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TOEFL Reading Self-study Course


If you're aiming for a TOEFL reading score of 25 or above, you'll need to address the types of questions that often pose challenges for test-takers. Here's a step-by-step approach to tackle these challenging question types:

Vocabulary Enhancement:
Begin by building a strong vocabulary foundation. This will involve learning the meanings of commonly tested words and their synonyms.

Learn how to identify clue sentences, the sentences that contain the information used in the passage for information and negative information questions. Most information asked is implicit and so you need to figure out how to unearth the hidden information. Some words are critical to find hidden information; for example, “even,” “only.” Also learn how to recognize traps in the options. You need to be able to identify qualifiers and modifying words that limit the scope of application.

For inference questions, you will need to know these concepts and their use: contrapositive, contradiction, hypothetical syllogism, identity substitution. If you have these tools, inference questions are the easiest, since the answer is locally derivable. If you don’t have these tools, these questions can be the hardest.

For summary questions, you need to learn how to quickly eliminate wrong options. Wrong options are often wrong because they misuse some academic words (e.g., prove, demonstrate) or do not qualify correctly. You should eliminate options before rereading the passage for the topic sentences.

If you are having trouble with the reading comprehension style questions (information, inference, and summary questions), you should study my book. It will open your eyes when you read option choices.

For sentence insertion questions, you have to know the fundamental rules of academic writing: the progression from general to specific ideas; the transition from old to new information; and the logical use of transition words. For instance, when you see a pronoun (e.g., they, it, either, other), it is a clue.

To effectively paraphrase questions, it is crucial to extract the main points from the given sentences and rephrase them using appropriate grammar and punctuation. This involves understanding how to weigh different ideas using conjunctions, including punctuation marks such as commas, semicolons, colons, and dashes. Additionally, familiarity with basic paraphrase techniques is essential for conveying the original meaning while using different words and sentence structures.

For the rhetorical purpose question, you need to develop the ability to identify the organization and purpose of paragraphs.

Consider utilizing my course to gain a comprehensive understanding of these elements and enhance your TOEFL reading skills.






      • Dr. Byrnes' TOEFL Reading Course  

    • If you are struggling with TOEFL reading, it should be because you do not know what the clues are in the questions, in the choices and in the passages. You don't know why they are clues because you do not have some of the following skills necessary to score high on TOEFL reading: 

      1. General vocabulary knowledge (vocab questions + understanding the passage) 

      2. Skills to extract asked information from the passage (information questions, negative information questions)

      3. Skills to infer unmentioned yet implied ideas in the passage by way of using various types of inference methods, such as syllogism, comparison, causation and synthesis (inference questions)

      4. Skills to understand academic passages that aim to explain, propose, test, vindicate, question or refute an idea or a hypothesis by way of devising an experiment, providing confirming evidence, a counterexample or an alternative hypothesis (rhetorical purpose questions and organization questions)

      5. Skills to rephrase the same ideas with different sentence constructions or to concisely reduce a long sentence with a semicolon, colon, dash or appositive (paraphrase questions)

      6. Skills to make ideas cohere or present them logically, using the three conventions of academic or persuasive writing (sentence-insertion questions and antecedent questions)

      7. Skills to identify wrong choices for a summary and identify correct choices based on the topic sentences of a passage (summary questions) 


      None are born with these skills: we all can learn them. To achieve a high score on TOEFL reading, you first need to acquire these skills and become a master of these skills by way of practicing the skills on actual TOEFL reading questions that require those skills to solve them correctly.


      In Doctor Byrnes’ TOEFL Reading Course, you can become the master of these skills; ergo, you will be ready to score high on the actual test. The course teaches you these skills in terms of the strategies for solving questions and then you will practice the strategies on many actual TOEFL reading questions grouped based on using the same strategies. These are the highlights of the course:    


      • 50+ hours of coursework on a dedicated website for TOEFL reading

      • The course is composed of three activities: lectures, exercise questions, exercise review

        • Lectures: Listen or watch lectures in a video or audio format, narrated by a native speaker, with accompanying written work. Some lectures also include PowerPoint presentations 

        • Exercise questions: Solve a set of exercise questions that require using the strategy taught in the lecture and submit your answers to check yourself whether you mastered the strategy

        • Exercise review: All questions come with explanations that help you understand why the correct choices are correct.

      • You can always ask Dr. Byrnes questions relating to TOEFL reading. 

      • This is a self-study course.

      • + manuscript of ebook (TOEFL Reading Comprehension) on Amazon

      • Enrollment fee for this internet course is $29.99. 

Enroll in Dr. Byrnes' TOEFL Reading

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TOEFL Reading Course Syllabus

TOEFL Reading Question Types

Vocabulary Questions