Getting to Know the TOEFL iBT Test

The Reading Section

The three reading passages are about 700 words long and have about 10 questions each.

You have about 54-72 minutes to read and answer the questions.

These passages are taken from university-level, textbooks and are hardly modified.

That means they are not edited for the test purpose too much.

As you can see, there are nine different types of questions in each passage and there are various question types in each set or the entire reading section.

There are one, factual questions 2-3 questions per set.

Two, negative factual questions 0-2 questions per set.

Three, vocabulary questions 3-4 questions per set.

Four, rhetorical purpose questions 1-2 questions per set.

Five, inference questions 1-2 questions per set.

Six, sentence simplification questions. None or one question.

Seven, insert text questions, one question per set.

Eight, summary questions, one question per set.

Nine, fill in a table one question per set.

Now, before we learn how to approach each question,?there are a few steps you can take to?

prepare yourself for the reading section.?

First, take sampled reading tests to?find out what questions you may need to practice more.?

Second, find out what type of question you're looking at.?This will help you know how to find the right answer.?

Third, skim passages for?about 2-3 minutes to get?the general impression of the main idea.?

Fourth, practice frequently to?increase the speed of reading.?

You can do so by choosing?any academic text that you're interested in.?

Finally, consistently add to your academic vocabulary.?

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Factual and negative factual questions.

These questions are about details and facts that are found in the passage.

The information you need to look for is explicit, which means it is stated clearly and your job is to search and find that particular piece of information.

Therefore, you don't really need to look for a general theme.

You may remember the details when you were skimming the passage, but more often, you may need to refer back to the passage in order to know what exactly is said about the subject of the question.

Remember that your choice should answer this specific question that was asked.

Not just because it is mentioned in the passage.

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Negative factual questions,

Unlike factual and negative factual questions, inference questions require you to find implicit information.

That means the information you need to understand is not clearly expressed, and you need to gather some clues and other pieces of information.

In order to answer the question. Make sure your answer doesn't contradict the main idea of the passage.

Many of the options may distract you, because they contain some information from the passage.

But do not choose an answer just because it seems important or true or mentioned in the passage, but relate to another point in the text.

You should be able to defend your choice by finding the information in the passage that leads to the inference you chose.

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Rhetorical questions

Rhetorical questions ask you why the author presented a particular piece of information.

In order to answer these questions, you need to understand how some statements relate to the rest of the passage.

You don't need to look for overall organization of the reading passage, but look for the logical links between sentences and paragraphs.

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Vocabulary questions

Vocabulary questions are relatively easy to identify.?

They ask you what the particular word from the passage means.?

In IBT tests, the focus in on academic vocabulary.?

There's no word list to memorize for the test.?

But, being familiar with academic texts will be the best?way to increase your vocabulary.?

Fortunately, you don't need to know very difficult words and?the technical words are defined for you.?

Make sure you choose your answers based on what the word in the question means?in the particular context, because some words have several meanings and?you want to make sure you choose the right one.?

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Sentence simplification questions

Sentence simplification questions are very similar to paraphrasing which means the ideas can be expressed using different words or structure.

Some reading tests have one question like this, but there may not be any sentence simplifications in your reading section at all.

They're easy to recognize because they're highlighted in the passage.

Be careful not to choose an answer simply because it is mentioned in the passage or

may be true.

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insert text questions

To answer insert text questions, you need to figure out where a sentence in a paragraph belongs.

That means you need to understand the logic of the passage and grammatical connections.

Every reading section has one insert text question.

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Summary questions

Summary questions measure your ability to understand and recognize the major ideas in the passage.

You will be asked to choose the major ideas by separating them from minor ideas.

Or ideas that are not in the passage.

The correct answer choice will synthesize or put together major ideas in the passage.

You need to create a mental framework to remember the main ideas.

You'll be given six choices and asked to select three that summarize the main ideas.

These questions are worth two points.

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fill-in-a-table question

In fill-in-a-table question, you'll need to complete a table based on the information in the passage.

Your job is to complete the table by dragging and dropping the correct choices in the table.

These questions measure your ability to organize information into appropriate groups or categories.

These questions, like summary questions, require a mental framework.

You can earn up to three points.

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