TOEFL iBT - Support Skills
In addition to the primary and secondary skills, a wide variety of academic skills support your ability to ace the TOEFL. These include notetaking, summarizing, paraphrasing, outlining, mind-mapping, synthesizing, skimming, and scanning.
The chart below shows you the many times you will need to utilize these support skills throughout the exam.
| Support Skills | Reading |
Listening |
Speaking |
Writing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Note-taking | Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Summarizing | No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Paraphrasing | Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Outlining | No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Mind-mapping | No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Synthesizing | Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Skimming | Yes |
No |
No |
No |
| Scanning | Yes |
No |
No |
No |
So make sure your TOEFL study plan covers each of these academic skills or you won't understand why you keep getting a low score on your practice tests. As in real academic life, all of these skills work together in an integrated way, to make you a more effective English student and communicator.