Morning thoughts

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle.

Morning thoughts

Positive thinkers have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.

Morning thoughts

Always welcome every morning with a smile. Look on a new day as another special gift…

Right-of-Way

Most traffic crashes occur at intersections when a driver makes a turn. Many occur in large parking lots that are open to public use, like at shopping centers. To prevent this type of crash, you must understand the right-of-way rules and how to make correct turns.

Right-of-Way

Traffic signs, signals and pavement markings do not always resolve traffic conflicts. A green light, for example, does not resolve the conflict of when a car turns left at an intersection while an approaching car goes straight through the intersection. The right-of-way rules help resolve these conflicts. They tell you who goes first and who must wait in different conditions.

Here are examples of right-of-way rules:

• A driver who approaches an intersection must yield the right-of-way to traffic that is in the intersection.
  
  Example: You approach an intersection. The traffic light is green and you want to drive straight through. Another vehicle is already in the intersection making a left turn. You must let that vehicle complete its turn before you enter the intersection.
• If drivers approaching from opposite directions reach an intersection at about the same time, a driver that turns left must yield to traffic that moves straight or turns right.
  
  Example: You want to turn left at an intersection ahead. A vehicle reaches the intersection from the opposite direction and moves straight ahead. You must wait for approaching traffic to go through before you turn. You may enter the intersection to prepare for your left turn if the light is green and no other vehicle ahead of you plans to make  a left turn (see "Turns" later in this chapter). When you enter the intersection, keep to the right of the center line. Keep your wheels straight to prevent a push into oncoming traffic if a rear-end collision occurs. When traffic headed toward you  clears or stops for a red light, complete your turn.
  
  You must also yield to traffic headed toward you when you turn left into a driveway, parking lot or other area, even if there are no signs or signals that control the turn.
  
  For any left turn, the law requires you to yield to any traffic headed toward you that is close enough to be a hazard. The decision about when traffic is too close takes experience and judgment. If you have any concern, wait for traffic to pass before you turn left.
• At intersections not controlled by signs or signals, or where two or more drivers stop at STOP signs at the same time and they are at right angles, the driver on the left must yield the right-of-way to the driver on the right.
  
  Example: You are stopped at a stop sign and you are going to go straight through the intersection. A driver on the cross road has stopped at a stop sign on your right and is also going to go straight. You must yield the right-of-way to the other driver.
• A vehicle that enters a roadway from a driveway, alley, private road, or another place that is not a roadway, must stop and yield the right-of-way to traffic on the roadway and to pedestrians.
  
  Example: You are driving out of a parking lot and turn right as you enter a street. A vehicle approaches from your left. You must stop and wait for the vehicle to pass before you enter the street. If you were to turn left, you would have to yield to vehicles that approach from both directions. If a pedestrian walked across the parking lot exit, you would have to wait for that person to go across.
• Drivers must yield to pedestrians who legally use marked or unmarked crosswalks.  This means you must slow down or stop if necessary.
  
  Example: You are stopped at a red light. A pedestrian steps into the crosswalk, and then the light turns green. You must wait for the pedestrian to go across. You must also yield to pedestrians in crosswalks on your left or right before you turn.
• You can not enter an intersection if traffic is backed up on the other side and you can not get completely through the intersection. Wait until traffic ahead clears, so you do not block the intersection.
• A driver who enters a traffic circle or rotary must yield the right-of-way to drivers already in the circle.

 from: https://dmv.ny.gov/about-dmv/chapter-5-intersections-and-turns

Morning thoughts

Stay focused on what you want and you will find ways to solve difficulties and break through barriers.

Morning thoughts

How to be positive – Say “I can,” instead of “I can’t!” Smile more. Be optimistic.

Traffic Sinals

Traffic Signals  

  

Traffic Lights

Traffic lights are normally red, yellow and green from the top to bottom or left to right. At some intersections, there are lone red, yellow or green lights. Some traffic lights are steady, others flash. Some are round, and some are arrows. State law requires that if the traffic lights or controls are out of service or does not operate correctly when you approach an intersection, you must come to a stop as you would for a stop sign. You must then continue according to the rules of right-of-way, unless you are told to continue by a traffic officer.

Here is what different traffic lights indicate:

Steady Red: Stop. Do not go until the light is green. If a green arrow is shown with the red light, you can go toward  the arrow and only if the intersection is clear.

You can make a right turn at a steady red light after you come to a full stop and yield the right-of-way to oncoming traffic and pedestrians. You can make a left turn at a steady red light when you turn from a one-way road into another one-way road after you come to a full stop and yield the right-of-way to oncoming traffic and pedestrians.

You cannot make a turn at a red light if there is a NO TURN ON RED sign posted or another sign, signal or pavement marking prevents the turn. You are not allowed to turn on a red light in New York City unless a sign that permits it is posted.

The driver of a school bus containing pupils cannot turn right on any red light.

 Flashing Red: Means the same as a STOP sign: Stop, yield the right-of-way, and go when it is safe.

Red Arrow: Do not go in the direction of the arrow until the red arrow light is off and a green light or arrow light goes on. A right or left turn on red is not permitted at a red arrow.

Steady Yellow: The light will change from green to red. Be prepared to stop for the red light.

 Flashing Yellow: Drive with caution.
 

Yellow Arrow: The protection of a green arrow will end. If you intend to turn in the direction of the arrow, be prepared to stop.

Steady Green: Go, but yield the right-of-way to other traffic at the intersection as required by law (see Chapter 5).

 Green Arrow: You can go in the direction of the arrow, but you must yield the right-of-way to other traffic at the intersection as required by law (see Chapter 5.)  

Lane Use Control Lights  

Special above the pavement lights are sometimes used to indicate which lanes of a highway can be used at certain times:

Steady Red "X": Do not drive in this lane.

Steady Yellow "X": Move from this lane.

Flashing Yellow "X": This lane can only be used for a left turn.

Green Arrow: You can use this lane.

from: https://dmv.ny.gov/about-dmv/chapter-4-traffic-control-2#pav-mar

Morning thoughts

Positive thoughts can generate positive attitudes.

Driver license - DMV NY

Department of Motor Vehicles - New York S'tate

Morning thoughts

"Low self-confidence isn't a life sentence. Self-confidence can be learned, practiced, and mastered--just like any other skill. Once you master it, everything in your life will change for the better." --Barrie Davenport

Morning thoughts

Sometimes we need someone to simply be there.

Morning thoughts

One small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Watch wildlife documentaries. In Listening Part One you will look at something and hear a description of it at the same time. This kind of situation is very rare in everyday life, but in scientific documentaries like "Planet Earth" quite a lot of that kind of language is used.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Listen to the business news. Although all the listening texts in the TOEIC exam are dialogues and therefore the business news in English is much more difficult, this can be a good way of making sure you understand typical Business English vocabulary used in context. To make it easier for you to understand, try reading the same business news in English or even your own language first.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Watch or listen to sports commentary in English. This is another common situation in which you will actually hear people describing what you can see.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Watch soap operas in English. Although it may seem that television dramas about family problems etc. are a long way from the Business English that TOEIC is supposed to be a test of, in fact a lot of the language, especially in Listening Part Two, is everyday functional English that people use when they say hello, ask people to do things etc. If you don't use English everyday, soap operas are probably the most common and easiest to understand way to regularly hear such language.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Listen to radio drama. If you can understand the everyday functional language used in a TV drama, then the next stage is to try and understand the same kind of language without the pictures by listening to a radio soap opera like "The Archers", downloadable from BBC Radio 4.

Morning thoughts

"If you're presenting yourself with confidence, you can pull off pretty much anything." --Katy Perry

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Listen to radio with an English DJ. Although listening is like any other part of language learning and the more effort you put in the more you will improve, unlike other skills just having something in English on in the background without paying attention to it at all can help a little with getting used to natural English rhythm and so help you to pick out the important words when you are listening in the exam.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Watch a video about the business world. When you are choosing a DVD to watch, try picking one that is in a business setting and therefore will have lots of Business English vocabulary you can practice your listening comprehension of. Possibilities include comedy series like "The Office", documentaries like "Enron: the smartest guys in the room" or movies like "American Psycho", "Rogue Trader" or "Bonfire of the Vanities".

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Cross it out and throw it away. When you have completely finished a TOEIC paper, worksheet or book and copied down the important language to learn, putting a big cross across the page or even ripping it up and throwing it away can be a very motivating reward for your hard work, and also reduce the pile of things on your desk waiting to be done.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Read your own language quicker. Most of the skills of reading quickly are the same for every language. When you read something in your own language, practice missing out the bits like the beginning and ends of emails that you know don't have any information in them, stopping reading each newspaper article when it is no longer interesting etc.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Clear up your desk and your life. Before you start studying, make sure that nothing can interrupt you like your mobile ringing, the washing waiting to be hung up etc. If you take one or two days a week off from studying (generally a very good idea), try to use them to tidy up your study space, clear away other paperwork like bills that needs doing etc.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Just do it. For some people, drawing up a study timetable and sharpening all your pencils is just a way of delaying the start of your studies. If you are such a person, it is best to start studying right now and only do most of the hints above when you find your enthusiasm fading in a few days, weeks or months. Always remember that the most important thing is how long you study and how much effort you put into that study- thinking about how and when you do so are mainly just ways of keeping that level of effort up week after week.

Morning thoughts

Your smile will give you a positive countenance that will make people feel comfortable around you.

coun·te·nance

1. Appearance, especially the expression of the face: The question left him with a puzzled countenance.

2. The face or facial features.

3.

a. A look or expression indicative of encouragement or of moral support.

b. Support or approval.

4. Obsolete Bearing; demeanor.

tr.v. coun·te·nanced, coun·te·nanc·ing, coun·te·nanc·es

To give sanction or support to; tolerate or approve: The college administration will not countenance cheating.

Morning thoughts

"Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many--not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some." --Charles Dickens

Morning thoughts

Life isn’t about falling it’s about getting back up every time you fall.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Buy a TOEIC practice book. The two most important points to remember when shopping for a TOEIC book are to buy something that is really like the test and to be realistic about what someone at your level with your amount of free time can do. Be careful when buying a book- just because a book has TOEIC on the front does not mean it has been tested and approved by ETS. It is usually best to stick to books produced by the big international publishers like Longman, Barrons, and Cambridge- which usually means buying a book all in English rather than one with explanations in your language. It is probably also best to start off with a thin, low level book that you can get through quickly and easily and so be motivated for the challenge of the next one. Also make sure that a practice tests book has the answer key, preferably a detailed one that explains why each answer is correct or not.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Stop snacking while studying. As well as getting used to not being able to do this during the exam, it could also improve your general health and mean that time preparing and eating food is a proper rest from study that leaves you refreshed and ready to do some more serious work.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Do a TOEIC exam listening as a dictation. Although in the exam you have to be careful not to try and understand every word, using on exam practice text to listen over and over and try to write down everything you hear can be a good way of learning how the pronunciation of words are changed in fast, natural speech.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Concentrate on what you need. It is generally easier to gain points in the exam by practicing parts you find difficult rather than gaining even more points in the parts you find easy, especially if you learn techniques on how to pick out the important and manageable parts of those sections of the exam. The easier parts can then be saved to be used when you need a break from difficult stuff.

Coaching

"You have the power to act and you can use it in your own way."

Be pacient.
Be critical.
Be consistent.

See you later,
Bye bye

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Stop translating. The thing that slows down listening and reading comprehension most is translating things into your own language in your head. You can start to think only in English by using an English-English dictionary, not using translations in your lists of vocabulary to learn, and learning whole phrases of English.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Try some online TOEIC practice. Many sites now offer free or paid online TOEIC practice which you can easily find with a Google search. Like using a CD ROM, it is also a nice break from using a book and pen.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Take up yoga. As well as having the benefits of exercise, doing something like yoga can also help you cope with the stress of studying for the exam and actually being in the exam. Again, if you can find an English language yoga video or instructor, that can help you in one more way!

Morning thoughts

"I think that the power is the principle. The principle of moving forward, as though you have the confidence to move forward, eventually gives you confidence when you look back and see what you've done." --Robert Downey Jr.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Time yourself. It is difficult to get yourself motivated to do many practice tests when your scores seem to go up and down each time and you can't see clear progress in the short term. One solution is to concentrate on the timing rather than the marks. Time how long it takes you to complete the whole Reading part of the test and try to make that shorter every time- even if you have already finished quicker than the official time limit of the test. You can also do the same thing with each section of the test.

Morning thoughts

"It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves." --Sir Edmund Hillary

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Cut down on the coffee. If you are too used to drinking coffee while studying, you might be in for a shock when you have to take the TOEIC test for 3 hours with no drinks or food allowed.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Copy and delete a TOEIC sentence or text. Another way of making sure you remember the language is to cover or erase the sentence one word at a time until the whole sentence has gone or you can't remember it anymore.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Do exactly the same test again. Once you have finished a whole practice test or one section of it, check your answers and check you understand why you made any mistakes you did. Write the vocabulary and grammar from the test you didn't know in your notebook, and test yourself on it at least 3 more times over the next week or two. You can then try the same test again to check your memory, make the language really stick in your mind, and boost your confidence.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Learn the phonemic script. The next stage is to learn to write down the whole pronunciation of words you learn in English. The only way to do this accurately is to write them down with the special symbols known as the "phonemic script". To make learning it easier, start by just copying the symbol for the one difficult sound for each word from your dictionary, then slowly work your way up until you can write whole words without help.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Learn other parts of speech. Another thing that can catch you out in the exam is hearing a word that is basically the same as one you know, but is a noun when you only know the verbs, e.g. "communication" and "communicate". Learning each form of a word can also help you remember the original word better.

Morning thoughts

If you want to achieve greatness stop asking for permission.

great

  (grāt)

adj. great·er, great·est

1.

a. Very large in size, extent, or intensity: a great pile of rubble; a great storm.

b. Of a larger size than other, similar forms: the great anteater.

c. Large in quantity or number: A great throng awaited us. See Synonyms at large.

d. Extensive in time or distance: a great delay; a great way off.

2.

a. Remarkable or outstanding in magnitude, degree, or extent: a great crisis; great anticipation.

b. Of outstanding significance or importance: a great work of art.

c. Chief or principal: the great house on the estate.

d. Superior in quality or character; noble: a great man who dedicated himself to helping others.

e. Powerful; influential: one of the great nations of the West.

f. Eminent; distinguished: a great leader.

Morning thoughts

Fill your children with good thoughts before they go to bed.

Morning thoughts

Night is designed to end the worries and fears of the day.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Write down your tactics. As well as writing down new language, writing down the things you learn about how to do the test can help you remember the best tactics and can also be good practice of English.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Read on the toilet. Many people find the best way of revising new vocabulary is by sticking the words they need to learn to the toilet door.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Learn the sentence stress. In the same way that you need to be able to skim quickly through a reading text to look for the important information to answer a question, in the listening you need to be able to pick out the important information. In English the important words in a sentence are pronounced longer and louder than the grammar words like "am" and "at" between them. Learning which these words are, marking them on sentences while or before you listen, and practicing speaking with the correct rhythm can all help with this.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Learn the number of syllables. This is another easy way of making sure you understand words when you hear them in the exam.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Learn the word stress. Practising the sounds of English on your own and recognizing when you are making the correct one is very difficult. One thing you can easily write down and learn that often makes understanding when you listen difficult is the rhythm of words. You can mark this with a big circle over the stressed (louder and longer) syllable of each word.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Copy and change a TOEIC sentence or text. To make sure you understand and really learn a typical TOEIC sentence like the functional language in Listening Part Two, copy it down and then practise changing one word at a time until it is as different as possible while still being correct English.

Morning thoughts

Your attitude, not your aptitude, determines your altitude.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Concentrate on the important parts. What you need to pass the exam is mainly vocabulary (both General English vocabulary and Business English vocabulary) and practice is listening and reading. Grammar practice can help, but most students find this is the least important part of the exam.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Time each section. As well as giving you the same motivating effects as timing each question, this can help you see which part of the reading paper you are doing slowest and so need most practice on.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Try answering the question without hearing or reading the text. 
As well as being something you can occasionally do in the exam, this can help you read the questions more carefully to make sure you aren't being tricked by a few words.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Brainstorm vocabulary. There are several common situations in TOEIC that you need lots of vocabulary about, e.g. in the office, in restaurants, on the telephone, in a workshop or lab, in the street, in shops and on public transport. Taking one of those situations and brainstorming, for example, all the office furniture and equipment you can think of, using your dictionary to help you once you get stuck, can be really useful and motivating. Doing this as a spider diagram, linking together similar or connected words, can also help you think of more words and remember it better. Make sure you revise any new vocabulary in the week after brainstorming, then brainstorm again and see if you have missed any out or have thought of any new ones. Also make sure you learn the pronunciation of the words.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Time everything you do during the day. As you can't be checking your watch every minute of the exam, learning how long things take and how long 75 minutes really is can help you keep your speed up in the exam while stopping you rushing too much and panicking. Predicting how long the washing up, walking to the shops etc. will take and checking your predictions can help develop your accurate idea of time.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Practice at the same time as the test. Try a few practice tests at exactly the same time of day, and even the same day of the week, as your TOEIC test will be. This will help you get a realistic idea of your energy and concentration levels at that time, and help you improve them.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Time each section. As well as giving you the same motivating effects as timing each question, this can help you see which part of the reading paper you are doing slowest and so need most practice on.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Try something more difficult. Like practicing sprints to develop long distance running strength, trying something even more difficult than the TOEIC exam like an instruction manual for a new machine in English can help you develop skills like skimming over words you don't know, and make the TOEIC test seem easier when you go back to it.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Reward yourself. If you think of the studying part of your brain as an animal that needs to be trained, by giving yourself a bar of chocolate when you have studied hard or got a good score you can train your subconscious to work hard to get those rewards again.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Buy an MP3 player. There are so many things in English you can listen to for free on the Internet that you should easily be able to find something that interests you and is the right level that you can download and listen to while you are travelling to work or doing exercise. 

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Stop cramming. The amount of language that could be in the TOEIC exam is so huge that the chances that whatever you study the day before coming up and helping you get a better score are the same as reading one random page in an encyclopaedia and expecting it to help you with your university entrance test. On the day or two before the exam, just concentrate on doing some relaxing in English and making sure you are healthy and happy on the day of the test.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Try something easier. Doing something easier like a TOEIC Bridge practice test can give a boost to your confidence and so motivate you to try harder. It can also help you realize which parts of the language you are studying for the TOEIC are more basic and so need studying first.

Morning thoughts

"To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance." --Oscar Wilde

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Revise first. In the TOEIC test you need to be able to not only answer the questions, but answer them quickly. This means that language that you learnt once but can't remember without thinking for 5 minutes first won't be much use in the rushed, high pressure exam. It is therefore almost always better to properly learn something you half know already than it is to add something new to your list of things to learn, especially if you have made sure that it is useful language by finding it in material for the exam or material for people of your English level. Make sure you spend at least 30% of your study time revising things you have studied before but don't know very well yet.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Read and listen. After you have finished the listening paper, read through the tapescript carefully and check any words you don't know in your dictionary. Next, listen and read the tapescript at the same time, listening for how the written script and the sounds that are pronounced in natural speech are different (e.g. the fast pronunciation of "Do you"). You might also want to write the pronunciation changes on the tapescript, e.g. crossing out sounds that are not pronounced, drawing a loop between sounds that are pronounced together etc. You can then read and listen one more time, and try to say the sentences in the tapescript with the same rhythm as the speaker on the CD.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Set yourself a vocabulary goal. For example, if you learn 5 words a day for a year that will mean more than 1500 new words you can understand in English and being a whole level higher in reading comprehension. Once you have set that target, try to learn double that everyday, so that you are always ahead of your target and therefore motivated.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Listen to an English language audio guide. Many museums have little MP3 players and headphones that tell you about some of the things you can see as you walk around. Looking at the exhibits and listening to the descriptions in English is quite similar to TOEIC Listening Part One. If you have problems understanding it, buy an English language guidebook and try the audio guide again when you have read the guidebook and looked up any difficult words in your dictionary.

Morning thoughts

"We avoid the things that we're afraid of because we think there will be dire consequences if we confront them. But the truly dire consequences in our lives come from avoiding things that we need to learn about or discover." --Shakti Gawain

dire

  (dīr)

adj. dir·er, dir·est

1. Warning of or having dreadful or terrible consequences; calamitous: a dire economic forecast; dire threats.

2. Urgent; desperate: in dire need; dire poverty.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Buy a TOEIC practice CD ROM. Even if you are not going to take the computer version of the test, sitting at a computer and doing some practice can make a nice change from sitting at a desk with bits of paper and therefore can boost your motivation.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Write descriptions. Either before or after you listen to a Listening Part One task, try writing as many true sentences about the picture as you can.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Learn whole English phrases. Speed of understanding is very important in both the Listening and Reading sections of the TOEIC test, and one thing that can really slow you down is trying to understand an English sentence word by word. You can make your comprehension much faster by learning whole common sentences of English such as "I look forward to hearing from you soon" and "That's a pity" rather than the expressions "look forward" and "pity". One good way of doing this is to buy a travel phrase book with CD, which will have common phrases like "Do you want fries with that?" which you can practice responding quickly to. Some of them are produced especially for Business travellers, so might be especially useful. You could also try learning any English language notices and announcements in your town, for example on the subway or buses.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Listen to an English language audio guide. Many museums have little MP3 players and headphones that tell you about some of the things you can see as you walk around. Looking at the exhibits and listening to the descriptions in English is quite similar to TOEIC Listening Part One. If you have problems understanding it, buy an English language guidebook and try the audio guide again when you have read the guidebook and looked up any difficult words in your dictionary.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Draw. As an alternative way of practising Listening Part One, try listening to all four sentences without looking at the picture first, and make a sketch of each of the four situations described. When you then look at the picture you should be able to find which of your sketches it is most similar to and therefore which the right answer is.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Brainstorm functional language. Choose one of the typical situations for a TOEIC listening, e.g. in the airport, and brainstorm as many typical sentences people say in this situation as you can, e.g. "Did you pack this luggage yourself?" You can find this kind of language in a phrasebook for travellers or a Business English self-study book.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Write dialogues. For the typical TOEIC settings like those shown in the pictures of Part One, try writing whole dialogues of what people might say when they get on the bus, arrive at reception etc. This can help you predict the language you will hear in both Listening Part One and Listening Part Two.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Be positive. Believing that you can succeed can have a large effect in actually making you succeed. There are books, audio tapes and videos that can show you how to boost your confidence in yourself and think positively everyday, available from the self-help and business sections of bookshops. These books are often also fairly easy English language reading material.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Do some exercise. Doing physical exercise can help you improve your ability to concentrate and sit still while studying without getting restless. It can also help your endurance during the exam. If you can exercise whilst also doing something in English, e.g. doing an English language exercise video or listening to your MP3 player while jogging, that's even better!

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Take time out. Although it can be difficult to know when it is just being lazy, sometimes when you are learning a language you just need to give your brain time to really understand and learn the language subconsciously while you are doing something unconnected, for example by sleeping after studying and then trying it again the next day.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Take up another hobby. Just like recovering after a big football match, time spent getting away from English study so that you come back to it refreshed and ready to learn should be something you are completely absorbed in and is fun.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Look at your progress. If you are getting disappointed with your progress in English, you are sure to be able to find something, e.g. a test score from the beginning of your course, that shows you how much you have actually learnt. This will give you the motivation to keep trying and step up to the next level.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Join a study group. Just sitting next to someone studying the same thing as you can help you to discipline yourself you not take too many breaks etc. You can also test each other on what you have been trying to learn, try and explain why certain answers are wrong etc.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Eat healthily. Although the vitamins and oils for brain development are only proven to work for growing children, eating healthy food and avoiding additives can help you study longer each day and remember better what you have studied. Also remember that alcohol can affect your short term memory powers.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Set short term, medium term and long term goals. For example, 20 points by the end of the month, 40 points by the end of 3 months and 100 points by the end of the year. When setting these goals, remember that you will probably progress most quickly at the beginning of your studies.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Even if you've done it, try again. If you manage to get the TOEIC score you need on a practice test, you should certainly feel very happy and reward yourself with a beer or a bar of chocolate. However, you should then get quickly back to studying to make sure you can get the same score under real exam conditions. First of all, getting lucky in, for example, getting exactly the grammar questions that you know the answers to is possible and can change your score by up to 35 points- so try another test from the same book to make sure you can get that score another time. Another thing is that as most practice tests are not produced by ETS and so there is a chance that one or more (or even all) of the tests in the book you have are easier or more difficult than the real test. You might therefore want to try a test from a book published by a different company. Generally, the books by the big international publishers are the most reliable. Finally, if you really can get the score you want every time you try a test, set your target score 30 or 40 points higher so you have a cushion in case you have a bad day on the day of the test.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Understand your biorhythms. By knowing whether you are a morning person or an evening person, you can plan which easy, mechanical things like learning vocabulary lists or doing pronunciation practice you can leave to times you are sleepy like after lunch, and which more challenging things you should do while you are most awake (for most people this is first thing in the morning, even for most people who think they are evening people). The same things are true over a week with Monday mornings, times just before the weekend etc.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Try real test conditions. Do a practice test in a library or quiet café so that you have exactly the same conditions of not being able to move and having people around you and less than perfect silence.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Choose the easiest bits first. Just like doing exercise, most people need a warm up to get into studying or doing a test. Every time you sit down, decide which part is easiest and start with that for 5 to 15 minutes. Thinking about which part is easy is also a good way of looking at the test material in a different way.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Set your body clock. If your test times will be when you are usually sleeping or eating, you will have to get used to not doing those things at those times for a few weeks before the test.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Learn to cope with stress. For some people, stress is as much of a problem in the exam as the language they are being tested on. Preparation for this can include getting used to other stressful situations like public speaking and/ or learning relaxation techniques like meditation or deep breathing.

Ways to improve your TOEIC 5

See if you understand why it is wrong now. If you are studying on your own, a few weeks or months are trying an exam task look at your answers again and see if you have learnt something that now makes the answers you got wrong more obvious. If you still don't understand after looking at something three or more times, it is probably worth getting a teacher for at least 2 or 3 classes so you can ask them questions and stop making the same mistakes, or at least joining a study group so you can get the ideas of other students.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Keep all your scores. Especially if you are studying on your own, it can be very easy to give up after your score goes down in a couple of practice tests. Keeping all your scores can reminding you of how well you have progressed over the long term.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Tell someone what you are doing and get them to motivate you. In things like sports we are often motivated by things like competition between people, being told by your coach you have improved etc. It is therefore not surprising that many people get demotivated when studying on their own. By communicating with someone how you are doing, e.g. on the internet or telling someone in your family if you have having a good or a bad day, you will find that the progress you are making becomes clearer to you.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Train your short term memory. Many people have memory problems when taking the TOEIC test like remembering what you heard in the text until you hear the questions. Even brain training for this that is not connected to language can be useful, e.g. special games on the Nintendo DS.

Morning thoughts

"Tension is who you think you should be, relaxation is who you are." --Chinese proverb

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Get longer and shorter. The first time you try a test, try checking every answer after you do it before you try the next one. The second time, try a whole section and then check the answers to that section. Continue making the parts of the test you do without stopping longer and longer until you can do a whole test without stopping. If you get bored after a few timed complete tests or you find that you are not remembering the language you have learnt from it because it is too much, alternate doing whole tests and doing shorter sections. You can also alternate doing the whole test and doing lots of examples of just one section, preferably one you are finding difficult.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Try doing a test backwards. Many TOEIC candidates never get good at the last part of the Reading section of the test because they spend most of their time and use up most of their energy on the earlier parts of the paper. Try working your way backwards through the test instead a few times.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Have a yearly study plan. Try a TOEIC test and analyse carefully what you got wrong and why. Write down all the things you will need to know and be able to do by the end of the year in order to get the score you need. Group those things together into categories (e.g. "reading skills" or "grammar"). Find out as many ways as you can of learning and practising each of those things and put them into your yearly plan so that the whole schedule has a lot of variety in it, e.g. by having different newspapers to read each month, or starting with local newspapers in English and working your way up to The Economist.

Morning thoughts

A great attitude becomes a great day which becomes a great year.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Read graded readers. Although the texts you will have to read in the TOEIC exam are not made easier for you in any way, when it comes to learning vocabulary it is best to read something at your level where which words are important for students to learn has already been decided for you, i.e. a graded reader, or "easy reader". Well known examples of these are Penguin Readers, Macmillan Readers, Oxford Readers and Black Cat Readers. To make sure you learn good language for the exam, it is best to choose a non-fiction title if you can. If you find there is one or two words a page which you are not sure about, you have found the right level book.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Read quickly. Reading speed is one of the most important parts of the TOEIC exam. Before you start reading anything in English, remind yourself to read as quickly as you can, not stopping for parts you don't understand. If you want to read it more slowly to check your understanding or look up words in the dictionary, only do this the second time you read something.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Read your instruction manuals in English. Many electronics items are now sold with the instructions in many languages. Try reading them in English first, as this is quite similar to some of the language you will see in the TOEIC Reading paper.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Join a TOEIC class. Although there is no speaking in the test, using English and talking through your problems with it can really fix the language in your head. It can also help your motivation, and you will get some good tips on how to take the exam.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Join discussion forums. Reading an online forum about something you are interested in or knowledgeable about can be very motivating, as you will really want to know what people are saying and can write your own comments if you have some information that other people need, or want to say that you agree or disagree with someone. Like chat pages, there is also quite a lot of useful functional language like agreeing and disagreeing. You might also be able to find a discussion forum about other people's experiences with the TOEIC exam.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Join a TOEIC class. Although there is no speaking in the test, using English and talking through your problems with it can really fix the language in your head. It can also help your motivation, and you will get some good tips on how to take the exam.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Online chat. If you don't have the chance to speak English, the closest thing you can find is text chatting online. This is fairly similar to speaking as you have to write in real time and there is quite a lot of functional language like greeting people, apologizing etc. that is like the language you will hear in the Listening part of the test.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Join a Business English class. Although specialized business vocabulary is not supposed to be necessary to pass the test, the functional language (dealing with complaints etc.) and some everyday vocabulary that comes up more in Business English classes ("colleague", names of jobs etc.) means that this kind of class can really help, especially if you don't have any business experience.

Morning thoughts

What’s the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable?

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Have a weekly study plan. Work out how many hours you can spare for studying TOEIC, make time for a realistic number of breaks, decide which parts of studying you can do on the train to work, decide on your priorities for the rest of your time, think about when you are likely to be most tired and should therefore study easier stuff, and then write your weekly study plan down.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Have a plan of attack. Set yourself realistic targets for your TOEIC score in 3 months, 6 months, a year etc. and decide which things are best to do first in preparation for it and which things can wait until nearer the time of the exam.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Study for exactly the test you are doing. Not only do you need to study slightly differently if you are doing the computer based test, but there is a chance that you could have to take the test as it was before the 2007 changes or the new style test- depending on whether you are taking the test in your company or in a test centre. Please double check before you buy an exam practice book and start doing practice tests. However, the differences between the versions of the exams are small enough that if you already have some materials for another version that you want to use before spending more money, that is no problem.

Morning thoughts

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Have a daily study plan. With your own knowledge of when you are most likely to be able to concentrate, plan to do the new language and the most difficult parts at those times and the easier parts and doing old practice papers again as revision for generally less productive times like after lunch.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Surf the web. As information has become available in every language on the internet, many students have started to use English less than they did a few years ago. You can push yourself to use English by always using English search items on the English language Google site. You can also make it easier to understand whatever you read in English by using an online or CD ROM dictionary that translates a word on the website if you click on it. However, avoid services that translate whole pages of text as the translations are not too good and it will mean you are no longer practising your English.

Ways to improve your TOEIC score

Buy a pronunciation practice CD ROM. Although you don't need to speak in the exam, any work you do on making yourself sound a little bit more like a native speaker will help you understand the native speaker voices in teste.

Morning thoughts

"Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love." --Brené Brown