It takes a great amount of self-study to acquire English. Self-study is different from classroom or homework, in a way that you have no teachers or deadlines. It takes a lot of effort and strong will to constantly study by yourself in order to achieve your goals. However, self-study tends to get lower priority among various activities in a busy student life. The key is how you manage your time.

First, have specific goals. Write down the two points: “Until when, what you will study” “For what purpose would you like to study”. Try to be specific: for example, “I will take TOEIC on July 28, until then, I will repeat this textbook three times.” Count the days remaining until the test date and decide how many pages or how many hours a day you are going to study.

Second, try to study at the same time every day. For example, you could decide to study English at the AV Library from 17:00 to 18:00 every day and make it a habit. Even the days you don’t feel like studying, sit at a desk and try to start. Also, it is not a good idea to study in the middle of the night. Try to study effectively at the time when your brain is actively engaged.

Thirdly, finish one task a time and move on to the next. As a similar example of how to study a textbook, some people try too many things at the same time without completing anything at the end. You want to be efficient by focusing on one task at a time instead of spending time and money on various textbooks.

Finally, make the most use of the breaks in summer and spring, which are as long as three months in total. If you don’t use English at all during the breaks, you would have to start again when you come back to school. If you continue studying English during the breaks, it would be a great opportunity to improve your English. Work hard, and your efforts will always pay off. Let’s encourage each other and improve our English!