Did any non-native english speakers here take the TOEFL test?

[Moren]

Mr Khan said:
Besmirch means to sully, or to impugn.

I suppose those weren't definitions. But did you know those words?

I'd read Lord of the Rings. If you can fight your way through Tolkien's English, you can beat all English

Although i suppose that would be impossible by this weekend.

Anyway, of VGC's many ESL posters, you've always been in the upper tier with folks like Rol, haxxiy, or TrollWhisperer, so you should do okay. Don't stress.

I knew impugn. Not sully though.

I could never get to LotR, sadly.

I feel comfortable enough with my grammar, speaking and listening. I need to practice my orthography and vocabulary a lot. My third rate english teachers in high school never helped me improve them, they spoke in spanish all the time and never helped us learn english in a practical way, so I tried classes outside my HS when I was really young.

 

c03n3nj0 said:

Interestingly enough my brother is going to take it, as he's going into Bradford. English isn't his first language either, but our entire family's fluent so it doesn't matter. It's basically his first (and mine) now. 

The best way to learn better vocabulary is to read, honestly. Don't try to outright memorize and learn new words, it's a bit too late for that, and you'll only remember a few of them. 

If you ARE going to cram, focus on word roots, prefixes and the like. If you know things like "pro-" in a word that you don't know you can figure out the meaning.

Funny, I think I've read twice as much english books this year than in the past 5 years combined.