Self-study tips that actually work

Here are a few tips to make the most of your time:

• Use official practice materials – go to Cambridge English for sample papers and past exams. These give you a clear idea of what to expect.
• Make a plan and stick to it – Even 30 minutes a day can go a long way if you’re consistent. Try mixing it up: reading one day, listening the next, then writing or grammar.
• Practise all four skills – Don’t just focus on what you’re good at. Make time for speaking, writing, listening and reading – even the ones that feel trickier.
• Check your progress – Don’t just do exercises and move on. Review your mistakes, understand why they happened, and try again.

1. Find time…even when you don’t have time!
   Think about how long it took you to master your first language: all that patient encouragement from your parents and grandparents, followed by years of school. We don’t have that luxury when we’re learning a second language, but we do have to dedicate time to it. This doesn’t mean spending your whole weekend studying – even in a busy schedule, there will be moments during the day (on public transport, at the post office) when you can do things like reading or listening to a podcast in English. If you keep using those moments, that adds up to a good amount of time for English in your week.
2. Make English part of your everyday life
   What do you enjoy doing? If you like cooking, try using recipes written in English. If it’s football you love, watch replays in English. If there’s a book you’d love to read again, find an English translation and take it to the beach this summer… So many of the things that you do every day – like watching the news or listening to music – can easily be done in English.  
3. Find ways to write and speak English outside your English lessons
   Forget exam tasks and start writing a diary in English – get into the habit of writing just a line or two a day, and that will lead to steady improvement over time. But how do you speak without a teacher or classmates to talk to? Like one translator of TED talks suggests, you could try live-narrating parts of your day to an imaginary foreign friend!
4. Make real friends in English
   Getting to know someone in another language is one of the best ways to speed up your improvement in that language. I used a website called Conversation Exchange to find language partners (people who spoke English at the same level as my Italian). We started by meeting online or in person to talk for 30 minutes in English and 30 minutes in Italian, but we quickly became good friends. Another way to make friends in English is to join a group class. Using English to chat to classmates can seem strange at first, but you can form friendships that continue after the course ends and keep practising your English together (as some of my Globally Speaking students do!). 
5. Find strategies that work for you
   Those ideas worked for me, but the most successful strategies are the ones that make sense for you. To get you started, here are some ideas that helped professional translators and polyglots (who speak multiple languages) to become fluent:
   • How to learn a new language: 7 secrets from TED Translators
   • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Language Learners
   • How to Become a Polyglot: 21 Solid Tips