be spent either planning lessons and developing content or teaching.

If you are not very academic (and not many of us are) or if it’s been a long time since you were last in a classroom, you might find the course challenging simply because you don’t enjoy reading or haven’t had to read academic texts for a while. The same goes for the assignments: if you haven’t written an essay in years or if writing is not your strong point, then you might find the assignments in the course overwhelming.

Read more: What Do You Learn On A TEFL Course?

Can you fail a TEFL course?

Yes, you can fail a TEFL course, but that’s more likely to be the result of missed assignment deadlines, submitting plagiarised work or repeatedly failing to apply tutor feedback to your lessons, or dropping out of the course due to personal reasons rather than failing the course because of course difficulty.

Most reputable programs offer intensive tutor support and opportunities to resubmit failed assignments, making completion very achievable for dedicated students. 

 7 Key factors that influence how difficult you will find a TEFL course

Generally speaking, TEFL is not hard to pass. Face-to-face courses generally have interviews and strict admission requirements, so if a student is not likely to complete or pass the course, they will not be admitted in the first place. Online courses these days offer so much in the way of support that even if you are struggling with the course, you will be mentored and assisted until you overcome your difficulties.

However, whether or not you will find it hard will depend on a few key factors:

1. Age and academic background

Your age may be a blessing or a curse. On the one hand, if you are fresh out of school or university, you’ll be no stranger to reading complicated texts and trying to make sense of course materials. If it has been twenty or so years since you were in a classroom, you might struggle with concentration and time management.

On the other hand, with age comes experience. More mature TEFL students can bring life experience and world knowledge with them into the TEFL classroom, which may help them make sense of teaching English as a foreign language. They may have a better understanding of how to deal with students or how best they learn. In this sense, being an older TEFL trainee can be an advantage,

Read more: Mature Teachers: Is There An Age Limit For Teaching English Abroad?

2. Academic ability vs practical skills

There’s no getting away from it: your abilities will play a part in your perceived level of difficulty of the TEFL course. If you’re a natural academic, you shouldn’t have a problem with a TEFL course. A large part of the TEFL course is reading and getting to grips with theories and methodologies.

If you are an avid reader, you’ll have no problem keeping up with the pace of the course. If you’re not such a fan of reading, it might be a little more challenging. You might need to make more time than you expect to help you deal with the resources that are given to you to make sure you understand the text fully.

However, you could find that you are a natural in practice. In other words, you might be comfortable in front of a classroom right off the bat, which other people could find really nerve-wracking. You might have a natural talent for connecting with your students, explaining language clearly, or handling classroom management. These are all important parts of the TEFL course, so these abilities will no doubt be helpful to you on the course.

Read more: The Best TEFL Books For TEFL Teachers

3. Time commitments and management

Time commitments can prevent a person from being able to dedicate enough time to the course. If you’re a student on holiday, with minimal responsibilities, it’s likely that you’ll find the course relatively easy because you have the time and the freedom to dedicate as much time as necessary to your course.

If you’re a working mom with only a few spare hours a week, or if you’re working or studying while you are doing the TEFL course, you might find that there aren’t enough hours in your day to do what you need to do. The time pressure will add to your stress levels and make the course seem more challenging than it is. Needless to say, if you don’t have time to put in the work, you won’t be able to finish or pass the course.

It’s really important to ask yourself some hard questions before you dive into the TEFL course. The more time pressure you are under, the more difficult it can become to cope.

4. Assignments and submissions

A person might not complete all the required assignments, or not to the satisfactory level. If you cannot complete all the required assignments, you cannot pass the course. At the same time, you might not pass the assignments, which might mean you cannot pass the course.

The question of assignments and submissions can be bound up with time management. You may find yourself being under serious pressure in order to submit a particular assignment. 

The good news is that there are many ways to stay on top of your deadlines and assignments. Setting reminders on your computer or smartphone calendar in advance of submission dates is a crucial tip for getting assignments done on time. Plus, your TEFL course should have a dedicated team of tutors who are available to help you with any assignment questions you might have.

5. English language proficiency level

Your level of English is an important factor when doing a TEFL course. Most TEFL courses take your English level into consideration. This means that you should be able to handle the level of difficulty of the course materials. However, if English is not your first language, you might find that your English level is not high enough for the course.

For non-native speakers, taking an English language test is the best way to check out your suitability for doing TEFL. Thankfully, there are a multitude of test options that can be found easily online. Once you are confident in your ability to take the course and go on to teach English as a foreign language, the world is really your oyster!

Read more: What Level Should My English Be For A TEFL Course?

6. Personal issues

Personal issues may mean a person does not complete the course. The TEFL course is a hectic course which you need to dedicate a lot of time and energy to. If there are personal issues preventing you from focusing 100% on your course, you may have problems completing it.

7. Misaligned expectations

Some TEFL trainees realise that teaching is not suited to them. This happens in any course of study. When you start something, it can seem like a great idea, but when you actually do it, you realise that it’s not what you expected and it’s not something you enjoy doing.

This is probably the most unfortunate reason for finding TEFL hard to pass. This can happen to anyone. The best thing to do to make sure you complete your TEFL course is to do your research beforehand. Read up about the course content firstly. Are you sure you fully understand what the course expectations are?

Then, check out The TEFL Academy’s social media to see what teaching English is actually like from people that have done it themselves. Check out some TEFL jobs on our site, too. This will help you see what kind of positions are out there that you could see yourself doing after you become TEFL certified. Once you have done this research around the course itself, you will be able to make an informed decision around whether the course and the lifestyle are for you.

Support systems: Why you don’t have to do it alone

Possibly the most important factor when doing any course of study is the support network you have.

Because teaching English might be totally new to you, it will be helpful to surround yourself with people who can understand what you are going through.

Of course, you need friends and family who understand that you are studying and need to give you the space to study or help out with errands to give you some spare time, but you also need to connect with other people who are doing the course with you.

If you are doing a face-to-face course, this will happen naturally, but if you’re doing an online course, you will need to make an effort to touch base with other students on the online forums available to you. It’s important that you have an outlet to troubleshoot coursework problems with, as well as a community that you can ask for advice.

Whatever form your TEFL course takes, make sure you are aware of the different support systems available to you. Your tutors – whether they are in the classroom with you or online – are there to not only help you through the course but also to make sure you make the most of the course.

The TEFL Academy has a dedicated team of tutors as well as support agents who can help you at any time during your course. Whether it’s questions about the course content or signing up, help with specific assignment questions, or technical support, a trained team member is just an email or message away.

Final verdict: Is getting a TEFL certificate hard?

To go back to the question: is TEFL hard to pass?

For the most part, the answer is no — if you have the time to dedicate to the course and if there are no extenuating circumstances which can derail you. If you take all of this into account, you should be able to predict how difficult or easy a TEFL course is going to be for you.

With a little bit of discipline and determination, a TEFL course is well within your capability! Take it from us: even if all the odds are stacked against you, a TEFL course is totally within your reach, so don’t let your fears stand in your way of the adventure of a lifetime!

If you’re still not sure if TEFL is for you, join a few online forums and ask TEFL teachers what they think. There’s nobody better to ask than people who have done it themselves. Or ask us! We’ve helped more than 200,000 people just like you successfully complete their TEFL course and who are now teaching abroad and online, all over the world. 

Author Bio

Written by

Kirsten Colquhoun

Kirsten Colquhoun is the Content Manager for The TEFL Academy. A graduate of Cambridge University and DELTA-qualified, she first started teaching kindergarten in Thailand in 2003. A South African, she has also taught in China, the UK, Spain, Qatar and South Africa, but these days she is a teacher trainer and freelance writer and editor. Read Kirsten Colquhoun's story →