Common Challenges in the TOEFL Listening Section and How to Overcome Them

While practicing for the TOEFL Listening test, you may come across different question types. So, you must know that there will be some common challenges in the TOEFL Listening section and how to overcome them is something that you must be familiar with.

Though the accents in the TOEFL listening audios may seem unfamiliar when you begin, getting used to them will help you gain the skill of active listening when you step into an English-speaking country. 

Know that, note-taking and time management are the key skills that you must develop to crack the TOEFL listening section in one go. Hence, if you have ever wondered about the common challenges in the TOEFL Listening section and how to overcome them, then this is the perfect article for you! 

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3 Tricks to Crack the TOEFL Listening Section

Before we look at the common challenges in the TOEFL Listening section, let us help you learn the top 3 secret tricks along with pro tips gathered from our expert trainers. Have a read! 

1. Familiarize Yourself with Different Accents

As you know, the TOEFL Listening section comprises a wide range of accents including the British, American, and Australian accents with different speaking speeds. Hence, consistent practice with a diverse set of English audios will help you get used to them. 

Pro tip: You can use audio resources from TED talks, Spotify Podcasts and BBC Radio. 

2. Practice Note-Taking

This is one important skill to develop in order to ace your TOEFL Listening section. With this, you must capture the main idea of the speech, as well as the key details effectively. Try to develop a shorthand to just focus on important points rather than penning down everything.

Pro tip: You can listen to some lectures on YouTube to begin summarizing the main points of it and then practice with the actual TOEFL Listening audios.

3. Find Out the Main Idea and Purpose of the Audio First

Remember, every conversation and speech will obviously have a central idea or purpose. Hence, you must listen carefully for opening statements or questions that will reveal this. Moreover, the actual main idea will mostly be said at the beginning and then it will reappear throughout the audio.

Pro tip: Listen for phrases like “Today I will be talking about…” or “The actual reason why…” “In today’s lecture…”

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4 Common Challenges in the TOEFL Listening Section

As you try to put in these tricks while you practice for your TOEFL Listening, you may come across some common challenges that every test-taker faces. Know that, this is completely normal! Do not worry, let us now help you with them as well!  

1. Difficulty with Unfamiliar Topics

The TOEFL usually does not expect you to know about everything in the world. Keeping this in mind, any candidate who appears for the test, be it an Engineer or a Lawyer, will surely know at least a bit about the topic the audio contains. That is, TOEFL uses general content that everyone would have come across. 

Even if you are unaware about something, do not panic. Try picking contextual clues. These would help you understand the main idea even if you come across any difficult or unfamiliar words. 

Also know that, if any difficult word is spoken, the speaker mostly gives out an explanation to it in most cases. So, listen to the audio with utmost concentration. This will help you in guessing the answer easily. 

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2. Understanding Real-Life English

Remember, the TOEFL Listening audios consists of real speech by native speakers and can also have informal tone and language. This includes the usage of filler words such as, “well” or “umm,” and sudden topic changes as well. For certain native speakers, this conversational style can be a bit tricky.

One good way to get yourself used to this way of talking is to watch and listen to celebrity interviews. Especially the ones where they speak in a casual tone. For example, you can try watching Jimmy Falon’s shows, American Talk Shows or even listen to Podcasts by native speakers in an entertaining genre. Also, gradually reduce the habit of watching with subtitles because you will not have any in your real TOEFL Listening sections. 

3. Missing Out On Important Details

The TOEFL listening recordings usually contain a lot of information and hence you do not need to remember everything said. Instead, you must focus on the key points and any important details that would directly relate to them.

For instance, numbers are rarely the correct answers to TOEFL listening questions. Hence, don’t stress yourself to memorize them when you hear one. But, if you hear two numbers being compared like the populations of two countries, make sure to remember the largest one since that could be relevant. Additionally,  focus on the relationship between those two details and the main idea being addressed about them.

We understand that preparing for your TOEFL can be a bit of a task, but with the perfect strategies and guidance, you can master it. Now that you are clear with the 4 common challenges in the TOEFL Listening section and how to overcome them, kickstart your preparations and don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you need expert guidance!

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