TOEFL Listening: Some Thoughts on Note-Taking

󠀠I'm David, lead consultant of the SK2 New TOEFL Intensive Course (perfect 6.0/6.0 on the new TOEFL, both at home and at a test center).

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Many students taking the new TOEFL don't know whether to take notes in listening, or how to adjust the notes they take.

󠀠I've answered quite a few students' questions about this. Here are the key points for reviewing your listening notes:

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👉 Only when something appears in the options but not in your notes should you go back and check the transcript.

👉 When you re-listen, check whether you missed the sound of the word, whether you actually recognize it in writing, or whether you simply don't know the word.

👉 Write down the words that really affect your answers separately, and listen to them again and again later.

👉 If it's a proper noun, what you need to note isn't the word itself but what's being explained before and after it.

The full, detailed version:

🧐 A student asked:

​"When I'm listening to an academic passage and my vocabulary isn't enough, I skip the words I don't understand and only write down the keywords I do understand. Then when I answer, I'm not sure about the options and can't use the process of elimination. How should I deal with this?"

😎 My answer:

"You're on the right track. Adjust your notes only when you find a sentence in the options that isn't in your notes: look at the listening transcript (our dedicated mock test site has it) and confirm the word really appeared in the audio, rather than the option simply being a trap."

"You may find it's a synonym or a paraphrase. Next, find that sentence in the audio and listen again. Check whether you didn't catch the sound of the word, or you recognize it in writing, or you never knew the word in the first place, or whether after a few more listens you know it."

"Learn that word. Basically, the words that get tested aren't proper nouns."

"If a proper noun shows up in the options, what you need to understand isn't the word itself but what comes before and after it. It's just a signal telling you: here comes a proper noun, this might be tested! For example, why does the professor mention this? The explanation is right before and after it."

22 hours of flexible video lessons, questions answered personally by the consultant on Line, and 13 full-length TOEFL mock tests:

SK2 New TOEFL Intensive Course: https://sk2toefl.blogspot.com/p/sk2_67.html