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Selasa, 20 Juni 2017

TOEFL Reading Study Strategies


This section is fairly straightforward, but you should still prepare for it in order to get your best score on test day. Use these TOEFL Reading tips to get the most out of your studying.


Take Practice TOEFL Reading Tests

Any reading that you do in English can help strengthen your skills and help you do better on the TOEFL Reading section, but it’s especially important to take practice TOEFL Reading tests. Taking practice Reading sections will help you strengthen your critical reading skills and become more familiar with the types of questions you’ll see.

We have a guide to all the best TOEFL Reading practice resources, including numerous free and official practice questions. Check it out to get some great study materials for TOEFL Reading.

Practice Reading Academic Texts

Doing practice Reading questions will help you become more familiar with the exam, but you should also be sure to read regularly in order to improve your critical reading skills. The best material to read is university-level academic texts that introduce a topic, since TOEFL Reading passages come from these types of books. Examples include any university-level books with the words “Introduction” or “Beginning” in the title (such as “Introduction to Victorian Literature” or “Beginning Zoology”. You can also look at 100-level college classes and see which textbooks they assign students. These are likely introductory texts.

If you don’t own any of these books yourself, ask a friend who has started university if you can borrow some of the books they used their first year, or visit your local library for university textbooks.

Try to read at least a few pages from these books every day. It’s more useful to do a little reading every day than to try and cram a lot of reading in at one time since this can make it hard to take in a lot of information, and it’s not as close to what TOEFL reading comprehension is like. As you read, pause every few paragraphs and think about what you’ve read. What points is the author trying to make? How are they supporting those statements? Are there any words you aren’t sure of? Try to figure out what they mean from their context, but if you still don’t know, look them up.

(Remember, you won’t need to know vocab that’s specific to a particular field or subject. For example, if you’re reading a biology textbook and come across the phrase, “The cytoplasm was transferred,” you should know what transferred means, but you don’t need to worry about cytoplasm since it’s a word you won’t often encounter outside the field of biology.) Read the next point for more tips on learning useful vocab words.
By reading academic texts regularly, you’ll improve your English reading skills and be more prepared for whatever passages the TOEFL throws at you.

Strengthen Your Vocabulary

A strong vocabulary is important for every part of the TOEFL, but it will help you most on the Reading section where you’ll come across the most words and occasionally have questions that directly ask you what a specific word means.

Decide if Taking Notes Helps You

Some people find taking brief notes while they’re reading the passages helps them remember what they read and answer questions more easily. Others don’t get much benefit from the notes and only get slowed down by it. Before test day, you should know which method works better for you.

While you’re taking your practice TOEFL Reading tests, try taking notes for some and no notes for others. Which method helped you get a higher score? Did you find one made you feel more comfortable or confident than the other? Did you still have enough time to answer all the questions? Think about which one you prefer, and follow that method on exam day. By having your game plan set before you take the actual TOEFL, you’ll feel more confident and prepared, which can help you score higher!

TOEFL Reading Tips for Test Day

Reading is the first section you’ll complete on test day, and you’ll want to start the test on a high note. Below are four tips to help you get through the Reading section smoothly.

Decide How You Want to Approach TOEFL Reading Passages

Like we discussed above with taking notes, different Reading strategies work best for different people, and you’ll want to have your plan of attack ready when you sit down to take the TOEFL.
How should you approach the Reading passages? Some people prefer to read the questions first so they know what to look for when reading, while others dive right into the passage. For most people, I find it’s best to start reading the passage right away since reading the questions first can eat up your time, and you’ll likely have to go back and skim the passage when answering questions anyway. However, this approach doesn’t work for everyone and, like taking notes, you should try the two methods on practice Reading sections to figure out which one works best for you. Come test day, you’ll have a plan for exactly how you’ll approach the passages and answer the questions.

Pace Yourself

If you spend an equal amount of time on each passage, you’ll have 20 minutes to read one passage and answer its accompanying 12-14 questions. That’s not a lot of time, so you’ll need to pace yourself during the exam.

Each person will have a slightly different timeline, but you should aim to spend about five minutes reading each passage and one minute answering each question. Taking practice tests will help you refine your time management skills.

Don’t Get Tripped Up on One Question

On the Reading section especially, it’s easy to get stuck on one question and keep searching the passage for some clue you’ve missed. If you’re not paying attention, you may not notice that several minutes have slipped by with you staying stuck on the same question. This can really end up hurting your score if you end up not having enough time to answer other questions, so it’s something you want to avoid.

During the exam, keep an eye on the clock or your watch, and if you’ve spent a minute on a question and still don’t know the answer, make your best guess, then move on to the next one. You can always come back to that question if you have time at the end.

Use Context Clues to Figure Out the Meaning of a Word

Even if you put a lot of time into expanding your vocabulary and memorize all the words from our vocab list above, you’ll likely still come across at least one word you’re not sure of on TOEFL Reading. When this happens, see if you can use context clues to figure out what the word means.

To do this, reread the entire sentence or even paragraph the word occurs in. Then, try to substitute a similar word that keeps the meaning of the paragraph the same. Once you’ve done that, look at the answer choices again. Are any of them close to the replacement word you chose? If yes, there’s a good chance that answer choice is the right one.

The Key to Acing TOEFL Reading

Many TOEFL students find the Reading section challenging because they have to read and analyze a lot of English in a short amount of time. Knowing what to expect and taking steps to prepare yourself can go a long way in helping you do well on this section.

While you’re studying for TOEFL Reading, be sure to take practice tests, read academic texts, strengthen your vocabulary, and figure out if taking notes while reading helps you or hurts you. On test day, during TOEFL Reading, remember to pace yourself, avoid getting stuck on one question and wasting time, and be sure to use context clues to decipher the meaning of tricky words.


Source : https://www.prepscholar.com/toefl/blog/toefl-reading-tips-passages/

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