TOEFL Listening Tips And Tricks To Improve Your Score
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TOEFL Listening Tips And Tricks To Improve Your Score

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Rituparna Nath

Content Writer at Study Abroad Exams

TOEFL Listening preparation helps candidates in improving their listening skills. TOEFL listening preparation teaches candidates to pay attention, understand different tones, distinguish between different sounds, and more. TOEFL listening practice papers can help the candidate with unlimited lessons. Many TOEFL listening section practice sets come with real TOEFL listening mp3. Candidates may also find the TOEFL online coaching helpful for TOEFL listening preparation.

TOEFL Listening Preparation Tips 

TOEFL Listening score measures many different factors. You need to understand the prompts for your ease with English. Go through the below steps to prepare yourself for the TOEFL Listening test.

Recognize Intonation

You need to be able to recognize the intonational rhythm of English. You don’t have to study intonation as much as you would for TOEFL Speaking. Being able to understand the tones of important words and sentence transitions helps to understand what you hear.

Distinguish Between Sounds

You don’t need to study every sound as intensely. But you should be able to differentiate between distinct sounds in English, such as “d” and “t,” “b” and “v,” “l” and “r,” etc.

Practice Paraphrasing 

During your practice as you listen to TOEFL lectures, conversations, and audio recordings, do think about other words the speaker could have used. TOEFL Listening measures how you listen to the conversation or lectures happening in the classroom. Proper TOEFL listening tips can help candidates to improve their TOEFL scores.

Time Management

Mostly test-takers take 10-20 seconds per question, and that’s the timing you should ideally aim for. You need to learn to quickly consult your notes, you should be able to avoid running out of TOEFL Listening time on test day.

Don’t leave any Questions Unanswered

An important thing to remember is that you won’t lose marks for an incorrect answer. So you make sure to answer every question. Even if you’re not sure of the answer, you can guess. This is a good strategy for maximizing your score. In the Listening section, the answers are multiple-choice, so choose the most likely response.

TOEFL Listening Practice Sources

The more you practice from the TOEFL Listening materials, the easier it will be to keep your focus on test day. Longman TOEFL audio, Manhattan prep TOEFL audio, and more have a variety of posts that can help you familiarize yourself with lectures and conversations on tons of topics. Longman TOEFL listening mp3 download is easily available along with the Longman listening answer key. Get your hands on Longman complete course for the TOEFL test for better results.

Here are just a few resources for your help with various TOEFL listening topics:

TOEFL Listening Practice: Entertainment

  • Practice for TOEFL with Movies and TV
  • Practice Listening Skills with Recipes
  • Learn English with Star Wars
  • Boost Your English Listening Abilities with Videos and Podcasts
  • Improve Listening Speed with Movie One-Liners

TOEFL Listening Practice: Academic

  • TOEFL Listening Practice Sources for Lectures
  • Using TOEFL Lectures and Real Lectures in TOEFL Prep
  • Alternatives to YouTube for TOEFL Listening Practice
  • Learn to Listen without Transcripts Using Minute Science

TOEFL Listening Practice: Other Resources

  • TOEFL Listening: English Question Words Quiz
  • Phrasal Verbs in TOEFL Listening

TOEFL Listening Note-Taking Tips

Practice pacing with what you hear while taking notes attentively but quickly. This would include understanding which information is important and which one is ignorable. Include note-taking while practicing TOEFL listening to your TOEFL study plan to ensure a high score.

The note-taking strategy during TOEFL Listening is such a powerful tool. You need to make a balance between listening and taking notes. Make sure to write only the important points.

You can draw a flowchart to track your order of TOEFL listening.

InferWrite OftenWrite What You Understand, Not What You HearStructure Your Notes

Here is an example for you:

TOEFL Listening Note-Taking Tips

TOEFL Listening Study-Plan for 2-weeks

Here is a sample TOEFL Listening study plan, that might help you make yours:

Week One
Week 1, Day 1: Preliminary Practice Test
16.5 minutes total to answer the questions of all five recordings. Practice listening to the recordings.
Day 2 Go through TOEFL listening books
Day 3 Take Practice test
Day 4 Go through the pre-recorded listening sample audios
Day 5 Listen to the podcasts
Day 6 Take mock-test
Day 7 Rest
Week 2
Day 1: Second Practice Test
16.5 minutes total to answer the questions of all five recordings. Stop the timer when you are listening to the recordings
Day 2 Go through TOEFL listening academic resources
Day 3 Take Practice test
Day 4 Go through the pre-recorded listening sample audios
Day 5 Listen to the podcasts
Day 6 Take mock-test
Day 7 Rest

TOEFL Listening Books

The TOEFL Listening preparation books focus on topics that need more attention and help you to build your weakness into strengths. TOEFL preparation books are a helpful option during self-preparation. The best TOEFL books contain numerous practice papers, thorough information on TOEFL exam patterns and scoring, valuable tips, and test-day guidance as well.

TOEFL Listening Practice Papers

Solving previous year’s TOEFL practice questions, giving mock tests will enhance your English skills of learning and listening. But, your preparation should not just be limited to practicing previous papers. Exposure to varied sources will lead to an increase in your ability to listen. Here are a few practice tests PDFs for your further help:

*The article might have information for the previous academic years, which will be updated soon subject to the notification issued by the University/College.

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