It seems a little strange, but get thee to a dictionary, and learn every word you can, the meanings, etc. Sometimes just having an excellent sense of word power can really take you far. It sure helped me growing up. :-)
Embiggen your vocabulary. It's a pity the full OED isn't free, it's a beautiful resource.
I've caught conversations between teenagers waiting outside the door for the bus, and I shudder to think what English is going to evolve into if we're not careful. Thank goodness for "It Pays to Enrich Your Word Power", which I read frequently for years. :-)