Become Sherlock Holmes

Do you know who Sherlock Holmes was? He was a character in a series of novels written over 100 years ago in England. The novels were detective stories; they were mysteries. Sherlock Holmes would find clues to help him solve crimes (murders, thefts, missing people).

Many of the clues he found were easy to see, but only Mr. Holmes thought of them as clues—everyone else ignored these clues because they looked unimportant. Mr. Holmes used his mind to “put the clues together” to find the killer or thief. Other people in the story try to stop Sherlock Holmes; they try to trick him so he can’t solve the mystery, but every time he does!

The TOEIC Test is also a mystery. It is full of clues to help you pick correct answers. In addition, it is full of tricks trying to make you pick wrong answers.

But you probably know this already. So, why do you need to “become” Sherlock Holmes?

Because you don’t like the TOEIC! You don’t want to take it. You probably hate having to take the test, but it is important for your job and future.

Also, you probably think studying for the TOEIC is boring. The listening topics are not interesting. The reading texts and sentences do not give important information for your life. In fact, they are preventing you from relaxing and having fun.

Therefore, you need to put some fun into the TOEIC!

Begin to think of the TOEIC as a mystery novel—a puzzle to be solved—and not a test. You will find it a little easier to get keep listening to Short Talks, and a little easier to search for words and information in Texts. Each English word or phrase is a clue, a puzzle piece, and these pieces fit together with other pieces to create an idea or action, a purpose or situation. Find the right pieces, and you will find the correct Answer!

Imagine you are Sherlock Holmes. You have been given a TOEIC test. You have been told that inside the test are 200 correct answers. Your job is to find the clues. The TOEIC test is the crime you need to solve.

Now go and solve some crimes!