The Need for Synonyms (continued)
Recently, I've been talking about how important synonyms are for taking your TOEIC score to the next highest level. Of course, the more synonyms you learn for the words you already know, the more likely you can spot the KEY word(s) from the question inside the passage, conversation, or talk. Not only that, but you will make your speaking and writing more natural and sophisticated, too.
It's quite childish than when someone repeats the same word over and over (and over and over). 
One method for acquiring the synonyms is to make what I call "word packages." These are groups of four words, ideally synonyms, that you try to learn at the same time. Think about it: if you study four totally unrelated words, you must expend four times the cognitive energy to acquire these words.
On the other hand, if you study words which are closely related to each other, ideally synonyms,then the amount of effort is much less than four times. 
Here's an example:
Let's take a word everyone knows well. GOAL. For example, "My goal for the TOEIC is 800." What are some other words which have the same meaning?
GOAL
TARGET
AIM
OBJECTIVE
This would be a great word package. On one side of your vocabulary card you write the Japanese (目標). On the other side, you write "goal" in the center, but write the other three words in the upper-right-hand corner.
Here's another word package:
REQUIRED
MANDATORY
COMPULSORY
OBLIGATORY
Now, I'll admit that the words in this word package are right on the border in terms of how difficult the TOEIC vocabulary load is. But, without a doubt, if you are targeting a score about 800, this is the level of vocabulary that you should control.
Anyway, I hope that you'll try to use the concept of word packages when you design your vocabulary study program.
Robert
Recently, I've been talking about how important synonyms are for taking your TOEIC score to the next highest level. Of course, the more synonyms you learn for the words you already know, the more likely you can spot the KEY word(s) from the question inside the passage, conversation, or talk. Not only that, but you will make your speaking and writing more natural and sophisticated, too.
It's quite childish than when someone repeats the same word over and over (and over and over). One method for acquiring the synonyms is to make what I call "word packages." These are groups of four words, ideally synonyms, that you try to learn at the same time. Think about it: if you study four totally unrelated words, you must expend four times the cognitive energy to acquire these words.
On the other hand, if you study words which are closely related to each other, ideally synonyms,then the amount of effort is much less than four times. Here's an example:
Let's take a word everyone knows well. GOAL. For example, "My goal for the TOEIC is 800." What are some other words which have the same meaning?
GOAL
TARGET
AIM
OBJECTIVE
This would be a great word package. On one side of your vocabulary card you write the Japanese (目標). On the other side, you write "goal" in the center, but write the other three words in the upper-right-hand corner.
Here's another word package:
REQUIRED
MANDATORY
COMPULSORY
OBLIGATORY
Now, I'll admit that the words in this word package are right on the border in terms of how difficult the TOEIC vocabulary load is. But, without a doubt, if you are targeting a score about 800, this is the level of vocabulary that you should control.
Anyway, I hope that you'll try to use the concept of word packages when you design your vocabulary study program.
Robert