Yes! Toefl prep courses are real helpful in the preparation, when I appeared for it I took study material, Prep tests from examville.com, I was never expecting that i'll be able to pass the exam but not onl;y I passed the exam and scored quite well and I also studied from TOEFL CBT by Kaplan, How to Prepare for the TOEFL by Barrons. Prep course are generally fruitful but you should be smart enough to choose a right one .
Good Luck.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.