Answering on the TOEFL Reading

Answering on the TOEFL Reading

 

Attacking the TOEFL Reading  

First, you don’t want to read the whole passage before you start answering the questions; if you do, it will be a very inefficient and time-wasting way to read. Instead, acquire a basic idea of the reading and prepare your mind for what you’re going to read about by first reading the title. Then, read the first sentence (which is the all important topic sentence) of every paragraph. Do this to get a quick introduction to the reading before you read it in detail. Below is a picture to get a visual idea of this; it's that important that we created an image to make it absolutely clear. The black boxes represent the title and pargraphs and the red lines represent what you will read.

Only spend 1 minute doing this. Anymore than that and it will be too much time; spend all of the time that you can answering the questions since that’s where your score comes from. To finish within 1 minute, you might have to read only pieces of the first sentences (subject, verb, object only) since they can be quite big.

After you read the first sentence, read question number 1, not the answers but the question. Establish an idea of what it’s asking about. Then, start reading the passage from the very beginning in search of the answer to that question. In this way, you will concentrate only on what’s important and what will earn you a higher score. We read the first sentences in the first minute to picture the idea of what the passage is about as we work to answer the question; it helps. This challenges students when they aren’t used to it. However, everyone who’s tried it sticks with this method of attack because it works.

Once you answer question number 1, go onto question number 2 in the same way. The TOEFL questions proceed in chronological order, so the answer to number 1 is in the beginning of the passage and the answer to number 12 is towards the end.

As we discussed earlier, timing is important and it’s very easy for students to run out of time. Follow this guideline carefully and you will NEVER have that trouble again. That's right: you will never have trouble again.

1st Reading

80 min - 79 min : read the first sentences

79 min - 72:40 min : answer questions 1 - 5

72:40 min - 66:20 min : answer questions 6 - 10

66:20 min - 60 min : answer questions 11 - 14

2nd Reading

60 min - 59 min : read the first sentences

59 min - 52:40 min : answer questions 1 - 5

52:40 min - 46:20 min : answer questions 6 - 10

46:20 min - 40 min : answer questions 11 - 14

3rd Reading

40 min - 39 min : read the first sentences

39 min - 32:40 min : answer questions 1 - 5

32:40 min - 26:20 min : answer questions 6 - 10

26:20 min - 20:00 min : answer questions 11 - 14

4th Reading

20 min - 19 min : read the first sentences

19 min - 12:40 min : answer questions 15 - 19

12:40 min - 6:20 min : answer questions 20 - 24

6:20 min - 0 min : answer questions 25 - 28

You should be able to tell that through this timing guideline, you have more time to answer the final questions of the reading than the first questions. The final questions demand the most time and concentration, so don’t change this.

Also, this timing structure is set up for when you do have an extra experimental reading. If you don't, simply start from 60 minutes and follow the timing precisely.