About the TOEFL

• The TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign

Language) measures the level of English
language proficiency of non-native
speakers of English.
• The PAPER TEST (Institutional) has three
sections: Listening Comprehension,
Structure and Written Expression and
Reading Comprehension.
 General TOEFL Strategies
• Use your time wisely.
• Get familiar with the instructions before taking
the TOEFL so that you will not have to waste
time reading them.
• If you do not know the answer to a question,
guess. There is no penalty for guessing.
Unmarked answers will be counted as wrong.
• Mark your answer sheet very carefully.
• Do not write in your test booklet.
 Section One:
Listening Comprehension
• Time: 30 to 40 minutes
• Questions: 50 questions divided in three parts.
• Part A: Mini-Dialogues. You choose the correct
written answer to a spoken question based on a
short spoken dialogue.
• Part B: Longer Conversations. You choose the
correct answers to a series of questions about a
longer spoken dialogue between two speakers.
• Part C: Short Talks. You choose the correct
answers to series of questions about a talk given
by one speaker.
 Section Two:
Structure and Written Expressions
• Time: 25 minutes
• 40 questions in two subsections
• Structure (15 questions). You choose
grammatically correct sentence
completions for sentences with missing
parts.
• Written Expressions (25 questions). You
choose the incorrect segments in
complete sentences.
 Section Three:
Reading Comprehension
• Time: 55 minutes
• 50 questions
• Five or six reading passages
• Usually the first reading passage is the
shortest and the last one is the longest
and most difficult one.
 General Tips for the
READING SECTION
 Read the first and last sentence of the
passage to establish the topic and main
idea. Skim the passage for the key
concepts and vocabulary.

 Read the questions following the passage

to find out what information your are
looking for. DO NOT read the answer
choices at this time; just read the
questions.
 Read the passage carefully, keeping in
mind the questions you will have to
answer.

 Answer the questions. Use key words and

phrases in the questions to scan the
passage for th correct answer. When you
find the answer in the passage match it
with one of the answer choices.
 Guess if you do not know the correct
answer. Use any clues in the question ad
passage to make your best guest. If you
finish the reading comprehension section
before the time is up, you can go back to
questions that you were not sure about.
 Build Good Reading Skills:
Skim and Scan
Skimming means reading quickly for
general meaning.

Scanning means knowing what

information you need to find before you
read.
 Vocabulary in Context
When you answer this type of question about a
word in the passage, you need to scan to find the
sentence that the word is in, read it carefully, and
reason logically.

How to make use of

context in reading passages:
Most writers try hard to help their readers to
understand the information in a reading passage.
They do this by providing “cues” or “aids” in their
writing to clarify, define, and explain difficult
concepts and key words and expressions in the
passages.
TEXTUAL CUES
Readers also depend on TEXTUAL CUES such as the
following to figure out the meanings of words and
expressions:

 The comma (,) is often used to set off context cues.

 The semicolon (;) introduces a clause that provides
information related to the previous statement.
 The colon (:) is used to introduce a list which might
served as a definition or as examples.
 Dashes or parenthesis – ( ) - set off additional
comments about a statement that define or explain.
 Italics is a special type of print that often defines or
explains specialized vocabulary.
 Abbreviations commonly use for clarification are e.g.
(for example) and i.e. (in other words)
 Check the topic and main ideas
of the passage
To answer questions on the TOEFL
about the topic and the main ideas of a
passage, follow these steps:
1. Read the first sentences for the topic and
main ideas.
2. Read the last sentences for the
conclusion and a possible restatement
of the topic and main ideas .
3. Skim the rest of the passage for the key
words that will confirm the topic and the
main ideas and show the organization of
the passage .
4. Read the first question about a passage
and answer it.
5. Read the answer choices.Eliminate any
answers that are definitely wrong,and
choose the best answer from the
remaining ones .
 Read about Main Ideas
The main ideas of a passage are
statements about the topic which indicate
a point of view about the topic.While the
topic is stated as an answer to the
question “What is the passage about?,the
main ideas answer the question “What is
important about the topic ?” A main idea is
most often a full sentence which contains
a statement about the topic.
To identify main ideas, look for key words
that show a relationship to the topic and
are repeated throughout the passage .The
main idea is often restated in the
conclusion of the passage.
 Check Purpose and
Organizational Patterns
Some TOEFL Reading Comprehension
questions ask about the author´s purpose
for the passage or about the organization
of the passage.
The purpose of a passage is the
reason the author wrote the passage ,or
the intent of the author in wrting the
passage.
The orgaizational pattern of a reading
passage is the way that the author
arranges the information to carry out his or
her purpose or intent in writing the
passage.TOEFL questions about the
general organizational pattern of a
passage ask you about the style the
author uses in his or her writing rather
than the purpose of the whole passage.
Answer choices for questions about pupose
and organizational pattern often require
students to:

1. Distinguish between the overall purpose

of a passage and the purpose of specific
parts of a passage.
2. Identify statements that are not true
about the passage or are to general for
the purpose of a passage.
3. Identify category words that restate the
purpose of a passage.

4. Identify the organizational pattern of the

passage by recognizing relationships
between points made in the passage and
recognize signal words in the passage
and identify the organizational patterns
they represent.
 Check Reference Words
Reference words are those words in a
passage that refer back to concepts
(words or phrases) mentioned earlier in
the passage or refer forward to words or
phrases that will be introduced.We use
reference words in English to avoid
repeating the same words.
 Reference words also help to tie
together the whole passage so that it is
easier to understand.Refernce words are
usually pronouns ,but may also be
possessive adjectives or specified items.
 Check Details and Factual
Information
A large number of questions on the
Reading Comprehension Section of the
TOEFL ask about the details and facts in
reading passages.These questions are
usually asked in the order that the
information appears in the passage.Your
understandin of the topic and main idea
 The questions about details and facts
are usually asked in THE ORDER THAT
THE INFORMATION APPEARS in the
passage.

There are two types of fact and details

questions on the TOEFL:
1) Questions about what IS TRUE
according to the information
2) Questions about what IS NOT TRUE.
Questions about details and facts are often
worded in the following ways:
About information that IS in the passage:
According to the passage, who
why
where
when
how, etc. ?
According to the author,…
The author states in the passage that…
The author indicates that…
The author refers to which of the following as…
It is stated in the passage that…
 About information that
IS NOT in the passage:
All of the following are mentioned in the
passage as … EXCEPT …
According to the passage all of the
following are true about … EXCEPT …
Which of the following is NOT mentioned in
the passage as…?
Which of the following is NOT stated in the
passage?
 To answer questions about facts
and details follow these steps:
1. Read the question and identify the key words and
controlling idea. REMEMBER that the questions will be
in order of the information in the passage.
2. Scan the passage for the key words and controlling
ideas. REMEMBER that you should look for synonyms
and related words as well as exact words.
3. Carefully read this part of the passage to answer the
question.
4. Scan the answer choices to match the information in the
passage the correct answer choice.
5. Be careful to look for the information that is not true in a
TOEFL question worded with NOT and EXCEPT.
 Answer choices for questions about
facts and details may use the exact words
of the passage ,but more often they are
restatements of the information and
require that you know synonyms and
related words.

In quetions that ask what is Not in the

passage ,information that is true is not the
correct answer.
 Check to Make Inferences
Questions on the TOEFL often ask you to
use your understanding of facts and details
which are directly stated in a reading passage to
make an inference (a prediction or conclusion)
about the passage. Questions about implied
information may be about a part of the passage
or about what came before or will come after the
passage. You may be asked to draw conclusions
about the passage itself, or to make predictions
about another related situation.
 To answer this kind of questions:
1. Remember that they are usually in order
according to the information in the passage.
2. Skim and scan to locate the information in the
passage that you are asked to understand.
3. Look for relationships in the stated information.
4. Use your understanding of the author’s
purpose and organization of the passage.
5. Use logical reasoning to draw conclusions and
make predictions
This kind of questions are often worded in
the following ways:
It can be inferred from the passage that…
Which of the following can be inferred from the
passage?
The author implies in the passage that…
Which of the following is the most likely …?
Which of the following generalizations is
supported by the passage?
Which of the following CANNOT be inferred from
the passage? (In this type of question, true
answers are NOT correct).
Check the Attitude of the Author
and the Tone of the Passage
A question that asks you about the attitude of
the author or the tone of the passage requires
that you think about the whole passage. In some
passages the author may express how he or she
feels about the topic he/she has written about. In
these passages you should LOOK FOR
WORDS THAT SHOW AN EMOTION OR A
STRONG POINT OF VIEW.
 References
Mahnke, K. & Duffy, Carolyn. “The
Heinemann TOEFL Preparation Course”,
Heineman, Revised Edition, 2000.

Presentation prepared by:

- Verónica Noriega Fernández
- Gloria Elvira García Valdés