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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

• 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.
  • 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.

• 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
• 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.