TOEFL Reading - Active Reading Technique

Active reading help you to focus on the big picture. This technique helps to know how is the passage structured, what is its purpose and its main idea. Knowing this specific information  you can answer questions related to main idea  and primary purpose  of the passage. Moreover, it can be used to find any important more effectively and more quickly.

Therefore, the first thing you need is to recognize the three basic types of paragraphs you are going to find in a TOEFL passage.

Passage found on The Princeton Review - Cracking the TOEFL iBT 2009 book

• The introduction paragraph gives the basic topic of the passage. In this paragraph, the most important information is found on the first sentence (and sometimes in the second too) and on the last sentence. 

Paragraph found on The Princeton Review - Cracking the TOEFL iBT 2009 book

          With the introduction paragraphs, you will answer questions about 

           main idea and primary purpose of  the passage.

• Body paragraphs provides more information to support the topic presented in the introduction paragraph. with this type of paragraph, it is helpful to know how it is structured sentence by sentence.

Paragraph found on The Princeton Review - Cracking the TOEFL iBT 2009 book

          Body paragraphs help to answer detail and inference questions.

• Conclusion paragraphs gives a final statement about the topic. Also, sometimes, introduces an author's new opinion or point of view. It usually provides some additional details. Here, read the first sentence and the very last one.

Paragraph found on The Princeton Review - Cracking the TOEFL iBT 2009 book

         Conclusion is useful for answering primary purpose questions.


When you actively read, you should focus only on the larger topic (the big picture) and not be distracted by details. One useful clue to focus on the big picture is to know the direction of the passage.

Direction words help you to organize the information you are reading into same-direction or opposite-direction.
Same-direction markers tell you that the information that follows support the main topic. You do not need to put too much attention on the body paragraphs information.

Opposite-direction markers tell you that there is an important shift in the author's primary purpose. Pay particular attention to this change.

Hope you find this information useful for your reading section preparation. Additional, I am going to leave here a good video that also explain how to face the reading section.

Watch it and see you soon!!