The TORCH is intended to identify students' comprehension levels, to measure progress, and to use content-referenced interpretation to identify those skills requiring further instruction. It consists of a set of 12 reading passages which are graded in order of difficulty and vary in length from approximately 200–900 words and include both fiction and nonfiction texts. Students read a passage and then use an answer sheet to retell the passage, filling in the gaps in their own words to demonstrate understanding.

TORCH Plus is an extension TORCH which was developed in response to requests for additional and more challenging material for upper primary and secondary schools.

TORCH Plus contains the four most difficult tests from TORCH and four new tests designed to challenge middle secondary students. It extends the range of styles of reading passages used in TORCH, and includes recent nonfiction texts written for adult audiences.