TOEFL Listening Test

You are asked about the purpose of the speaker in regards to the main idea or key point. E.g. why did the speaker say that?

​Gist-Purpose

• Listen to academic lectures in various areas. Start with short lectures about familiar topics, and then move on to longer lectures about unfamiliar topics. You can listen to a lecture more than once.

• You are never asked both gist-content and gist-purpose questions. It's always only one.​

• As an exercise, listen to a recording with someone, write down as much as you can afterwards, and then compare who wrote the most.

• ​Ask yourself, what is the speaker really doing when saying something? Differentiate between literal and real meaning.

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• ​Ask yourself, how can I describe the speaker's tone? Try watching some comedies as tone is very noticeable in these shows.

• ​Listen for signal words about the different parts of the lecture.

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• Identify the logical chain that connects a conversation or lecture. While listening, stop, summarize, and predict.

• Ask yourself, are the words spoken positive or negative? How do these words imply positive or negative ideas?​