How to improve your English skill, especially grammar? Most students will think that grammar is the most difficult part to tackle, especially in TOEFL and EPrT. There are two main components that are essential to make your English better. They are Vocabulary and Grammar. If you can master both of these components, you will be able to master all skills in English, such as: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.

My experience in improving vocabulary has been fun and I made it a habit. I like to learn from movies and songs. Everytime I watched western movies, I trained myself by listening to the sentences and quickly reading the meaning in the text. I think this is the easiest way to learn vocabulary. As time goes by, I learned another fun way to increase my vocab. I learn so much through songs too.

Be curious!

The question is “how curious are you about the meaning of the song?”. I myself had so much curiosity about the lyrics and the meaning behind the words. That’s why I can learn much from the songs, especially in improving my vocab. So, if you want to learn more vocabulary, you can start from your hobby and bring out the curiosity of what you hear and read.

What about the grammar skill? Is learning grammar as easy as the you do vocabulary? It is not simple, I realize, but it is also not as difficult as you think. Learning grammar is almost the same as when you learn physics at your school. There are so many formulas that you can find. But before you know about the formulas, you should fully understand about the components of its own formulas. Initially, I was struggling to find the best way to learn grammar, especially when I found a lot of grammar questions in the TOEFL test. Grammar test has two parts. Part A and B. Part A is filling the gap and part B is finding the errors.

Actually, there are only 3 (three) things that you need to identify before you answer the grammar questions. First of all, you need to identify the subject, if it is singular/plural or human/things/animal? Identifying the Subject is really important to know, especially if it's singular/plural. Singular subject or plural subject will change the verb in present tense depending on the time. Second, the thing that you have to identify next is the time. What is the time? Is it present/past/future (modal) or perfect? You can easily identify the time through Verb. Third, you have to identify the kind of question if the question is part A. Then, after identifying the subject and time, you have to identify the word before and after the gap. It is really important to identify the word, especially the word after the gap. If the question is part B, the third thing you have to identify is the error words by matching them based on the Subject and time.

Overall, knowing English grammar and mastering lots of vocabulary play very important role in learning English. Correct grammar won’t just demonstrate your English skill – it’ll also show that you are diligent and have an eye for detail. This is equally important if you are aiming to study abroad.