TOEFL Listening - Using notes
There is something about making notes with a pen and paper that gives people a mental boost. Scientific studies have shown that this process can help us with memory retention, and it is believed that the simple act of writing something down can give us a better chance of figuring out its meaning.
This is really important for TOEFL listening. Although it may be tempting to just listen and then answer the questions, it is highly recommended that you take some notes. For the above-mentioned reasons, it can actually increase your chances of getting the right answers later.
It is important in note-taking that you don’t write down everything. Unless you have superhuman writing skills, you simply won’t have enough time to do it. Instead, you should pick out key details and write them on your notepaper. You should focus on getting the main point that someone has said, the key details about that main point, and facts that you may not otherwise remember. Things like numbers, names, or places are also quite useful to note down.
You should not bother to write down any “grammar words” like prepositions, articles, or modals (unless they impact the meaning of the sentence such as should vs shouldn’t). These are words that probably don’t contribute greatly to the meaning that you need to remember, and writing them will only waste valuable time.
There many ways that you can practice your TOEFL listening skills. One thing that you can do is listen to podcasts or documentaries. Of course, this is mostly passive listening, so the important thing is to make it active. You can thus listen to a section and make some notes on it. Then you can go back and see if you can paraphrase the passage from your notes. You will be surprised how well you can do it if you have made good notes.
Let’s say that you listened to a two-minute excerpt. It would be extremely difficult to remember everything that was said, but if you took notes, then you would certainly remember the main ideas and be able to reconstruct lots of the passage. You might even practice saying it out loud and seeing how much you were able to repeat with a degree of accuracy.
Choose things that interest you at first because this level of interest will sustain your enthusiasm. After a while, start picking more difficult or abstract topics. You will find that, over time, you develop a personal note-taking style that involves your own unique abbreviations. More importantly, you will get faster and better at writing and remembering things.
