How to Ace the TOEFL Listening Test
How to Ace the TOEFL Listening Test
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At first glance, TOEFL Listening may seem like an easy
section: all you have to do is pay attention to some short conversations and
answer a few questions on them. Should be easy for anyone who has watched a
movie or listened to music in English, right? As a matter of fact, the TOEFL
Listening section is often challenging because it requires test takers to
remember facts and information from several-minute long recordings and then
answer questions on specific information mentioned in the recording.
To really ace the TOEFL Listening test, you need to
know exactly what types of questions you’ll be seeing, how you should be
studying, and how to take great notes on test day. We cover all those topics
and more helpful TOEFL Listening tips in this guide.
TOEFL
Listening Section Overview
Listening is the second of four sections on the TOEFL.
The entire section lasts 60 to 90 minutes and includes four to six lectures and
two to three conversations. Each lecture lasts about three to five minutes and
is followed by six questions, and each conversation lasts about three minutes
and is followed by five questions.
The variation in time and length is due to the fact
that some test takers will have un-scored experimental questions in their TOEFL
Listening section, making it extra long, while others will have experimental
questions during their Reading instead. You won’t know which questions are
experimental and which are graded, so try not to worry about it too much.
The lectures and conversations will be similar to
those you’ll likely hear as a student. They may be a conversation between a
student and teacher, a class discussion, a lecture by a professor, or a similar
scenario. There will be pictures on the computer screen to give you an idea of
how many people will be speaking and what the setting will be.
For some questions clips of the conversation or
lecture will be replayed, but other than that, you’ll only hear the audio clip
once. You don’t have the option to replay it. This section tests your ability
to understand spoken English, listen for pragmatic understanding, and connect
and synthesize information.
What
Types of Questions Are There on TOEFL Listening?
You will come across three types of questions as you
complete the TOEFL Listening test. Since it’s important to know what to expect,
in this section we explain the different types of question and, for each
question type, give a sample question and tips to help you answer those types
of questions.
Standard
Multiple Choice
You likely have a lot of experience with these types
of questions. For each question there are four answer choices, only one of
which is correct. You’ll need to choose the correct one. This is the most
common question type you’ll see in TOEFL Listening.
Sample
Question
Tips
for Answering
- Read every answer choice. This may seem like obvious advice, but on the day of the test it’s easy to see an option that looks pretty good, choose it, and move along to the next question without checking to make sure there isn’t a better option. ETS will try to make some answer choices sound like the right answer, when they’re actually not. Reading through all your options will help you avoid getting fooled.
- Take notes while listening to the audio recording (how to do this is discussed in more detail below). Make them short and clear so you can easily review them when answering questions. They’ll often help you remember points you may have forgotten and that will help you answer questions correctly.
Multiple-Answer
Questions
These questions are like the standard multiple-choice
questions except they can have more than one correct answer. You’ll need to get
all the answer options correct in order to receive credit for these questions.
Sample
Question
Tips
for Answering
- · Questions with more than one answer will also be labeled as such, and you’ll also be told how many correct answers there are, so be sure to pay close attention when answering these questions so you don’t miss important information.
- · For these questions especially, make sure you read through each answer choice to be sure you don’t miss a correct answer. You don’t get partial credit for these questions, so you’ll need to select every correct answer choice in order to get the question right.
“Replay”
Questions
For these questions, you’ll hear a short part of the
clip played again, and you’ll then be asked a question on that specific portion
of the clip. They then follow the format of standard multiple-choice questions.
This is the only time on the Listening section where you’ll get to listen to
part of the audio recording again.
Sample
Question
Tips
for Answering
· Even if you took good notes during while
listening to the complete audio recording, play close attention when the short
clip is replayed. You’ll often be asked about a specific detail from the clip
that you wouldn’t remember just by looking at your notes.
· Focus primarily on the clip that was
replayed as opposed to what was said in the rest of the recording. For almost
all these types of questions, you’ll be able to choose the correct answer based
just on the clip, so you don’t need to worry about remembering what happened in
the rest of the recording.
TOEFL
Listening Tips for Studying
Now that you are up-to-date on what to expect on the
TOEFL Listening test, read these four tips and follow them throughout your
studying in order to be prepared on test day.
Listen
to Spoken English Regularly
The number one TOEFL Listening tip is, unsurprisingly,
to listen to English regularly. The more you hear English, the better your
listening skills will become and the easier you’ll find the Listening section.
You want to listen to spoken English, so music sung in English won’t be as
useful since English sounds different when it’s sung compared to when it’s
spoken.
Talk radio, news stations, movies, tv shows, and
podcasts are all great options (as long as they’re in English, obviously). Try
to listen to some English with background noise, such as an interview conducted
outside or in front of a large crowd. TOEFL Listening recordings purposely
include background noises, so you’ll want to be used to that.
Listen
to Different English Accents
It will also help you down the line if you practice
listening to different accents while you’re studying. The TOEFL Listening test
will include at least one native-speaker English accent outside of North
American accents. This is done to help prepare you for the variety of English
accents you’ll likely come across in the real world. These accents will come
from the U.K., Australia, or New Zealand.
Even native English speakers can struggle to
understand different English accents, so be sure to get some exposure to
different accents before exam day. Try listening to news clips or radio
stations from these countries if you’re wondering how you can hear more
accents.
Take
Complete Practice TOEFL Listening Tests
Part of what makes TOEFL Listening tricky is that you
spend the section going back and forth between listening to recordings and
answering questions on them. After three or four recordings, you may get tired
and your attention may start to lag. This can really hurt your score if you
miss important information in the audio recording, so you want to take steps to
avoid this, and one of the best ways to do that is to take complete practice
Listening sections.
A full Listening section is four lectures and two
conversations. Set aside time to take this section all at once, with no breaks
and no distractions, just like on the real TOEFL. Doing this will help you
become familiar with the length and pacing of the Listening section before test
day.
Get
in the Habit of Taking Notes
Even if you have great English skills and usually
remember the things you hear in English, you should still takes notes during
the Listening section. Each of the recordings is several minutes long and
contains a lot of information. If you don’t take notes, it can be easy to
forget some of points made and therefore miss questions on the test. Read the
next section for tips on how to take great notes.
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How
to Take Great TOEFL Listening Notes
The notes you take on TOEFL Listening will often be
key to how high a score you get on this section. It’s important that they are
clear and contain the information you’ll be tested on. Below are the three tips
you should follow to take great Listening notes.
Stay
Focused While the Recordings Are Playing
The TOEFL is a long exam, and it can be easy for your
mind to wander during parts of it. However, one of the worst times for this to
happen is during the Listening section when the audio recordings are playing.
You only get to hear each recording once, so if you miss a key point, you
likely won’t have all the information you need to get a top score on this
section. Your notes will only be great if you do a great job listening to the
recordings, so make it a priority to pay attention while they’re playing.
The longest each recording will be is five minutes, so
work to keep your focus for that long (doing practice problems, as discussed
above, will help you with this). The part of the Listening section where you’re
answering questions is typically less rushed than other sections (you’ll have
about 35 seconds to answer each question), so, if you need to take a mental
break for a few seconds, do it then so you can be ready to focus on the next
recording when it starts playing.
Write
While Listening
Some TOEFL test-takers try to listen intently while
the audio recording is playing and only begin writing notes once it’s finished.
This is a bad idea for two reasons. First, the audio recordings are each
several minutes long, so you’ll likely forget some key points when you’re
trying to write all your notes at once. Second, not writing your notes until
after the recording has ended means you’ll be writing them during your time to
answer questions, which can make you more rushed during the answer portion of
the section.
Instead, write notes throughout the recording. Keep
them short (see below), and try to work out a pattern where you listen for a
brief period of time, write down some short notes, then go back to listening.
Practicing will help you get better at this.
Focus
on Main Ideas
Don’t try to write down everything you hear. You won’t
be able to, and you’ll likely miss some important points because you’re trying
to copy every word. Instead, focus on the main ideas in the recording.
If you’re listening to a lecture, think about (and
take notes on) what the professor is trying to accomplish. Is he/she trying to
explain a new topic? Make something clearer? Explain two different opinions? If
another person, such as a student speaks, what are they trying to learn or
show? You may want to make a column in your notes for each speaker and write
the main points of what they say under the appropriate column to make it easier
to remember who said what.
It can be easy to get bogged down in all the details
of a recording and miss out on what’s really being discussed. The majority of
TOEFL Listening questions will focus on major points as opposed to minor
details, so focus your notes on the former.
Review:
How to Do Well on TOEFL Listening
You’ll need strong listening skills, as well as good
concentration skills, in order to ace the TOEFL Listening test. Besides knowing
what types of recordings and questions to expect on this section, you’ll need
to do some studying as well.
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