HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE TOEFL READING?
Sometimes people think that Reading is the easiest section of the TOEFL exam. After all, many of us think that reading English is easier than speaking or writing it. However, when we get to test day and are presented with a text about the factors that contributed to the socio-economic development of the city of Teotihuacan (Mexico), this part of the iBT may not seem as easy as we imagined it to be. For this reason, today we are going to help you to know everything you need to know for your TOEFL Reading Section preparation.
Table of Contents
The Reading Section Structure
The Reading Section is the first part of the exam. The time you will have to complete this part of the test can vary from 54 to 72 minutes, depending on whether you have to read 3 or 4 texts, and answer the 10 questions that go with them. For example, on the day of the exam one of the following two scenarios may occur:- Scenario A: 3 texts + 10 questions = 54 minutes (18min per text).
- Scenario B: 4 texts + 10 questions = 72 minutes (18min per text).
TOEFL iBT Reading Section Question Types
- Vocabulary: This question type seeks to test your knowledge of academic or formal English vocabulary. The word you will have to decipher will be a word from the text you have read. Your task is to choose the option that most closely matches the meaning of the word in the text. This type of question is of the type:
The word ‘advocate’ in paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to:
- Reject
- Abandoned
- Support
- Altered
- Reference: Here you will be tested on your ability to understand how a type of subject relates to a statement in the text. For example,
The word “they” in paragraph 4 refers to:
- The nomads.
- Indian children.
- Houses.
- The parents.
Would You Like to Know How to Prepare for the TOEFL in 4 Weeks?
- Inference: This type of question will test your ability to infer information that is not explicitly stated in the text. This type of question is usually formulated as follows:
What we can be inferred from the paragraph?
- The border collie attacks the sheep that it herds.
- The border collie was not always recognized as the ultimate herding dog.
- Border collie control livestock similar to that of other dog breeds.
- The border collie rarely works.
- Rhetoric or Purpose: It is about recognizing the “intention” that the author had when talking about a certain fact in the text. For example:
Is the author’s intention to give an example of his theory, or does he want to corroborate information, or does he want to oppose his opponents?
- Factual information: factual information questions will not ask you about the general idea of the text, but about a specific detail. Questions of the type:
“According to paragraph 1, it is stated that:”
- Negative factual information: This type of question is the same as the previous one, with the difference that you will have to choose the false option. The statement will probably say something similar to
“The following statements are true EXCEPT…”
- Text synthesis: These questions have a bit more complexity. In this case, you will be presented with a paragraph of text, and then you will be given 4 statements that are meant to summarize that paragraph. You must choose the statement that best synthesizes or summarizes the ENTIRE paragraph. The best way to answer this question is to summarize in your mind the general idea of the paragraph before looking at the options and then look for the option that most closely resembles your own synthesis.
- Inserting a new sentence: Now we come to perhaps the most difficult questions in the whole Reading section. Luckily they are in the minority! To answer the insertion questions correctly, you must have a good understanding of the reading, as well as a good knowledge of the rules of English grammar.
In this case, the question will give you a new statement that does not appear in the text and will ask you what would be the best place to add it. The question will give you 4 possible alternatives, and you must choose the correct location. To answer this question correctly you will have to pay attention not only to the information in the new statement, but also to how it might connect grammatically with the others.
Would You Like to Know Your TOEFL Score?
How to Improve Your Listening Score?
- Learn to manage your time: The TOEFL iBT has a limited amount of time. As we told you before, you will have about 18 minutes to read 1 text and answer the 10 accompanying questions. This means that you should spend about 6-7 minutes to read the text, and 1 to 1.5 minutes to answer each question. In the TOEFL, knowing how to manage your time is almost as important as knowing English. Practice until you find a reading pace that allows you to understand the general idea of what you are reading, even if you don’t understand 100% of all the words.
- Practice with and without a timer: When you are at home it is almost as important to practice with time pressure as without time pressure. What is the benefit of practicing without time control? Your brain must learn new strategies to cope with the TOEFL. For example, it must learn to identify the type of question you are being asked, to find key phrases or words, to discard incorrect options,… It is important that at first you train your reading ability adapted to the TOEFL and, once you feel the progress, you add the time variable in your preparation for the Reading.
- Identify incorrect answers: Sometimes, when we do not know what the correct answer to a question is, the best thing to do is to learn how to discard. One of the quickest ways to rule out is to pay attention to options that speak in absolute terms. TOEFL texts are academic in nature, that is, they are based on studies. Rarely can a study state with 100% accuracy that a certain theory does or does not apply to all cases. So when you see two options that look very similar, pay attention to which of the two options is worded in a more extreme way, and generally stay away from it!
- Read Plenty: While this may seem obvious, the best way for you to improve your TOEFL Reading Skills is to set aside time daily to exercise ACTIVE reading. By active reading we mean:
- Take note of vocabulary you don’t know and look up its meaning. There is a strong correlation between your score and the breadth of your vocabulary.
- Take the opportunity to either ask yourself or read questions about the texts you read and try, as much as possible, to identify the categories of the questions.
- Put yourself in the hands of TOEFL preparation professionals: if you are in a hurry and the stakes are high, seek help from companies with in-depth knowledge of the exam.
Hopefully this blog post has resolved all your doubts. However, if you have questions in regards to your TOEFL preparation, get in touch and we will let you know how EPIC PREP can help you achieve your goals. Differently, if you prefer to continue reading here is the link to our TOEFL courses page.
