The last question for each passage is a Reading to Learn question. These questions are designed to test your understanding of the entire passage. This includes understanding
- Organization
- Purpose
- Importance of Ideas
- Rhetorical Functions
There are two types of Reading to Learn questions on the TOEFL:
- Prose Summary
- Fill in a Table
1. Prose Summary
These questions ask you to choose three answers from a list of six. You can score one or two points, depending on the number of correct answers you choose:
| Correct Answers | Points |
| 0 | 0 |
| 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 2 |
Correct answers are a summary of the passage. They will not match exact words from the passage.
Incorrect ideas will be too specific, too general, or not related to the passage. Let’s think of a simple example:
- Mary is studying biology at university.
- Not Related: Mary likes chemistry.
- Too general: Mary is studying in university.
- Too specific: Mary had a biology test yesterday.
2. Fill in a Table
In this question, you are asked to divide answer choices into two different categories. You may see five or seven answers. It is random, so you don’t get to choose which type you take. They are scored like this:
5 Correct Answer Choices
| Correct Answers | Points |
| 0 | 0 |
| 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 0 |
| 3 | 1 |
| 4 | 2 |
| 5 | 3 |
7 Correct Answer Choices
| Correct Answers | Points |
| 0 | 0 |
| 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 0 |
| 3 | 0 |
| 4 | 1 |
| 5 | 2 |
| 6 | 3 |
| 7 | 4 |
More TOEFL Reading Lessons
Ready for more strategies to increase your TOEFL reading score? Try these lessons: