TOEFL

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About The TOEFL Reading to Learn Questions TOEFL Reading Section Strategies What is Inference - How to Infer Intended Meaning Constructing Meaning With Context Clues Prior Knowledge Word Structure Reading Strategies Using Visualization How to Use Context to Determine The Meaning of Words What Are Connotation And Denotation - Definitions Examples Close Reading vs Big Picture Reading Strategies Get The Gist of an Essay Improve Reading Comprehension TOEFL Reading Practice

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TOEFL: Structure of The TOEFL Reading Section
TOEFL Reading Section Strategies

Looking for tips to help you get through the TOEFL reading section? Here you go! From managing the passages down to the question types and what order to approach them in, we've got you covered.

TOEFL Reading Section Strategies

TOEFL Reading

Before you can ace a test, you have to understand what it's testing. The TOEFL reading section is a test on how well you can read and understand passages in written English. On the TOEFL reading section, you'll get three to four passages. These passages are written like textbooks; you won't see anything weird, like poetry.

Each passage will be followed by 12-14 questions. That's 36-56 questions in total. The questions will only ask you about information in the passage. It's a test of reading comprehension, not outside knowledge. Most of the questions will be multiple-choice, but you'll also get a few special type called 'reading to learn questions,' which you'll learn about later in this lesson. There won't be any essays.

The Passages

Now that you know what's on the test, it's time to dive into strategy. Let's start with the passages. After all, you have to read the passages before you can start answering questions about them! Here are some tips for managing the reading passages on the TOEFL:

Read for the main idea, not the details
Skim the passage quickly to get the main idea. After you're done, try to summarize the main idea in one sentence, and then go straight on to the questions. This is good strategy because you don't get any points for understanding the passage; you only get points for answering questions. Most of the details in the passage won't show up in the questions, so you don't need to worry about them. It's true that some questions will ask you about details. But for those questions, you can always go back to the passage to check the details as necessary. It's faster and easier to work this way than to try to read for every little detail the first time around.
Don't get hung up on words you don't know
Even if there are several words in the passage that you aren't familiar with, don't panic. Instead of sticking on individual words, focus on the meaning of the sentence as a whole. If you can understand that, you're set.

The Questions

Once you've read each passage, you'll turn to the questions. You'll get the best results from doing the questions from easy to hard and using the correct strategy for each type. Here's the list, from easier to harder question types. The easiest questions will probably be.

1. Questions about word meaning

These are the 'In context, -------- most nearly means…' questions. If you're not prepared for these, they can really wreck your day, but once you know how to manage them, they're some of the easiest questions on the whole test. The key to getting them right is this: they're about word meaning in context, NOT dictionary definitions. English words can have several different meanings depending on how they're used in a particular sentence. The word meaning questions on the TOEFL are testing whether you can figure out which particular meaning is being used in this particular case

To answer these questions, go back up to the sentence and read it through. Underline the word you're being asked about and think of a synonym or another word you could replace it with. Then go back to the answer choices and pick the best match for your word. This will make sure you're thinking about the way the word is used in context, not the dictionary definition.

2. Questions with paragraph references

After you zoom through the word meaning questions, move on to the questions that will tell you specifically which paragraph they're referring to. They should start with something like 'In paragraph two…' These questions are still fairly easy because they tell you exactly where in the passage to look for the answer.

3. Other 'normal-looking' questions

After the paragraph reference questions, tackle any other standard multiple-choice questions (one question, four answer choices). Then go on to…

4. Insert-a-sentence questions

These questions ask you to insert a sentence at one of four places in a given paragraph of the passage. For these questions, you'll have to read the paragraph carefully. Look at transition words, like 'then,' 'next,' and 'also' to help you fit the sentence in. Then take your best guess and read through the paragraph again with the sentence added to see if it makes sense.

5. Reading to learn questions

These questions are easy to spot: they'll have a great big chart. Reading to learn questions ask you to organize the main ideas of the passage into either a category chart or a summary. Each passage will have one reading to learn question. These are the hardest of the question types, and you'll need to understand the passage as a whole, so save them for last. If you want more tips on reading to learn questions, there's an entire lesson specifically dedicated to them in this course.