Toefl Test Listening Section Strategy

          During the toefl listening we have to fully prepared. we have to train more and more. Without practice and study the test should be really hard and difficult. There’s some strategy for toefl test on listening section.

1.Listen to spoken English from multiple sources as much as possible. Such as listen to English spoken moves and English spoken TV channels, listen to the radio and as many other listening sources as you may find. The more you practice listening with this method the better listener you will become.

2.Listen for the main idea. Its usually found at the beginning of the listening passages, while the details are dispersed throughout the lecture, but the main idea will give you understanding of what the conversation is all about. Then you may listen for the details later.

3.Learn to find how the ideas are presented in the listening passage. Some of the main relations between ideas such as cause/effect, compare/contrast, and steps in a process

4.Learn to listen for signal words that indicate different part of the passage such as introduction,major steps,examples,conclusions,etc.

5.Build your vocabulary. While listening, try to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from context. It’s very important since there’s a big chance to come across words you don’t know at the real test. Then you should guess their meaning. Write down every word you don’t understand and include it in your wordlist. Try to memorize it and use it more in your speaking and writing.

6.Practice note taking. Note taking is allowed during all sections of toefl test. Note taking may highly improve your performance. It’s almost impossible to memorize all clues and all the details provided in the listening section. Moreover you can hear the passage only once. Therefore, to answer the questions you have to rely on what you remember from the passage and your notes.

7.Summarize in writing what you’ve heard using your notes. You’ll learn to find the purpose and main idea of listening, and also the most important details. You’ll also learn to take and use notes. It also improving your writing skills.

8.Familiarize yourself with the type of questions. Make sure that during the preparation you learn what answers are required by the different types of question. Some questions may ask you to provide two answers, others to click in a chart box. If you’re familiar with the question types, you don’t have to wasting your time in one question.

          Besides the strategy above you still have to pay attention, the timer will only count down in the silence that follows the narrator reading the question. Of all the sections, this is the only one where students don’t need much help with timing: 10 minutes is actually enough. Still, here’s a general breakdown for how much time you should spend on each listening. Each question should take you about 35 seconds to answer.

    10 min. - 7 min.: answer 1 - 5 of the conversation (3 min)

    7 min. - 3:30 min.: answer 6 - 11 of the lecture (3 min 30 sec)

    3:30 min. - 0 min.: answer 12 - 17 of the discussion lecture (3 min 30 sec)

          Be aware that sometimes the order of the listenings will change in a set, so you might hear the discussion lecture first. However, this doesn’t happen often. You should also memorize the total time for each listening, which is in parentheses.

          When one set finishes, the other will begin shortly. Again, each set will contain exactly 3 listenings: a conversation, lecture, and discussion lecture. You will always complete a total of 2 scored sets. Sometimes though, you will get an experimental set. That’s right. You’ll have another 3 listenings to do.

          First and foremost, you must take good notes as you listen actively throughout the entire listening. Many students struggle with this. They take either no notes--so they miss important information--or too many notes--so they sacrifice understanding and comprehension. No matter what, take notes. Build the skill and you will improve.

         

          Every now and then, a student will tell me that they score high and take no notes. They tell me that notes distract them. Immediately I think, well, you would score even higher if you did, but if your score is high enough, don’t change what works for you. However, if you’re reading this, then you want to get the best score that you can, so take notes.

          If you find that notes distract you, experiment with your notes. It’s like saying that exercise makes you weaker. Yes, in the beginning it might, but over time it builds your strength immensely and you can’t be as strong as you can be without it. I hope that analogy makes sense.

          Just as in the reading, the same question types will appear again and again in the listening section. The difference is that we don’t have a reading to refer to but only our notes and our memory. As a result, strategy for this question is not too intense but a general guide to aid in your choosing the correct answers. Below are the types.

 Main Idea, Detail, Choose 2 or 3 detail, Inference, Attitude, Purpose

 Read every answer choice and read each word carefully before choosing an answer. You are missing points because of this. Notice that there’s no modal there: may, might, could. It’s a fact: you are missing points because of this, so write that statement on your notes when you take the test and when you practice. Your score will improve if you remember this consistently and apply it for every single question.