TOEFL^® Essentials™ Reading Section

The TOEFL^® Essentials™ Reading section measures your ability to understand both academic and non-academic texts.

There are 30 to 45 questions, and the section takes 22–33 minutes to complete.

Task Types

• Vocabulary
  See a word and choose the most similar word from 4 options.
• General Reading: Daily Life
  Read a short, non-academic text (15–150 words) that you might see in everyday life, such as a poster, menu, social media post or news article. Answer 2–4 multiple-choice questions.
• Academic Reading: Tables
  Read a short academic text in a grid format. The table will summarize key pieces of information from academic sources such as textbooks, newspapers, magazines or websites. Each table has 50 to 85 words and 4 questions. Each question has 3 options: True, False and Not Stated.
• Academic Reading: Passages
  Read a short passage written at the secondary or postsecondary level. The passage can be on a variety of academic topics, such as science, history, art and business. Each passage is approximately 200 words long and has 6 questions.

A Closer Look