Self-study methods

Hello.

Ehrr... Well, I do not know where should I start from.

Most English I know, I have learned from listening music, watching TV and chatting. I do not know any grammar rules but those you can learn passively and often make rough mistakes. My sentences usually sound kind of unnatural, and I am not very good at speaking. (Lacking practice, perhaps?) My parents have never cared sending me to an English course and now I regret I did not learn the language since I was a kid. Last year, I tried taking English classes, but it was a complete blunder. They had a test level which consisted of multiple choice questions and a spoken interview. Obviously, I did extremely bad in the spoken interview -my pronunciation is just awful-, but just okay on the test. IMHO multiple choice questions are just not the best way to measure one's knowledge: one might not know everything there, but feel familiar with the patterns and just feel the right answer. So in the end, they placed me on ADV3, which was the last but second stage of their regular course. Imagine me, someone who had never spoken a word of English to anyone else having to take part on English conversations and discussions. The class was small, there were just 3 girls beside me, but all of them had been studying there for 7 or 8 years already; they were already fluent. In other hand, I had a hard time trying to make myself understood. It is not all about shyness, just that it was somehow new for me and I was surrounded by people who could do it much better than me. In the end of the period, I decided to quite it 'cos it was a waste of both time and money. My parents wanted me to 'finish the course'. Their excuse was "hey, you only have one stage left, why not finish the course and then you're done with English?". Geez, parents! I was not learning a thing so I wonder what they meant by "you're done" when I was just "starting"... Since then, I just put English aside and was more interested on other languages, but I am aware sooner or later I have to learn it properly. Right now I am busy studying for my university entrance tests, but next year, after I am in, I would like to learn English for real. I think it is better to learn how to actually speak it and make accurate sentences before I try any group classes again. I mean, I still want to take the "test level" shortcut; just do not have another 8 years to sit and learn English. So I got some grammar books and Pimsleur to try to force myself to speak it, but I am still missing some on conversation. Any ideas? Does anyone know any effective method for English self-study?

Your English is comprehensible but it contains a few basic mistakes. There is a room for improvement. There is an effective method which is enjoyable and not boring to do. Listen to audiobooks(novels or any genre) while read their texts at the same time. In other words, follow listen-read method. Let a narrator read a book for you. Look up new words in your dictionary that you encounter while doing this and review them in a program like supermemo or fullrecall. Doing the same thing over a period of time can be boring so you need to bring in a bit variety to your study methods from time to time. Watch a sitcom or movie or tak to someone for a change. Delay your wriitng or speaking until you are exposed to a great deal amount of exposure to that language you are learning. You want to learn how to pronounce each and every word correctly from the beginning by listening to a lot of audiobooks and watching a lot of sitcoms. That's the only way you can master your spoken English without doing boring grammar drills. Try to learn English from real resources.