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Study smarter with Cô Trâm
TOEIC strategy, study tips, free materials, and class announcements.
Workplace English: phone calls without the panic
No slides, no faces, no second chance to read. How to open a call, slow it down, check numbers and names, and close it cleanly.
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Workplace English: getting a word in at meetings
You understood everything and had something to say, but the meeting moved on. How to prepare one sentence, get in, and disagree politely.
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Workplace English: emails that get answered
A new weekly series on the English your job runs on. Week one: put the request first, plus five phrases worth stealing.
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After the certificate: keeping your English alive
A score lasts two years; the ability behind it fades much faster. A twenty-minute week that holds your level, and how to move from test English to the English you use at work.
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Should you take the TOEIC again?
How to decide with the score report in front of you, instead of signing up again out of disappointment, plus the four-week plan that makes a second attempt worth the fee.
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Your TOEIC score report, explained
The envelope has arrived. What the two numbers mean, how to read the abilities measured bars, what employers actually look at, and the first thing to do with it.
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The last seven days before your TOEIC
What to review, what to stop doing, and a test-morning checklist. The final week is for sharpening, not learning, and here is the day-by-day plan.
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Read faster without reading worse: three drills for Part 7
Reading speed is a habit, not a talent. Three ten-minute drills (chunking, purpose first, and the timed re-read) that get you through Part 7 with minutes to spare.
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Dictation and shadowing: a 15-minute daily listening routine
"Listen more" is not a plan. This is one: a one-minute clip, four passes, fifteen minutes, every day, and why it fixes Parts 3 and 4 faster than any strategy.
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TOEIC vocabulary: learn the words the way the test uses them
The TOEIC recycles the same business situations on every test. Here are the ten topics, a way to record a word so it sticks, and a ten-a-day routine.
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Your first full practice test: how to take it, and how to read the result
The part-by-part series is done. Now put it together: how to sit a full, timed TOEIC at home, score it honestly, and turn the number into a study plan.
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Keep a mistake journal: the 15-minute habit that raises your score
The series finale: how to turn every practice test into new points with a four-column mistake journal and a weekly 15-minute review ritual.
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TOEIC Part 7: A timing plan for the reading marathon
Fifty-four questions, and most students run out of clock. A minute-by-minute plan for single, double, and triple passages, and when to skim versus read.
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TOEIC Part 6: The sentence-insertion trap (and how to beat it)
Part 6 looks like Part 5 inside a letter, until the sentence-insertion question. The fix: read the passage as a story, not four separate blanks.
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TOEIC Part 5: Answer grammar questions in 20 seconds
Part 5 is a speed test disguised as a grammar test. A three-step routine (blank, answers, sentence) keeps you on 20 seconds per question.
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TOEIC Part 3 & 4: Read ahead, don't chase the audio
The conversations and talks are won before the audio starts. Learn the read-ahead rhythm that keeps you one question in front of the speakers.
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TOEIC Part 1 & 2: Stop losing the easy listening points
Part 1 and Part 2 are the highest-percentage questions on the whole test. Here is how to protect those points instead of giving them away.
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Welcome to the blog!
Study tips, TOEIC strategy, and class announcements from Cô Trâm, starting with the three habits every 900+ scorer shares.
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