The educational team of PolyglotClub defined 3 strategies to pass your TOEIC. These strategies offer an effective approach to be prepared for the exam.

Beyond your level of English, passing sucessfully your TOEIC requires a good management of your preparation.
The strategies presented below will provide you with the keys to improve rapidly and gain points.

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Strategy 1: Know everything about the exam

This is a standardized test. In order to ensure the consistency of grades in time and space, the creators of TOEIC use the same identifiable exam structure (number of exercises, themes, types of questions, ...).
This is an opportunity to grasp, because it is possible before taking the exam to know in detail how it works: the sequence between questions, the time required to respond, how questions are asked, and even the themes to which they apply.

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Strategy 2: Prepare as a strategy

The TOEIC is not a contest, it's a test. It must completely influence your way of understanding the test and develop your method of preparation!
In order to "get your TOEIC", it is "sufficient" to achieve the score you need (850 points to qualify for a manager position for example).

Note: request the minimum score that will be required if not said explicitly. To succeed in your preparation, you must clearly identify your score goal.

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Your preparation should integrate this goal and you have to develop a strategy to achieve it. How? Based on the self-assessment of your current level. One rough estimate allows you to know approximately how many points you have left to succeed in your preparation, in a specific time. To earn these points, you have 2 choices: focus on correcting your weaknesses and/or refine your strengths.

A successful preparation depends on several variables:
- The preparation time you have,
- The number of points to reach your goal;
- You.
Let us explain: test yourself first with a few exercises, then with a practice exams. Give yourself grades per exercice and per section. Then identify the exercises for which you estimate you can increase your score quickly. Again, you may want to work your weak points as well as your strengths.

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In summary, to develop your strategy:
- Evaluates your level,
- Calculates the number of points you need to succeed your test,
- Identifies the sections in which you will gain points easily.

Strategy 3: Secure and stand for an effective method

Last fundamental advice: develop an effective method of work. This must arise from the strategy (see above: strategy 2).

It is structured around 2 ideas:
- Set a schedule,
- Rely on quality review media.

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The scheduling step is too often overlooked. Yet it is essential to firstly ensure proper management of the preparation time and also get confidence. Depending on the time of preparation, it can be broken down week after week by coupling active daily training phases (English classes, working on a book, training) and passive training phases (reading, movies / stories, radio, ...).

The preparation phase is often very short and even if you have set a good strategy and set a relevant schedule, choice of preparation materials is decisive. They are numerous and vary in quality. Choose a good media means increase your opportunities to make progress quickly.

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We will summarize below the main types of preparation media during the active and the passive phase:

preparation Media Types

Tip # 1: enhances your daily workout regularly and note down your questions, the vocabulary that you have discovered, the type of phrases that you wish to use. Gather this information in one file or document (Excel file, notebook) to store the information and to be able to review it easily.

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Tip # 2: take the time to choose the right preparation media. There are a multitude of varying quality. If you are often connected, we recommend that you include this podcast program developed by the BBC very well done.

You can also read the English-language press of business including famous newspapers like The Economist, Time magazine, the Guardian and the New York Times.

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Beyond the quality of the media you chose, your willingness to make the best out of it will speed up your progress. TOEIC success involves working methodically on quality materials, but above all, study regularly and in an intensive way!

At last, do not hesitate to get some help from a native English speaker. You can find persons willing to help you on the PolyglotClub.com webiste on the Find a friend section.

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