How to prepare for the TOEIC® test?

[Joseacevedo]

Hi again Torsten,

Thank you very much for your advices, I have been thinking about this (what test to take) and I have decided that I will take the TOEIC, because I have read that this is requested for so many companies. The important, I think, is that the company or the place where you are going to work can has an idea of my level of English; because if I write in the CV that "I have a medium level of English" that is very hypothetical (in my oponion).

Since two or three days ago I have been looking for self-study books for prepare myself for this test ecause right now I don?t have time to enroll in any academy.

I know that there is an Official Guide from Peterson?s made by ETS, but it look pretty old and I am not sure if it have been recently updated. On the other hand, there is book named "How to prepare for the TOEIC Test" from Barron's Educational Series that (in my opinion) looks better than the Offcial Guide.

Do you know any other book that I use or is enough with one of these books?.

Ah!, I almost forgot, here in Spain when you are unemployed you have access to free courses of many subjects, so I am in an English Business Course and I am very happy because I am learning a lot of technical vocabulary.

Thank you very much again for your advices in the last post, it cleared me the differences between the two test.

Jose Acevedo

[Torsten]

So you are really determined to prepare for the TOEIC test - I'm glad you have made this decision. You hit the nail on the head - if you indicate in your CV that your English is of an intermediate level - the information will not be very useful. What exactly does intermediate mean? Here the TOEIC is much more precise and objective because it evaluates your command of English based on a score (actually, there are two separate scores - one for your listening comprehension and one for your reading comprehension.)

Now, you want to know how to prepare for the TOEIC. Well, you have taken the first steps by looking for TOEIC prep materials yourself. That's the key: Whatever you want to achieve - you will succeed as long as you move on your own initiative. How many people in your group know anything about TOEIC? You are the one who is looking for information, asking questions and practising your English. This is one of the skills your employer wants to see in you: Your willingness to learn.

In answer to your question - yes, there are number of TOEIC test prep books available. One of them is called 30 Days to the TOEIC Test. It is good because it comes with supplementary audio listening materials. I think you shop around a little on the Internet (including eBay and Amazon) you will be able to purchase a used copy of the book at a very reasonable price.

In addition you should make it a habit to listen to authentic spoken English every day. You don't need more time - simply change your daily routine a little. Why is developing your listening comprehension so vital? Think about how you learned English at school: Chances are you were one out of 20 or so students and your teacher was Spanish. She or he spoke very slowly and clearly and waited for you to respond. How often did you hear native English speakers talking to each other in business setting? So, here is my advice (by the way: the word advice exists in the singular form only - there is no such thing as advices just is the word informations doesn't exist):
When you get up in the morning, the first thing you do should be switch on CNN and have it play in the background while you go through your daily morning routine. Do this for at least 30 consecutive days and then we can talk about the results.
What do you think of this?

PS: There are more books and materials on the TOEIC but we should take it one step at a time...
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Joseacevedo]

Hi,

Thank you four advices. I am not able to listen to CNN, because I don?t have satellital TV right now, but I found a way to listening to BBC radio by Internet, I have tried it and I found that they speak to fast to me but I understand some phrases. But sometimes, althought I don?t understand all the words I can understand the idea better each time. I think (like you said) that is important listen to the radio or the TV a little every day, because if i do that I can train my day.

On the other hand, in my opinion it is a good idea to preparing to my TOEIC (with one of these books) at the same time that I listen every day to the radio. What do you think about it??

Thank you,
Jose Acevedo

[Torsten]

Hi Jose,

It's very good you have found a way to listen to the BBC on the Internet because in English we spell words one way and pronounce them in another. Most people who are learning English as a second language say The anchors and newsreaders on the BBC or CNN speak so fast.

It's important that you get used to the normal speed native speakers maintain when they speak English because in most cases they won't slow down for you. As you said - each time you listen or hear you will understand more and more. If you listen to somebody who is speaking slowly you will get bored after a certain period of time and if they use unknown words it doesn't matter whether they speak slowly or fast - it will take time for you to figure out the meaning of that new word.

So, if you continue to listen to the BBC every day for a least 15 minutes your listening comprehension will increase dramatically after a certain period of time (you should stick to the BBC for at least 30 consecutive days.)

Yes, if you use one or two TOEIC prep books your English will improve even more. Wait a few days and you will be able to use new material here at english-test.net too.
Regards
Torsten

PS: What kind of course are you attending now?
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Joseacevedo]

Hi Torsten,

The English course I am atending is about "Business English", that is the English language that is used in the companies, factories, etc. I mean, a formal way to comunicate in English.

I am learning a lot of new vocabulary and how to write letters in english, that is, the rules of informals and formals letters and when can we use each one.

We do many activities in class to practice how to answer the phone, how to present ourselves, how to ask to the caller to repeat something that we didn?t understand (for example: to spell a name) and all this in a formal way. We are learning the differences between the formal and the informal way, too.

Ah!, each Friday we watch a movie in english with subtiitles in english, but I am triying not to read the subtitles to train my heard. The last movie we wacthed was "A wonderfull mind".

I am happy with this course because is important to me to be able comunicate in a formal way in the laboral way.

Thank you for your advices.

[Torsten]

Dear Jose,

How is your TOEIC preparation coming along?
Many thanks for telling us about your Business English course. You see, there are many people like you taking English classes and they would like to hear what other people say.
I hope it is OK with you if I ask you even more questions: How many people are there in your group? How are the chairs arranged in your classroom? (Do you sit in rows or in a semi-circle?)
What social and professional background do they have? Did they learn English before? What about your teacher? Is she/he Spanish? Does she speak only English with you?
Do you have a course book or do you get photocopied materials?
I take it the course is organized by an education provider? (A company that runs further education programs). Does your course include a work placement?
Please, give us as many details about your Business English training as possible. You should bear in mind that a lot of people read your post every day and your experiences are very valuable.
Regards
Torsten

PS: Is it OK if I ask you to check the spelling of the following words you used? (You can type them into Google):

- atending
- wonderful
- comunicate

Also, there are number of nouns in English which are uncountable such as information or advice so you can say: Thanks for your advice or thanks for your information.

If you want to use a noun in the plural form you can say Thanks for your suggestions.
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Joseacevedo]

Dear Torsten,

First of all, thank you for correcting me in the spelling of those words (I will try to remember the next time) .

I haven?t started my preparation for the TOEIC test because this week was a free week and I wanted to take a brake, but I have been looking for information about the TOEIC books on the Internet and in the local bookshops.

So, now I am going to tell you about my English course:

In Spain the people that is unemployed (like me) can suscribe to a public organization called INEM something like National Institute of Emplyment in english. The advantage of being suscribed is that they help you to find a job (you are inscribed in their employment bag) and they have many free courses (Languages, Computing, Economics, etc) to prepare you meanwhile you are unemployed. So, they prepare you to find a job.

The courses are not giving by INEM, but third parties like
Institutes, Universities, Companies, etc. give these courses (INEM pays to them).

The course started on July 15th and finished on October 15th (vacations in August). The course will begin again on October 25th. The course is divided in two parts, that is because we had a free week.

In class we are used to sitting in rows but there some activities like Role Plays, Dialogs and Brainstorming in which it?s necesary to move the furniture of the classroom and we have to sitting in another way, so we can do the activity. The last one was a very funny activity, we made a very short theater play.

In my English course we are 10 people: two engineers, one economyst, almost all of them are companies administrator, and there is one person whose work is to arranged the books in a big library and has to know how to read antique books.

All we have in commom that we studied English at the school and in some other places (academies) outside the school. So, we are more or less at the same level.

We have two females teachers, they share the days of the week between them. One of them was born in US, and the other one in Spain, but both of them have lived long time in USA, so they speak very good english.

The teachers give their class in English, when someone don?t uderstand the meaning of some word the teacher explain it in English in a clearly way easy to understand. Usually, the teacher make us to talk between us, she gives an idea and we to talk between us about it, the teacher corrects any pronunciation mistake that we make.

We were using a book called "Business Basics" from Oxford, they give a original book to each student (no photocopies), we had finished this book and I suppose that they will give us another one tomorrow.

I like the course because we are learning how to act in formal way, so much in the written part as in the oral one. We are learning new vocabullary related to the Business like CEO or Chairman.

We are learning how to write formal and informals letters, how ask to the caller (by phone) to repeat somethiing that you didn?t understand and other things like that.

And every Friday we watch a film in English with subtitles in English (I try not to read them because in this way I can train my hear) .

I have learned in this course that you don?t have to be afraid to talk in English in public. I was very afraid to make mistakes when I talk in public, but I realised that anyone can make mistakes. In my classroom there are some people that feel afraid to talk in public and the has to force them to speak.

I still feel a little afraid of make mistakes, but I talk, it doesn?t matter if I make mistakes because I am not perfect and the teacher is there to help.

Talking in English in class give you more security when you have to talk in public and you can learn from your own mistakes.

Best Regards (informal way)

I am looking forward to hearing from you soon (formal way ).

Bye.

[Torsten]

Dear Jose,

Many thanks for your giving us an insight into your training program, I'm sure a lot of people will be interested in what you have to say. You are right - it takes some courage to speak up in public, especially when you use a second language instead of your mother tongue. It's very good that you have two different teachers so you get exposure to a variety of learning methods and dialects. Also, 10 course participants make for a dynamic group - it's a good size, you can do a lot of pair activities and the teacher is every student gets sufficient attention from the teacher. Business Basics contains quite interesting texts such as the Nokia story or the company profile of Pizza Hut. It comes with audio materials you can listen to at home. As you know listening to English language recordings on a regular basis is vital to your success. Of course, it's most effective if you listen to authentic resources like BBC radio or CNN. Please, let me know which TOEIC books you are going to purchase, maybe we can search for used TOEIC preparation guides on the Internet. What about your fellow students and teachers - what do they think about your idea to prepare for the TOEIC test? Have you spoken with them about your plan? Maybe, it will be more fun to prepare for the test together with some of your friends and colleagues? Preparing for the TOEIC test means you can increase your command of the English language as well as your level of self-confidence.

Let me know what you think,
Regards
Torsten

PS: Please, check the meaning of the word brake and look up the word homophone.
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[khoituan]

Dear Admin!
I've just find this website and i'm appriciate to know this site.Firstly. I'm very thank you,admin,who gave me so many ideal in study english.I come from Viet Nam and so hard to study well because dont have change to practic it.
I always study English by myself.
I spend time to study on net.
Please tell me which website can practic TOEIC and get higher score.I'm so poor so please tell me where can i get it free.
thank you in advance.
KhoiTuan
mail :khoituan@yahoo.com