TOEFL LISTENING TIPS!

Seven Tips to Improve Your TOEFL Listening Score!

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

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

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

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

5.      Build your vocabulary. While listening, try to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from context. It is very important since there is a big chance to come across words you don't know at the real test. Then, you should guess their meaning.

6.      Listen to conversations or lectures with variety of accents. In TOEFL iBT Listening section there is a variety of accents and pronunciations. For this reason, you should practice listening to a people with different accents and pronunciation patterns.

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