Since this question can eat up a lot of your time, there is another strategy that works best for some TOEFL test takers. Gather the key words from the question and find the paragraph that contains them which is most likely to have the answers in it. Then, before looking at the answer choices, scan the paragraph for the general idea and any items that you think might be in the answer choices. Then look at the answer choices. Sometimes this approach actually saves time because you look at the answers with an idea of the paragraphs general meaning as opposed to just searching for the answer choices in the text. Of course, this also helps if the answer is false which means that the opposite meaning was stated in the text. On the other hand, if the answer is just irrelevant, then it could be a matter of just identifying those answer choices in the text and eliminating each one until the right answer cannot be found. If you’re really lucky, the right answer will be ridiculous and it will not fit in with the other answer choices, but I think this occurs more in test books than on the actual iBT TOEFL test.
POSTED BY TOEFL TIGER AT 6:38 AM LINKS TO THIS POST