5 Tips to Succeed in Your TOEIC Listening Section!

The Listening section of TOEIC is a frightening section for those who are less comfortable speaking. It also requires a strong ability to concentrate. The test lasts 45 minutes, and you can’t stop the soundtrack or go back.

Tip 1: Keep up with the soundtrack pace.

The questions follow one another quickly. The test is long and the types of questions are very much in the same format. It is easy to lose one's focus. On the other hand, you will often have doubts between several answer choices and run out of time to answer. When a new question is announced and you haven't answered the previous question yet, answer randomly and focus on the next question. Don't try to go back.

Remember to answer all questions even if you must answer randomly (try to eliminate any answer choices that you think is not the right one). Indeed, you do not lose any points in case of a wrong answer. You just don’t earn any. In addition, by leaving empty spaces you may create a shift in the response grid, which you really want to avoid.

Tip 2: Get ahead of the soundtrack and anticipate possible answers.

While the narrator repeats the instructions for one part (these are always the same from test to test), you should focus on the question ahead. That way, as soon as you have answered a question, you can prepare for the next one (hence the interest of answering quickly).

For Part 1, you can look at the picture and imagine sentences describing the image. This will make it easier to identify the correct answer. For parts 3 and 4, reading the questions before listening to the dialogue or monologue is very helpful. It gives you information about the context, which makes it easier to understand the passage. In addition, it allows you to focus on the details of the soundtrack that you will need to answer the questions correctly. For instance, if you are asked "what time does the train leave?", you will try to remember this information while listening.

Finally, finishing each question before the allotted time allows you to keep up with the soundtrack pace, and to avoid a potential stress-causing dropout.

Tip 3: Improve your TOEIC vocabulary.

The TOEIC is a repetitive test. Mastering the vocabulary specific to TOEIC will help you a lot.

For part 1, you must master:

• The prepositions of place
• Verbs of movement (they will be used in continuous form "be + -ing")

For parts 3 and 4, some themes are recurring like:

• Making an appointment
• Weather reports
• Business trips for a seminar or a conference
• Communication in business
• Trade

Tip 4: Get to know the typical questions of part 2.

Part 2 is easy to study, there is a limited number of concepts tested and the same tricks come up several times during the same test.

• Yes / No questions . These are closed questions that await an affirmative or negative answer. Ex: "Have you left the package at the Post Office?" Please note, the answer to this type of question does not always contain the word "Yes" or "No". There are many traps. We could very well answer "I dropped off the package this morning". The test creators often include trick responses like “Yes, I went to see my grandmother.”
• Open questions . These are questions starting with an interrogative pronoun like "what / where / when / how long / how many / how much ...". You have to focus on the first word of the question which tells you if the answer is a thing, a place, a date, etc...

Tip 5: Get your ears used to it

There is no secret, to understand English you must first listen to it. We encourage you to watch all your series, films in English version WITHOUT English subtitles.

The absence of subtitles will force you to focus on the words you don't understand in the given context. The first few hours of movies without subtitles can be frustrating, hang in there as progress is fast with this method.