Verified answer

June 30, 2010

I am posting my question into this corner after a long break.

I have worked at my English studies pretty hard for about a year. Nevertheless, I can't recognize very many improvements. Additionally, I failed the English exam twice. I am not sure if my study method is appropriate.

Notes about the corrections: When you said "I had worked," you were using the pluperfect tense. The pluperfect is more "past" than the perfect tense (i.e., it occurs before the perfect.).

Example: The boy *had* finished his chores when his friends arrived.

He finished his chores *before* his friends arrived.

Typically, you don't use the pluperfect tense by itself.

If I were you, I would focus on a few main things including grammar/vocabulary and reading English literature. By reading literature, you are exercising essentially every aspect of the language except speaking.

By the way, you may have known that your profile name, "I think, therefore I am." is a translation of the Latin saying "Cogito ergo sum." If you ever get the chance to, get into a Latin class. Learning Latin is extraordinarily helpful for both English grammar and vocabulary.