6/8/2020 Improving Your Reading Skills (For Test Takers)

For Test Takers

For Score Users
For Teachers, Advisors and Agents

Tips to Improve Your Reading Skills

Learn how to improve your English reading skills with these tips to help you prepare for the
TOEFL iBT ® test and university study.

Read in English as much and as often as you can.

Read texts on a variety of topics.
Read both academic and non-academic materials.

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Read about subjects that interest you and about subjects 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 whose classmates are taking the TOEFL ® test
…" and find the nouns they refer to.

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 university.
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Review glossaries/lists of terms used in academic textbooks.

Make a plan for studying new words.

Write a new word on 1 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.

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Study roots — a part of a word that other parts are attached to
-spect- (look at)
-dict- (say)

Study prefixes — a part of a word attached to the beginning of the word

in- (into)
pre- (before)

Study suffixes — a 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.
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oo o e a p es t a e p a at o o t e ea go a o d.

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 dictionary to learn correct meaning and word usage.
Get calendars that teach a new word each day, or look for websites that will send
you an email 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.

Learn to recognize different organizational styles so you

can understand the way an article or text is structured.

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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 the main ideas.

Look for the common patterns of organization you find in articles.

Pay attention to connecting words so you can understand the pattern of
organization.
Write a summary of a text, making sure that it incorporates the organizational
pattern of the original.

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

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If the text argues 2 points of view, be sure both points of view are reflected in your
summary and that appropriate transitional words are used.
Look at connections between sentences.
Look at how the end of 1 sentence relates to the beginning of the next sentence.
Think about the connection between the ideas of the 2 sentences.
Combine the sentences using appropriate transition words to show the
relationship between ideas.

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