100 ways to improve your TOEIC

score
1. Start today. Languages take a long time to become a
natural part of someone's brain, so the sooner you start studying the
better. If the two options are to do a lot now and then just revise a
little before the exam or start slowly now and then study a lot just
before the exam, you will learn three or four times as much using
the first method, and also remember the language longer after the
exam is finished.
2. 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 testdepending 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.

9. 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.
10. Get a job where you can use English. As TOEIC is a test
of practical, everyday English, using English everyday in a work
setting is the best possible practice for things like reading faxes,
emails and invoices in the test.
11. Volunteer. If you can't use English in your job, try
volunteering as a guide to foreign tourists, for an English language
telephone helpline, charity fundraising in an area where many
foreigners hang out etc.
12. Read. The thing you need most to pass the TOEIC test is
vocabulary, and the best way of learning vocabulary is through
reading. Although looking words up in a dictionary and learning
them later is a good idea for this, you need to make sure that this
doesn't slow down your reading speed (very important for the TOEIC
reading paper). You can practice both reading fast and vocabulary
by reading through a whole article, paragraph or page quickly while
only circling or underlining the words you are not sure about, then
stop reading and look up the words in a dictionary. At this time or
later, you will also need to transfer the most useful of those words to
a list of vocabulary to learn.
13. 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.
14. Read the news. Although the language in newspapers is
quite different to what you will read and hear in the TOEIC exam, the
fact that English language news comes out everyday and so is
always new is quite motivating- if you don't read it now, it will soon
be gone! The easiest news to understand is usually that on websites
like Yahoo or through Google news alerts. You can make it even
easier to understand by reading a story that you already know
about. Choosing business news might give you some useful
vocabulary if your Business English is weak. However, unless you
have a very high level, don't worry if you have problems
understanding the news on CNN and BBC News, as this is nothing
like the language in the Listening part of the exam.
15. 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.
16. Watch with English subtitles. Although watching videos
can be a good way of getting used to fast, natural speech, the
disadvantage is that it is very difficult to look words up that you
don't understand in the dictionary. Watching a DVD with English
sound and English subtitles makes it easier to understand and easier
to look words up. As you can easily lose concentration before the
end of a movie, short episodes of series are better practice.

17. 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.
18. Buy a speaking dictionary. Students often find the
questions in the listening difficult even though it only uses words
they already know. This is usually because they don't recognize the
word because they have only read it before and never heard it.
Listening to the pronunciation of each new word you learn and
repeating it a couple of times means you are more likely to
remember it and more likely to understand it when you hear it. Many
electronic dictionaries now have this function. If you are
embarrassed about doing this in public, you will need to buy some
headphones to go with your electronic dictionary.
19. 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 the test.
20. Change everything to English. Some of the reading texts
and listening texts in the exam are instructions on how to use
machines and office equipment. Changing the language of your
mobile phone, MP3 player (iPod etc.), internet search engine etc. to
English can be good practice for this.
21. 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.
22. Write. Although there is no writing in the exam, learning to
write the kinds of documents you will have to read in the exam is a

good way of finding out where the important information usually is

and so reading things quicker. It is also good for learning vocabulary.
23. Read every part of your dictionary. As well as being a
place you look up words you don't know, many modern dictionaries
also tell you how to write common business documents you will see
in the exam like emails, which words are most common in English
and therefore worth learning first, the differences between
commonly confused words (often used in trick questions in the
exam) etc. etc.
24. Write an English diary. People who don't need to write
English in their work or studies often get stuck on what they can
write if they don't have a teacher helping them. Writing about what
you did everyday means you will never run out of material. If you
can also write out whole conversations you had during the day, that
is exactly the kind of language that you will hear in the Listening
part of the exam.
25. 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.
26. 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.

27. 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.
28. 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.
29. Join a general English Conversation class. Although
there are many tricks in this list and on Usingenglish.com to boost
your TOEIC score in a short time, if you really want to gain more
than 100 points in the long term there is no replacement for just
improving your general level of English by finishing a class and
going up to the next level. A General English conversation class can
also be a good way of keeping you interested in English if you are
getting bored with TOEIC exam practice.
30. Do a conversation exchange. If you don't have the
money for an English class, don't like sitting in a classroom or would
also like the make foreign friends, try looking in local magazines for
a conversation exchange partner- someone who wants to learn your
language who will teach you English in exchange. As social chit chat
only really comes into the exam in Part Two of the listening, if you
want to push yourself for the exam you will need to make sure you
write down and remember any new words you or your partner use,
and try to speak about more serious topics like the business news.
You could also try taking a business magazine article to discuss.
31. 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.
32. 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.
33. 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.
34. 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.
35. 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.

36. 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.
37. 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.
38. 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.
39. 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.
40. 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.
41. 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.
42. 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.

43. 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.
44. 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.
45. 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.
46. 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.
47. 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.
48. 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.
49. 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.
50. Be realistic. If you are ever disappointed by how many
questions you have got wrong in a TOEIC exam or how many
questions you couldn't finish before the time limit, always remember
that the only people who will finish every question and get them all
right are near native speakers who have lived, and probably studied,
abroad when they were still young. Your aim is always to find the
easiest questions that you couldn't get right and work on them to
improve your score step by step.
51. 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.
52. 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.
53. 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.
54. 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.
55. 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!
56. 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!
57. 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.
58. 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.
59. 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.
60. 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.
61. 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.
62. 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.

63. 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.
64. 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.
65. Try real test conditions. Do a practice test in a library or
quiet caf so that you have exactly the same conditions of not being
able to move and having people around you and less than perfect
silence.
66. 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.
67. 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.
68. 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.

69. 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.
70. Time each question. As well as helping you to use your
time well in the exam, the adrenaline boost of doing something
against the clock can make you more interested in it and therefore
help you remember it better.
71. 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.
72. 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.
73. 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.
74. 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.
75. 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.
76. 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. If you can't get an MP3 player, it is also possible to
copy downloads onto a CD on your computer and then listen to them
on a CD Walkman.
77. 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.
78. 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.
79. 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.
80. 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.

81. 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.
82. 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.
83. 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.
84. 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.
85. 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.
86. Learn the number of syllables. This is another easy way
of making sure you understand words when you hear them in the
exam.
87. 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.

88. 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.
89. 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.
90. 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.
91. 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.
92. 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.

93. 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.
94. 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".
95. 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.
96. 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.
97. 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.
98. 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.
99. 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.
100. 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.
Source: usingenglish.com