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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