How to Get a High Score on the TOEFL Reading
The most important thing to know about the reading portion of the TOEFL test is that you do NOT have enough time!
People who are testing you love to play on your stress – don’t fall into this trap. In the real Test you will have to read 3 or 5 passages on academic topics, and 20 minutes to read and answer all the questions of each passage. Do you think that is enough? Let’s see… Try to read the following short passage and measure how much time you need.
In southwestern France in the 1940s, playing children discovered the Lascaux Grotto, a series of narrow cave chambers containing huge prehistoric paintings of animals. According to scientific analysis, the colors in the paints were derived from ocher and other iron oxides ground to a fine powder. Some colors were brushed or smeared onto rock surfaces and others were blown on or sprayed on. Tubes made of animal bones may have been used for spraying because hollow bones, some stained with pigment, have been found nearby. How long did it take you? 2 minutes? You are a very fast reader, but… a real TOEFL passage is 5 times this, so it will take you at least 10 minutes to read the passage. You will then have another 10 minutes to answer 12-14 questions. Less than a minute per question. Do you still think it’s enough? And now… how many details do you remember from the passage you read? Are you sure you’ll remember all the details of five paragraphs like that? The answer is: NO, you won’t!
After a few questions you will get confused, because the passage is complicated and full of details. What is the normal procedure when you need a detail?
- read the question
- came back To the text
- find the detail you need
- came back To the question
- find the correct answer and remove the wrong ones
- answers the question
This will take 3-4 minutes.
It’s too much time! This is not a secret, but many students really don’t know it.
time is your enemy. You see, during the Quiz, many people get very angry because they left 8-9 questions unanswered. It’s their future, and I don’t think they’re smart. They just throw it away! Source: www.mytoefl.com/2007/09/21/let-start-with-the-reading/ [http://www.mytoefl.com/2007/09/21/lets-start-with-the-reading]
