TIPS FOR TACKLING THE LISTENING TOEFL SECTION

1. Practice note taking whenever you are listening to something in English – only write down key words or phrases, use abbreviations for long words and always write in English. Record only the major points – you will not have time to write down the minor, unimportant details in the exam.
2. Stay focused: You can only hear the audio recordings once per exercise. These tracks are relatively long (up to 5 minutes). You will hear a lot of information. You therefore need to stay focused throughout the listening phase
3. Improve your vocabulary – the more words you know, the easier it will be for you to understand the listening section. Learn new vocab and save words you have trouble with by becoming an English.
4. Download listening practice lessons, such as lessons on Daily English Audio and stop it at different times. Try to guess what will happen next! This is a great way to practice your ability to connect and combine ideas. Then go back and listen to the lesson in full and see how well you did.
5. Take notes while you listen. Only the major points will be tested, so do not try to write down every detail. After testing, notes are collected and shredded before you leave the test center.
6. Pay attention to the speaker’s tone of voice. For instance, whether the speaker sounds excited, sad or confused can help you answer questions that are about the speaker’s attitude or opinion.
7. Recognize key points – who or what is the conversation about? What is the main point of the lecture? Why are they talking about this? Remember, the listening exam is testing your comprehension, not your ability to memorize and repeat what you have just heard
8. Find connections between ideas – how do these points connect to the key ideas of the passage? If they do NOT connect to the key ideas, they are probably not the major ideas of the passage and you should not focus on them.
9. Pay attention when someone in the exercise asks a question – often it is a clue that information is about to be given. However, this is not always true so be careful for responses that sound a lot like the answer to a question. Listen very carefully as these responses are often there to test your ability to understand the context of what you heard.
10. When listening to a lecture, make note of the way the lecture is organized and the way the ideas in the lecture are connected. Referring back to your notes will help you answer questions about overall organization.
11. If you are unsure of the correct response, try to figure out which choice is most consistent with the main idea of the conversation or lecture.
12. Listening questions must be answered in order. Once you click on OK, you cannot go back to a previous question.
13. Practice note taking whenever you are listening to something in English – only write down key words or phrases, use abbreviations for long words and always write in English. Record only the major points – you will not have time to write down the minor, unimportant details in the exam.
14. Categorize the type of exercise you are listening to when taking practice listening tests. Ask yourself – is it a lecture (mostly one-sided and on academic topics) or a conversation (language is more informal, two or more people)? This will help you understand the flow of the conversation more clearly.
15. Don’t forget to continue to build your English skills by listening to movies, TV and the radio in English. Doing this regularly will have a great impact.