Timing is a choice;
you can always finish on time
If you have trouble with timing, it's a mistake in strategy.
Your job is to choose according to the timeline we provide in this chapter. Again,
choose the best answer according to our timeline even
when you're not comfortable and even when you're guessing. This alone will
raise your score.
Reading
Overview
When you sit down and take your seat after you’re finished
registering and the examiner allows you to start the exam, you’re going to see
the instructions for the reading section. They’re going to be read out loud to
you. That’s going to give you some time to psychologically prepare yourself and
become comfortable with what’s going to come next: the all-powerful reading
section.
After the instructions are finished, your first reading will
appear. It will consist of 700 words and it will take up the whole screen of
your monitor, so you’re not going to see any questions. You will need to scroll
down through the reading and then click next before you start to see the
questions. The reason is to give you a chance to look at the reading. It
doesn't mean that you should read the whole essay though. (We’ll learn more
about what to do here later).
The TOEFL
Readings
Remember (from the TOEFL overview section) that you'll
receive either 3 or 4 readings on your TOEFL. Each reading will contain
approximately 700 words and require you to answer 14 questions within 20
minutes. You’ll see a timer on the upper-right hand corner of your exam. It’s
there to help make sure that you don’t spend too much time on any one question
and it’s going to count from 60 or 80 minutes down to 0 (depending on if you
get that extra experimental reading or not; explained in our TOEFL overview section).
Once it hits 0, your answers will be recorded and you will move on to the
listening section never to return to the reading again. Consequently, to
succeed, look at that timer and monitor your time as you answer the questions
to answer all of them (or at least guess on them) before time runs out.
Answering on the TOEFL Reading
As you answer, you will always be able to jump to different
questions. For example, let’s say you’re answering questions 1, 2, 3, 4, and
then 5. Then, you think to yourself,
“Wait a second, I think I understand
3 better. Let me go back and change the answer.”
You will be able to do that. When you finish the last
question (number 42 or 56), you’re going to see a chart that shows you the
questions that you answered and didn’t answer. You’ll be able to double-click
on a question to jump directly to it in the reading. You'll also be able to
jump around a bit for the questions in the reading you're succeeding at during
the exam. I’m explaining this to let you know that you can bounce around once
you finish the reading to double check your answers. But, of course, we’ll
learn to be focused and exact as we answer so that we won’t need to do this.
When you finish the first reading, you’re going to move on to
another reading and so on and so on until you complete your set: either 3 or 4.
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 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 paragraphs and the red lines represent what you will
read.
Only spend 1 minute doing this. more 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.
TOEFL Reading Question Types
and Strategies
Below is a
lecture that I recorded to explain the basics of the question types that you'll
find on the TOEFL readings and the strategies to answer them. This is a very
important part of your preparation because these strategies will help you to
answer faster, easier, and more accurately. Consequently, pay careful
attention, listen more than once, and take great notes.
Practice
TOEFL Reading
1.
Set your stopwatch to 20 min.
2.
Start the stopwatch and start the reading.
3.
When the timer stops, stop your work.
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