In structural reliability analysis, the response surface method is a powerful method to evaluate the probability of failure. However, the location of experimental points used to form a response surface function must be selected in a judicious way. It is necessary for the highly nonlinear limit state functions to consider the design point and the nonlinear trend of the limit state, because both of them influence the probability of failure. In this paper, in order to approximate the actual limit state more accurately, experimental points are selected close to the design point and the actual limit state, and consider the nonlinear trend of the limit state. Linear, quadratic and cubic polynomials without mixed terms are utilized to approximate the actual limit state. The direct Monte Carlo simulation on the approximated limit state is carried out to determine the probability of failure. Four examples are given to demonstrate the efficiency and the accuracy of the proposed method for both numerical and implicit limit states.