Listening to English is always the most difficult problem for most learners. So, what will the TOEIC listening part of the TOEIC test look like? There are tips, don't worry!
The TOEIC listening test is not difficult in terms of content, however there are 3 main factors that make the listening test quite difficult:
- Long, continuous 45 minutes.
- Many different requirements.
- Diverse voices (English, American, Australian).
Understanding those factors, you will easily have the correct strategy for the TOEIC listening test. Together EnglishTop learn that strategy now!
For those of you who are not familiar, listening to English continuously for more than 15 minutes will make you feel: headache, earache, fatigue, dizziness, drowsiness, anxiety and even depression. The main reasons why you feel this way are:
- Rarely listen to English often.
- You mainly listen to short content.
- Try to translate each sentence into Vietnamese.
Listen continuously, listen regardless (source: businessinsider)
That's why you are not flexible enough to fight continuously for 45 minutes with the TOEIC listening test. So what to do? The secret is very simple, do the opposite of the reasons that make you feel dizzy, dizzy, or have headaches. Specifically:
- Listen more! Listen every day, anytime, anywhere.
- Listen to the content at length. Listen to English conversations, speeches, and news programs that are at least 30 minutes long.
- Practice thinking in English.
- Another way is passive listening: turn on BBC radio, listen for about 2 hours/day, no need to understand, listen while doing other things. Listen to the point where you don't have a headache, can distinguish words, get used to the sounds, and still focus on doing other things, and you'll pass!
Listening a lot, listening for a long time, listening all the time is the secret for you to be able to equip yourself with the ability to cope with long, continuous listening without feeling tired. The next factor is concentration!
Each content in the TOEIC listening test lasts from 30 seconds to about 2 minutes. A normal healthy adult has an average concentration time of 5 minutes. Goldfish's is 9 seconds. It's hard to say about people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. If you are not one of these two people, there is no need to worry about your ability to concentrate.
The hardware inside gives you the focus you know you've got in abundance. So there are only external factors left. Common external factors that cause distractions when listening are:
- The tape is not clear.
- Noise outside.
- Many people go back and forth.
- There is one more reason: Sleepiness.
Practice listening in the noisiest place, why not? (source: bizweb)
To completely eliminate these factors, you have to live with it, get used to it, and ignore it. Practice listening to English in harsh conditions. One of the noisiest places where you can hear English is:
- Park bench.
- Library hallway.
- Near the entrance of 24/7 convenience stores.
If you are familiar with these environments, the ideal conditions in the exam room are excellent. If unexpected events happen in the exam room, you can still concentrate as usual.
TOEIC test has only 3 shifts, morning shift from 7am and afternoon shift from 1pm or 4:30pm. Whenever I listen, I feel sleepy, so you have to control your drowsiness while listening to concentrate and get high scores. To control crazy sleepiness while listening, again, you have to get used to it. The three sleepiest times that you can choose to listen to when practicing TOEIC listening are:
- 1:30 p.m., just after having a "tummy tuck".
- 9:30 p.m., eyes fluttering up and down.
- 6:30 am, woke up still dreamy.
Understand the structure of the exam
The TOEIC listening test has 4 parts with 100 questions. The Listening test alone is used to evaluate listening skills. You will hear descriptions, questions, conversations and information in English read directly on cassette or speakers and only have 45 minutes to listen and answer 100 questions by circling the answers. A - B - C - D.
Part A | Exam content | Number of sentences | Detail |
Part 1 | Image | 10 | Corresponding to each photo, you will hear 4 sentences describing it. Your task is to choose the sentence that best describes the photo. |
Part 2 | Q&A | 30 | You will hear a question (or statement) and 3 answer options. Your task is to choose the most correct answer among the three answers A - B - C. |
Part 3 | Short conversation | 30 | You will hear 10 short conversations. Each passage has 3 questions. Your task is to choose the most correct answer among the 4 answers in the test. |
Part 4 | Short piece of information | 30 | You will hear 10 short passages. Each passage has 03 questions. Your task is to choose the best answer from the 04 provided answers. |
So, what is the difference between the parts? How to practice listening for each part? What should you focus on listening for each section? Best test-taking technique for each section? The easiest way to earn points? What are the common pitfalls in the listening section? The answer is for you right here:
* Part 1 - images
This part is the scoring part, and can be called the easiest of the TOEIC test sections. In part 1, to achieve a high TOEIC score, you need to take the following steps when taking the test and taking the test:
- Observe the picture to mentally prepare for the vocabulary that may appear.
- Answer 2 questions: What is(are) he(she, they) doing? Where is(are) he(she, they) doing that?
- ALWAYS HAVE A GUESS IN YOUR HEAD IN ENGLISH. Once you have a guess in your head, it will be easier to compare it with the sentence read in the tape.
- Use the pencil tip technique to do the assignment.
+ Pencil tip technique:
The pencil tip technique is a technique not to be missed (source: media)
+ This technique eliminates the causes of losing points when listening to parts 1 & 2:
+ Traps: traps are also known as confusing answers. To avoid traps, pay attention to:
- Choose the answer as soon as the tape finishes reading.
- If you can't hear it, choose the right one, don't waste time regretting it.
- Take advantage of the time between two sentences to analyze the next picture.
In short:Effectively reviewing listening part 1 doesn't just sit and listen to questions. You need to use some of the following methods:
- Describe all your actions during the day in the present continuous form.
- Find random pictures on the internet or TOEIC test questions. Look at the picture and use at least 4 sentences to describe it. Read it out loud.
- Watch situation comedies and describe what is happening in a scene.
Watching movies is also a way to practice listening! (source: engagingmedia)
* Part 2 - Q&A
The difficult as well as the easy point of this listening section is that the question and answer passages occur naturally, which are real English situations. So the answer is not always as stereotypical as your classmates. There will be no Yes/No questions where you will hear stereotypical answers like Yes, I do/No, I don't. There is also no way the answer will repeat part of the question and add additional information like you thought.
For example, Where are you going to have dinner? – I'm going to have dinner in ____, that's grade 2 English, you won't hear such stupid answers in the TOEIC listening test part 2. So to do part 2 well, you need to pay attention to:
- Always determine the type of sentence that is said first.
- If it is a question, you must hear who what, when, where, why, or how. In case you cannot hear a clear answer, it is necessary to eliminate answers that do not provide the necessary information.
- Immediately eliminate yes/no answers to W/H questions.
- If it is a Yes/No question or a tag question, pay attention that the answer is not simply Yes or No.
- In case it is not a question, there are the following sentences: command sentences, complaining sentences, health questions, and situation description sentences.
- As soon as you hear the first sentence, you must predict the answer in your mind.
- Correct answers are often extremely short or provide more information than required.
- Continue using the pencil tip technique.
- If you can't hear it, choose the correct one. Don't waste time thinking about that sentence again. Prepare yourself for the next sentence
- Trap: confusing answers in this section often have the following two forms:
+ There are words that are similar to words in the question but are actually unrelated.
+ Words that read similarly can easily be confused with the question.
If you want to ask and answer well, you must know clearly how to respond
In short: To review part 2 effectively, you must clearly know how to respond and possible answers to the questions. To practice this skill, during exam preparation you need to:
- When you hear a question, press stop, create your 3 most possible answers for that question, then continue listening to find the correct answer. This will give you the reflex to immediately imagine the answer when you hear the question.
- After listening, turn over the transcript to analyze the questions and answers. You will draw out "patterns" for correct answers and wrong answers so that the next time you listen to the question, you will know what the correct answer is and what the traps are for the wrong answers.
- Listen to real conversations. Go to YouTube, search for the keyword Interview with _____. Fill in the blank with your favorite English speaking character such as: Bill Gates, Larry Page, Steve Job, Ronaldo, Warrant Buffet, Taylor Swift...
When listening to part 3, you need to pay attention to:
- Read carefully and understand the question.
- The relationship between speaker and listener.
- Where are they? – What topic to talk about? – What are their problems?.
- Who are the names mentioned in the article?
- Specific information: specific place, specific time, specific quantity.
- Remember that the order of questions follows the progression of the listening passage - the answer to the first question is usually in the first paragraph, questions 2 - 3 are usually in the middle and last paragraph.
How to focus on listening in the right place (source: quantrinhansu-online)
Therefore, to focus on listening in the right place and partly overcome the problem of not being able to remember the content of the answer, you need to note:
- Make the most of the free time to prepare to read the next questions and answers.
- If you don't hear a sentence in time, choose the correct one and skip it. Concentrate on the next conversation.
- Traps: There aren't many traps in this part, it's simply too challenging. However, you should also pay attention to the following disturbing information:
+ The available wrong answer has a number of identical words in the dialogue.
+ Incorrect answers have negative words that make the sentence incorrect (not, hardly, don't, won't shouldn't).
+ The wrong answer uses the wrong adverbs of frequency (always, never, sometimes, occasionally,...).
In short: For part 3, the most effective way to review is to improve your general English level and practice your test-taking skills thoroughly, specifically:
- Practice listening diligently to long, fast, and informative content. Ideally, CNN or BBC news reports on economic and social topics.
- Listen to business talk shows in English, reality shows about business.
- Make the most of listening exercises. After listening, open the transcript LISTEN AGAIN, READ AGAIN, SAY OUTLOUD the conversation AGAIN.
- Underline new words in questions, answers, transcripts, take notes and learn 5 - 10 words every day.
Short passage - the most difficult part of the listening test (source: movematcher)
This part is said to be the most difficult part of the TOEIC listening test. Although the difficulty is equivalent to part 3, because there is only one voice and is the last part, when you get to this part you often feel tired and sleepy. In this section, attention should be paid to:
- Once again, read and understand the questions and answers.
- Determine what type of information the piece of information is: news, advertising, talk, instructions. Don't worry, this information is given when introducing the information paragraph: “Question xx to Question xy refers to the following _____”. You need to pay attention to what it is to prepare mentally and to be able to eliminate some wrong answers.
- Determine who is speaking and pay close attention to the names given in the questions and answers in the speech.
- Pay close attention to specific information such as location and quantity.
- Remember that the order of questions follows the progression of the listening passage - the answer to the first question is usually in the first paragraph, questions 2 - 3 are usually in the middle and last paragraph.
Knowing that, you can focus on listening in the right place and partly overcome the problem of not being able to remember the content of the answer.
- Make the most of the free time to prepare to read the next questions and answers.
- If you don't hear a sentence in time, choose the correct one and skip it. Concentrate on the next conversation.
Traps and practice methods for this part are as effective as part 3
Listening well requires reading well
One of the problems that TOEIC test takers encounter in listening sections 3 - 4 (accounting for 60% of the questions) is NOT READING QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TIMELY, which leads to not being able to select information to retain and answer. words after listening. To be able to achieve a high score in the TOEIC listening section, it is necessary to do well in parts 3 - 4. To do well in parts 3 - 4, good listening is not enough, the ability to read quickly and grasp the requirements of the question is a factor. decision.
Similar to listening, if you are not used to reading English, reading for about 10 - 20 minutes will make you feel dizzy and stop absorbing information. This is very normal. There is no skill that comes naturally, it all comes through a process of practice and use. To read English faster and more comfortably, you need to:
- Read English every day starting with short content, followed by long articles.
- Master some basic fast reading techniques: surfing, scanning, keywords, pen tip technique.
- Pay attention to scanning keywords: to read quickly, you do not need to read the entire sentence, just pay attention to important keywords in the sentence. Keywords are words that contain important information without which the sentence would be unclear or incomplete.
- Add vocabulary daily: vocabulary is the brick that builds the language house, you will never have a solid English level without knowing a lot of vocabulary.
TOEIC exam pressure is considered a great motivator
To achieve the desired TOEIC results, every hour of study, every minute of study, every practice exercise is a high commitment, a tough battle between determination to achieve the goal and comfort. deadly easy. If you are not serious and disciplined with yourself, you will not ask for good results, and you will never achieve the expected results. Therefore, when taking the TOEIC test, both listening and speaking, you need to remember:
- 100% committed to your preparation.
- Eliminate distractions: turn off Facebook, unplug internet, turn off email, put phone on silent mode...
- Set the correct time for the test to be 45 minutes.
- If you plan to register for the exam (morning or afternoon), focus on listening practice in that session.
- Be persistent in solving problems: at least 5 - 8 problems before taking the exam.
- Learn from experience, learn new words and new structures after each exam.
- Grading and tracking progress after each problem solved.