The TOEFL iBT® Test: Improving Your Reading Skills

Advice for Reading
Performance Level: Low
Score Range: 0–14

Read as much and as often as possible in English.
- Read texts on a variety of topics.
  - Read both academic and non-academic materials.
  - Read about subjects that interest you and that DON'T interest you.
- Write basic questions to test your understanding of a text.
  - Write questions and answers about the first paragraph. Then guess what might be discussed in the next paragraph.
- Use your knowledge of grammar to understand difficult sections of a passage.
  - Think carefully about the relationship between independent and dependent clauses.
  - Look for words that refer back to some information given in a previous section of the text.
    - Look at pronouns and find the nouns that they refer to
    - Look at relative pronouns (who, that, which, whom, whose) used in adjective clauses (for example, The student whoseclassmates are taking the TOEFL® test....) and find the nouns they refer to
- Work with a reading partner. Read different newspaper or magazine articles.
  - Write questions about the articles you read.
  - Exchange articles with your partner and try to answer your partner's questions.
Continually expand your vocabulary knowledge.
- It is important to increase your vocabulary on many subjects because you will have to read about various topics at the university.
  - Review lists of terms used in academic textbooks.
- Make a plan for studying new words.
  - Write a new word on one side of a card and the definition on the back.
    - Write the sentence you saw the word in to help you learn correct usage
    - Study the words often and always mix up the cards
  - Group the words by topic or meaning. Study the words as a list of related words.
  - Study vocabulary by making a list of opposites (words with different meanings) and synonyms (words with similar meanings)
    - opposites (relevant-irrelevant; abstract-concrete)
    - synonyms (excellent, outstanding, superb)
  - Review the new words on a regular basis so that you remember them.
- Expand your vocabulary by analyzing the parts of a word. This will help you understand some unknown words that you see.
  - Study roots (a part of a word that other parts are attached to)
    - -spect- (look at)
    - -dict- (say)
  - Study prefixes (a part of word attached to the beginning of a word)
    - in- (into)
    - pre- (before)
  - Study suffixes (part of a word attached at the end of the word)
    - -tion (inspection)
    - -able (predictable)
  - Study word families (the noun, verb, adjective, or adverb forms of related words)
    - enjoyment (noun)
    - enjoy (verb)
    - enjoyable (adjective)
    - enjoyably (adverb)
- Use the context to guess the meaning of unknown words.
  - Notice when difficult terms are defined in the text.
  - Look for examples with an explanation of the meaning of a word.
  - Look at the other words and structures around an unknown word to try to understand it.
- Use resources to help you study vocabulary.
  - Use an English-English dictionary to learn correct meaning and word usage.
  - Get calendars that teach a new word each day or websites that will send you an e-mail with a new word each day.
  - Study the vocabulary you find on university websites that give information about the university and the faculty teaching at the school.
- Practice correct usage by making sentences with new words. This will also help you remember both the meaning and the correct usage of the words.
  - Have a teacher check your sentences.
  - Review the new words on a regular basis so that you remember them.
Study the organization of academic texts and overall structure of a reading passage.
- Read an entire passage from beginning to end.
  - Look for the main ideas of the article.
  - Look for the supporting details.
    - Pay attention to the relationship between the details and main ideas
- Learn to recognize the different styles of organization that you find in articles in English in order to understand the way an article is structured
  - Pay attention to the connecting words/transitions used for specific relationships.
    - steps (first, second, next, finally)
    - reasons (because, since)
    - results (as a result, so, therefore)
    - examples (for example, such as)
    - comparisons (in contrast, on the other hand)
    - restatements of information (in other words, that is)
    - conclusions (in conclusion, in summary)
- Outline a text to test your understanding of the structure of a reading passage.
  - Begin by grouping paragraphs that address the same concept.
    - Look for ways that main ideas in one paragraph relate to the main points of the next paragraph
    - Write one sentence summarizing the paragraphs that discuss the same idea
  - Look at connections between sentences.
    - Look at how the end of one sentence relates to the beginning of the next sentence
    - Think about the connection between the ideas of the two sentences
    - Combine the sentences using appropriate transitions words to show the relationship between ideas
- Write a summary of the entire passage.