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TOEFL Reading

Building your Academic Reading Skills

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Who should read this?

WARNING: there is no use reading this if you have only a couple of weeks to prepare for TOEFL and perfect your Academic Reading Skills.

I have had very few students who succeeded in getting a high Reading score with only a few weeks  of preparation, and they had all had a VERY ADVANCED level of Academic English to start with.

This article is only for those who understand (or have learned the hard way) that preparing for the TOEFL Reading section can take a lot longer than preparing for other sections. It involves lots of “baby steps” that, over time, build up to the mastery of the Academic Reading Skills and comprehension of the Academic English content.

The ‘baby steps’

If you are lucky enough to have started learning English at an early age, chances are you have already acquired a decent amount of the General English vocabulary. You can probably understand the news, simple articles, and  other everyday content. While that can be considered one of the first small steps towards the TOEFL Reading mastery, it is far from being enough.  TOEFL Reading materials are a completely different beast. They rely on the Academic vocabulary and a certain structure.

What to read

You have probably been advised to read newspapers and books, in order to practice reading and enrich your vocabulary. Although reading any content in English is helpful,  the best way to build the reading skills applicable to TOEFL and other Academic English Proficiency tests,  is to use the reading resources designed for that. This could mean textbooks, professional magazines, or, increasingly popular blog posts. Of course, not all websites and blog posts are created equal. Some are written professionally, using the appropriate, formal language and proper grammar. Others are meant to entertain more than educate; they are not very useful.

So how do you choose a credible resource?  If you are not sure, ask your TOEFL teacher.

My recommendation is:

‘DREAMREADER’

I have recommended this website to many of my former students. It is a free resource which offers reading practice compiled specifically for English learners. In addition to countless articles of various lengths and difficulty levels, this site offers short quizzes that are  comprised of  many types of  reading questions found in the  TOEFL Reading section.

The articles are grouped in five categories:

  • Easy English contains short articles and pictograms, which are accompanied by comprehension and vocabulary questions/quizzes.
  • Interesting English contains articles focused on different types of vocabulary. Some examples are:  Weather Idioms, contronyms and synonyms. Other articles address grammar points, like Tag Questions.
  • Fun English  contains short articles about places, people or  events. They are followed by comprehension and fact/detail  questions.
  • Practical English contains samples of forms, letters and invitations, followed by comprehension checking questions.
  • Academic English contains Academic articles of various lengths, followed by fact/details and  academic vocabulary questions.

So, before you dive into TOEFL Reading strategies and start working with the full-length TOEFL practice materials, ease into it by checking out Dreamreader.

TOEFL Reading Section

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Reading section – the structure

As most of us in the world of TOEFL preparation know, the Reading section of the Official TOEFL iBT consists of 3 reading passages.  These passages typically deal with academic subjects – anything from natural and social sciences,  to  business and the arts . The materials in the Reading section are  at the first year of university level.  Each passage is 600-700 words long, and contains ALL the information needed to answer the 10 questions that follow. So, remember, you don’t need to have extra knowledge on the subject itself ; knowledge of academic subjects is not what TOEFL tests – it tests your ability to understand and use English in the academic environment.

Reading section – additional passages

Now,  you might ask , what about the 4th and maybe even the 5th passage that some test takers get on their Official TOEFL iBT?  These ‘extra’ passages are not scored for you – they are there to evaluate the new test materials. You are going to have additional 18 minutes for each extra passage, along with the usual questions.  It’s worth noting here that EVERY passage should be treated the same. You won’t know which one (or more) is the additional material (it could be ANY of the ones you get).  As your Official TOEFL  test is approaching, you might want to start building your stamina by practising with longer Reading sections.

Reading section – how to prepare

Preparing for the Reading section of the TOEFL exam shouldn’t be taken lightly.  It is NOT something that can be mastered in a short period of time. It takes time and a lot of CONSISTENT PRACTICE. In fact, if you start building your general reading skills early, when the time comes (to focus on TOEFL Reading Section strategies and practice),  you will find that part of your TOEFL preparation a lot more manageable.

If you are just starting your TOEFL preparation, it is best to refer to the official ETS website.  The website offers all the necessary information about TOEFL , including the list of useful resources (like “The Official Guide to the TOEFL iBT” series).  You can also read about the  Basic TOEFL reading techniques and strategies  here.

If you are already familiar with the basics of TOEFL Reading, the next step is to APPLY that theoretical knowledge to daily reading practice. You can start with one TOEFL Reading passage (the first few days),  but make sure you get used to the full length Reading section, as well as the ‘extended’ version, early on. This will prevent you from feeling overwhelmed on the official test day.

Finally, keep consistently practising TOEFL Reading, even if you have to focus on other sections of the test. It will help you avoid a very common mistake a lot of TOEFL takers make – they neglect the reading practice if they need to improve other TOEFL skills (like Speaking and Writing); as a result, many of them often get a lower score in Reading, when they take official test again.

TOEFL Reading – Basic techniques and strategies

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TOEFL Reading techniques

There are a few common reading techniques that TOEFL you might already be applying  to this section of the test.  If  you are a thorough reader, you probably spend most of the, on average, 18 minutes you are given, reading every single word, and trying to understand every detail of every sentence.  Unfortunately, that usually leaves little time to answer any questions. This ineffective technique could be the result of treating the TOEFL Reading section like your ‘closed book’ university exam, where you don’t have access to the study materials during the test. Fortunately, the Reading section on TOEFL iBT is more like an ‘open book’ exam – your reading material remains on screen for 18 minutes.

On the other hand, you might have been told that you shouldn’t waste time reading, at all. If  you choose to listen to that advice, you probably just scroll to the end of the passage and start answering the questions immediately. Granted, this technique might work for some questions (the ones that do not require the understanding of the entire passage). However,  you will probably find that you don’t even know where to look for the information needed to answer those more complex questions.

The third reading technique is the one that has proven to be most efficient. It combines the reading for gist (also known as ‘skimming’) with the more detailed reading of some of the paragraphs (also known as ‘scanning’). This technique involves a very quick reading (maximum 5 minutes) of the entire Introduction (the first paragraph), the Conclusion (the last paragraph) and the first sentence of each paragraph in between. The first sentence of these so called ‘Support paragraphs’, is known as the ‘Topic sentence’.  The reason this method works is the common structure that most passages have – the Introduction gives you the Subject/Topic and the Main Idea of the passage (in other words, tells you what it’s about); the Topic sentences introduce the key (most important) points; the Conclusion usually summarizes the whole passage.

TOEFL Reading – general strategies

Once you have these pieces of the puzzle,  you will be able to start tackling the questions with a lot more confidence. Remember that you can skip questions in the Reading section. You can also go back and change your answers (of course, within the 18 minutes you are given for the passage).  Here is where an old test taking trick still applies – answer the quick and easy questions  (like vocabulary, detail and reference ones) first, as they appear; skip the challenging ones (like inference, purpose, cohesion, summary ones) for now; once all the straightforward answers are in place, go back to the more difficult questions. By the time you have answered  the easy questions, you will have a better understanding of the entire passage, which should help you answer those complex questions towards the end of the passage.

So, next time you practise the TOEFL Reading section, try to remember and apply some of these reading techniques and strategies.