Your listening ability is critical to success on the TOEFL Speaking section.

You must have excellent listening skills in order to get 26+ on TOEFL Speaking.

Why?

Because it is critical to understand the content of Questions 3-6.

In order to assess your listening ability, please write down answers to the three questions below:

Questions About TOEFL Listening

1. First, what was your TOEFL listening score from before? If you have not taken TOEFL yet, what was your listening score on your practice test?

2. What do you find most challenging about listening in English? Do you find it challenging to understand the pace of native speakers? What about the different words and phrases they use? Write down the three most challenging aspects.

3. Do you often speak with native speakers? If so, what do you talk about? Are you able to understand the majority of the conversation? Or do you miss many of the small details?

By answering the questions above, you will gain greater insight into your specific listening problems.

When you are studying for TOEFL, focus on improving your weak points.

You may do this by listening to podcasts, watching TED talks, watching YouTube videos, or watching movies/television.

If you practice listening, remember one thing:

Listen Deeply.

This means you must listen to the same resource multiple times so you can understand everything in the listening.

Now I want you to…

Analyze Your Listening Ability

1. First find TOEFL Listening practice material. If you haven’t already, I recommend signing up for Best My Test. Best My Test, formerly TOEFL Network, offers tons of practice resources for the TOEFL test, including full-length practice tests. It is a small price to pay for preparation.

2. Find a TOEFL listening section and listen. Take notes as best as possible. Remember to use abbreviations and symbols in your note taking. Also, indent your notes so you understand the logic of flow within the listening passage.

3. Check your answers once finished. Do you have at least 80% of the correct answers? If yes, then your listening skills are probably high enough to get a 26+ on TOEFL speaking.

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Once you’ve completed the analysis, go back and answer the Questions from above AGAIN.

Going through a listening exercise probably helped to clarify some of your responses.