TOEFL iBT Listening

Time Duration : 60–90 minutes

Number of questions : 34 – 51 questions

In the Listening section of TOEFL exam, test takers have to carefully hear an audio and answer related questions thereafter.

The speaker in the TOEFL Listening section audio clip might speak in the various accents like U.K., New Zealand, Australia or North America. Students need to be good listener to the audio clips in order to correctly answer the questions that follow.

In one TOEFL Listening exam session, a test taker may have to hear around 4 – 6 audio clips.

The audio clips of TOEFL iBT Listening exam can be conversations between two or more people, lectures, speeches, announcements with varied subject range. Most commonly the TOEFL iBT listening section audios are academic in nature.

In case you hear a conversation audio clip during TOEFL iBT Listening exam, its usually conversations between a student and a teachers or conversations between a student and university faculty. Subjects of the conversations can be college registration, graduation exam requirements or financial aid.

No part of the TOEFL listening section audio clips are transcribed or played more than once. So at very first go, students need to be careful listeners to note all vivid minute information of the audio clip and answer questions, thereafter. At times (depending on the question), a part of the audio clip might be replayed for convenience of TOEFL exam test takers.

Each TOEFL audio clip is usually backed with five to six questions. The TOEFL iBT listening section questions are multiple choice in nature, where each questions have options. Test takers have to pick the right answer from the given options. Once you finish answering the first set of questions for the first audio clip, the next audio clip will play automatically during the TOEFL iBT listening exam.

For TOEFL iBT listening section, answers should be exactly in correspondence to the audio you hear. Do not apply external knowledge or logic to answer the TOEFL iBT listening section questions.

As TOEFL iBT is a computerized internet based exam, in the listening section you wont have the scope to revert to the questions you answer and proceed. So before answering make all probable changes in your mind and answer when rest assured. Remember, you cannot revert back to previous questions in TOEFL iBT listening exam.

Here are 5 simple tips to ace the TOEFL iBT listening section:

a) As you will be hearing the audio, you may find yourself lost or losing track to the pace of it. Do not try to recall/rebuild what you missed. Focus on what is being played at the moment and not miss connections thereafter.

b) In the small time gap between audio and question answer, use a minute to reframe what you heard in your mind. This will help you to answer the questions of TOEFL iBT listening section faster.

c) There are many TOEFL iBT listening section sample questions available online. Do solve ample number of them before your test day. It will let you get an understanding of the question type and the information that you cant miss when the audio is being played.

d) Considering the time limit of TOEFL iBT listening section, you get an approximate 35 seconds to spend on each question in order to attempt the entire paper.

e) For lecture audios, you will get more of attitude questions. For conversation audio, you will get more of general content based questions.