Hate Vocab? Here are 3 Killer Ways to Expand Your TOEFL Vocabulary Base!
Hi everyone! My name is David and today I want to talk about Vocabulary for the TOEFL test.
How important is studying vocabulary for success on the TOEFL test?
In addition to familiarizing yourself with each of the four TOEFL test sections (Listening, Speaking, Writing and Reading) and mastering the test taking techniques for each of these sections, the final key success factor for scoring well on the TOEFL is knowing the right vocabulary on test day! You should put equally as much, if not more, effort into aggressively expanding your vocabulary base as for the rest of your preparation for all the other TOEFL sections combined!
This may sound a little crazy, but the good news is that by expanding your English vocabulary, you will not only raise your TOEFL score, but also, and perhaps more importantly, you will increase your overall English language ability. A well-developed vocabulary base will help you in all four sections of the TOEFL Test, and is especially important for the reading section. Once you get to your MBA or other Master’s Degree program, however, you will be in studying in a 100% English-only speaking environment where everyone is highly intelligent and speaking at a very high level of English. This is where all your hard work studying vocabulary for the TOEFL will really benefit you in the future!
So how do I “aggressively expand” my vocabulary base?
Good question! If you go to the book store and look at the TOEFL test study section, you will find endless vocabulary books, some with thousands and thousands of new words. Clearly if you buy a vocabulary book that is as thick as a large diction and start memorizing the words starting with the letter “A,” this will not work!
No matter how disciplined you are, and no matter how many words a day you memorize from a long list, you will not remember all of them, and the process is so painful, you will ultimately lose your motivation and simply stop studying!
So what can you do? There several key ways to successfully increase your vocabulary base while preparing for the TOEFL test.
1. Get a good, but manageable TOEFL Vocabulary book!
First, find a well-designed and manageably-sized TOEFL vocabulary book.
You want to choose one that has a good selection of words, covering the various topics you will see on the TOEFL (things like, History, Art History, Philosophy, Environment Science, Anthropology, Psychology, etc.) exam.
Remember that the TOEFL test was originally designed to test the English level of high school students who want to enter undergraduate universities in the United States. The vocabulary will come from subjects that you would normally study in a four-year liberal arts undergraduate degree program. What makes this difficult for students, especially for those taking the TOEFL for an MBA or other Master’s Degree program is that, while you may be familiar with these subjects in your own language, it is highly unlikely you would need to know these vocabulary in English unless you studied these subjects before. Therefore, it is important to find a vocabulary book that will give you exposure to a good range of vocabulary from the topics you will see on the TOEFL test. You also want to make sure the book doesn’t have too many words. If you try to memorize a simple list of 10,000 words, you will remember say 100 at a time and forgot today’s 100 words two days later!
I highly recommend the McGraw Hill 400 Must Know words for the TOEFL exam. It has 400 words in total, which is a very manageable number of new words, and divides them into 40 chapters of 10 words each.
Here is a picture of the book:
You can buy it on Amazon or Taobao (in mainland China) and it is not very expensive.
Why do I recommend this book? Well, I have been teaching the TOEFL test for 19 years now, and throughout all of my teaching, I constantly see the vocabulary covered in this rather short vocabulary book coming up on the actual TOEFL test. The words are grouped in sets of ten words each by topic, things like Agriculture, Art, History, Evolution and Migration, all of which are topics that frequently tested on the TOEFL exam.
This book also gives good explanations of the meanings of the words and provides excellent example sentences for each word to help you remember them. Another benefit of this book is that it has 3 sets of review exercises at the end of each chapter to practice the set of vocabulary covered in that chapter. The last of the three drills is a reading passage containing the chapter’s vocabulary and a set of reading comprehension questions. I have found these reading passages allow my students to master the vocabulary in the chapter far better than they would by simply memorizing a list of words, because they are able to see the words being using in an actual writing context.
Most importantly, however, the number of words in this book is manageable. Nearly everyone can handle memorizing 10 words a day. In fact memorizing 20, 30, 40 and, if you are a super person, 50 words a day are all also possible. Working through 2 or 3 chapters a day will help you efficiently and significantly improve your TOEFL-related English vocabulary base in a very systematic way.
Although the McGraw Hill 400 book is an excellent start, sadly there are going to be more than just 400 words on the TOEFL test that you need to know:-(! Let's move on to the second way to increase your TOEFL vocabulary base!
2. Keep a separate TOEFL vocabulary journal!
The second thing you can do to increase your vocabulary base is to keep a dedicated “vocabulary journal.” I am a little old fashioned, so I like to keep my vocabulary lists in a separate notebook. I put the date at the top of the page and mark down any words that I did not know, or more importantly, that prevented me from getting the correct answer when I am working TOEFL practice problems.
When you are studying, you can simply highlight the words in your text book as you study and then go back and put them in your vocabulary journal, or you can write them in your vocabulary journal as you come across them in your studies. Once you have finished your studies, you can go back and write the definitions for the words on your list.
Simply listing the words in your vocabulary journal and looking up their meanings in the dictionary or online only one time will not help you remember the words for very long, which brings me to my next point and the third way you can help improve your TOEFL vocabulary base.
3. Make Flashcards!
Flashcards are your best friend on the TOEFL and really your best friend in any form of language study!
Again I am very old fashioned, so I like to write my vocabulary words on a paper flash card and the definition and an example sentence using the word on the back of the card. Now with smart phones, however, your life has gotten even easier:-)! I checked out a bunch of free vocabulary flash card smart phone apps and I really like one called Chegg Flashcards. You can download it for free. Here are some screen shots of the app in the apple store:
I really like this app because you can make the flash cards yourself (both the front of the card with the word and the back of the card with the definition and example sentence) and organize them into groups according to your own categories. For the McGraw Hill 400 book, you can organize these by topic or chapter. For your own vocabulary journal words you can organize them by date or topic as well. Once you have made the card once, you can review the words you have learned anytime you have 5 minutes, in the early morning, on the train, or at the gym, your vocabulary is always with you!
So to sum up, expanding your vocabulary base is key to your success on the TOEFL test. When you are studying for the TOEFL make sure to:
1. Get a good, but manageable, TOEFL vocabulary book!
I recommend the McGraw Hill 400 Must Have Words for the TOEFL!
2. Keep a separate TOEFL vocabulary journal!
Get a dedicated notebook for words you do not know when you go through practice TOEFL test questions and review your lists as often as possible!
3. Make flash cards!
Paper or digital flash cards on your smart phone both work great! Make sure to have these with you at all times so you can get 5 minutes of vocabulary review in while waiting for the train, or waiting in line at the bank, or anytime you have a few extra minutes!
Let's get Started! - Today's TOEFL Vocab Training - Food Crops
The final thing I want to do in this vocabulary blog piece today is to give you a set of vocabulary words to get your started! Thee ten words below come from Chapter 1 of the McGraw Hill 400 Must Have Words for the TOEFL vocabulary book that I mentioned above.
Chapter 1 – Nature - Food Crops
Abandon (v.) 放弃 - to leave; to give up
Adversely (adv.) 不利 - in a harmful way; negatively
Aggregate (adj.) 合计的 - total; gathered into a whole amount
Cultivation (n.) 耕作 - preparing the land to grow crops
Fertilize (v.) 上肥料 - to supply nourishment for plants by adding helpful substances to the soil
Intensify (v.) 强化 - to increase in power
Irrigation (n.) 灌溉 - supplying water to dry land
Obtain (v.) 获得 - to gain possession of; to get
Photosynthesis (n.) 光合作用 - the process by which green plants make their own food from sunlight
Precipitation (n.) 降水 - water that falls to the Earth’s surface
I have also attached a PDF set of flashcards for the words above with this post that you can download and put in your phone to start reviewing the words immediately. Click here to download the flashcards!
The PDF cards have the English word on the front of the card and the Chinese definition and a sample sentence on the back. I will post more vocabulary lists and the accompanying PDF flash cards in future posts, so come back again soon!
Good luck with you vocabulary building and good luck with your TOEFL studies!
Always remember, life is short, study hard:-)!
David
