Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method for selecting a target cell and a terminal, comprising: acquiring, by a terminal, signal strengths of a serving cell and signal strengths of neighboring cells according to a predetermined time period; determining a candidate target cell set, where the candidate target cell set includes neighboring cells whose first strength parameters are greater than a first strength parameter of the serving cell at a specific moment; detecting signal change trends, which are within a predetermined time length before the specific moment, of the neighboring cells in the candidate target cell set; determining that a neighboring cell in a set of neighboring cells whose signal change trends satisfy a first state in the candidate target cell set is a target cell, where the first state is a stable trend and/or an ascending trend; and reselecting the target cell as a serving cell.