No Reading! – Don’t read transcripts or passages when doing listening practise, you need to develop your listening skills, so only read once the tests are complete.

Notes – learn to take notes while listening, practise taking down key information.

Question types: 

• • gist – content – “What is the topic of the discussion?”
  • gist – purpose – “Why does the professor mention…?”
  • detail – “What is stated in the passage about…”
  • understanding the speaker’s attitude – “What is the professor’s opinion of…?”
  • understanding the function – “Why does the professor say this…”
  • making inferences – “What does the speaker imply about..?”
  • understanding organization – “How does the professor organize the information about…”

Structure – Listen to different TOEFL examples and understand the different structures:

• Conversation
  • First, a problem is presented by the student.
  • Next, the campus worker offers a solution.
  • Lastly, the student or campus worker typically describes the steps needed to take to solve the problem. 
• Lecture
  • Cause and Effect
  • Historical Narrative
  • Problem and Solution
  • Sequence of Steps
  • Compare and Contrast
  • Category with Specific Examples

Vocabulary – Words are less important in the listening, rather than practising to understand the general ideas and gathering details.

2nd speaker – During the short conversations between two people, the answer is often (but not always!) said by the second speaker.

Agreement – Learn about the different ways people show agreement or disagreement in a conversation.

Guess – Not sure, just Guess!