By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
It is no easy task to achieve full marks in any test. Especially for those in their 50s, studying English and doing well in a test is likely to require more time and effort than for younger people.
Lee Tae-soo, 56, who runs a medium sized logistics firm here, scored 990 points or full marks in the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) held last August.
It was the 45th test he had taken. Since Oct. 2002 when he first sat for the examination, Lee had applied for the English test almost every month.
He developed his own studying style rather than adopting one of the more typical ways used by most young students pursuing a high score in TOEIC, such as studying at a private institute or focusing on exercise books.
``I have read more than 20 English-written novels including `The Da Vinci Code' and `Star Wars' over the five years to beef up my English reading ability,'' he said. ``I have frequently exchanged e-mails and documents with overseas customers in English. It was quite helpful.''
Thanks to his good English communication ability, he received a proposal from a local headhunting company to work as a top administrator at a Dubai-based logistics company.
TOEIC was created in 1979 by the U.S.-based education service provider Educational Testing Service (ETS) and introduced to Korea in 1982.
More than 1.78 million Koreans applied for the test last year.