The Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL, is a test used for the purpose of finding out the English language skill level of a nonnative English speaker. Admissions into many North American colleges and universities, and additionally other institutions, agencies, and programs, depend on the TOEFL scores of an applicant. Each university or institution has its own criteria for acceptable scores on the TOEFL for admissions.  Check with your university adviser or target university/institution for their requirements.

What is the purpose of TOEFL?
Universities and institutions require the TOEFL in order to get a good understanding about how successful you will be in completing your Education in English. 

The test is a computer-adaptive test, meaning that it adapts to your level of knowledge and skill in English.

For example, rather than having a set number of questions that range from easy to medium to difficult, depending on how well you are doing, the computer will pick questions for you and adjust to your skill level. So the first question will be a medium in difficulty and depending on if you get it right or wrong, the computer will pick out more questions.  

If you get the question right, it will select a question from you that is a little harder.  If you get it wrong then the next question will be a little easier. This format results allows the computer to precisely determine your skill level.

There are two key facts to keep in mind:

1.    The Reading Comprehension section is not computer adaptive.

2.    You get more credit for harder questions than easier ones.

Paraphrasing is important

The reading section of the TOEFL section will test your skills in recognizing a correct paraphrase. Paraphrasing includes reading a sentence or two and then putting what you read into your own words, keeping the overall meaning the same. It is important that you spend a lot of time practicing paraphrasing because it will also be useful for the writing and speaking section of the TOEFL test.

Picking up on pronouns

Know what pronouns are. Words such as him, her, they, them, he, she are all examples of pronouns. A main use of a pronoun is when it is used as a substitution for a name. For example, my sister or your parents. Picking up on pronouns can be done by reading and identifying them in English publications or online content.

Expanding your Vocabulary

If you are reading an English publication and come across a word that you do not know the meaning of, it is a good idea to first guess what the mean is from the way it is used in the overall sentence. Second, you should look up the word in the dictionary to find its meaning and try to use it in another sentence to further increase your understanding. Another great idea is to write down every new word that you learn or are having trouble with and make flash cards to study each word and their related meaning.

Reading Comprehension

Improving your comprehension skills can be done by reading an article or paragraph in a method called skimming. Skim reading is where you quickly read over the paragraph not, reading it word-for-word, but picking out the main points and realizing the main idea behind the paragraph of article. This is important to know how to do when you are running out of time on a test or just want to save time by skim reading a test question or article.