The effects of polymerization reaction temperature, polymerization reaction time, catalyst and crosslinker addition on the properties of modified ethylene tar pitch (METP) were investigated, and the optimal reaction conditions were obtained by combining elemental analysis, FT?IR, XRD, Raman and thermogravimetric analysis on ETP and METP: The polymerization reaction temperature was 370 ℃, and the polymerization reaction time was 6 h, besides the addition of catalyst and crosslinker was 1.50%. The softening point (SP) of METP obtained under these conditions was 182 ℃, the coking value (CV) was 57.66%, the β resin was 42.26%, and the quinoline insoluble matter (QI) was 0.87%, which met the requirements of high carbon material precursors； The yieid of METP was 73.26%.