Listening Study Guide for the TOEFL Test

General Information

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Listening section in the 2026 test revision is focused mainly on the type of listening you would do in daily life, with just one section as “academic listening”—the type of listening required in a classroom lecture. The speech you hear will be mostly casual (not formal) and should sound natural to you. You will have 29 minutes to listen and answer up to 47 questions. The general range of the number of questions is 30 to 40. See below for further explanation of this variance.

For this section of the test, you will listen to lectures and conversations wearing headphones, and you will be able to take notes as you listen. The note-taking is really important because on the TOEFL, you only get to listen to each recording once. Then, you will answer mostly typical multiple-choice questions about what you heard. A few questions, however, will have slightly different formats, including:

• questions with more than one correct answer out of over four possible choices
• questions asking you to put steps in a sequence

Note: We have attempted to provide practice in all these question formats within our system limits. However, be prepared to see slightly different formats for some questions on the actual test.

In this guide, we will discuss specific things you should know for the TOEFL Listening section and some ideas for practicing listening skills before test day.

The Four Listening Tasks

There are four tasks presented in this TOEFL section:

• Listen and Choose a Response—You will listen to a question and choose an appropriate response.

• Listen to a Conversation—You will listen to a short, 20- to 30-second conversation and answer two questions about what you hear.

• Listen to an Announcement—This time, you’ll listen to a 20- to 30-second announcement that one might hear on campus and then answer two questions about it.

• Listen to an Academic Talk—This is the only section of the TOEFL listening test that is academic in nature. You will listen to an approximately 90-second “academic talk,” such as a classroom lecture. Following will be four questions about the talk.

Structure of the Listening Section

Like the TOEFL Reading section, the Listening section is adaptive, meaning that your performance on the first part of the test will determine the tasks you are assigned in later portions. Everyone will receive Module 1 first:

Module 1:

• one Listen and Choose a Response task (eight questions)
• three to four Listen to a Conversation tasks (two questions each)
• one to three Listen to an Announcement tasks (two questions each)
• one to two Listen to an Academic Talk tasks (four questions each)

Then, if you scored below 60% on the first module, you will receive Module 2:

Module 2:

There will be no Academic Talk in this module, but you will have one or more of these tasks:

• Listen and Choose a Response
• Listen to a Conversation
• Listen to an Announcement

Alternatively, if you scored 60% or higher on Module 1, you will receive Module 3:

Module 3:

This module contains one or more of each of these tasks:

• Listen and Choose a Response
• Listen to a Conversation
• Listen to an Announcement
• Listen to an Academic Talk

Preparation for the TOEFL Listening Tasks

The 2026 TOEFL Listening test contains four different tasks and, while careful listening is important for success in all of them, your job is a little varied, depending on the task. All of the tasks have either a 20- or 30-second time limit for a response, beginning when the question appears on the screen. At the end of that time (or when you press “Next”), the question will disappear from the screen, and the next listening exercise will begin. You will not be able to listen to any of the prompts twice or go back to any previous question. The following are some important things to remember about each type of task.

Listen and Choose a Response

For this task, you must listen to either a question or a statement and determine which of the four answer choices is the best response. Note that we said “best” response, because even the correct answer may not be perfect. It will just be the one that makes the most sense as a response to the speaker.

The topic of the statement or question will be something that occurs in daily life, so nothing truly academic. Even though taking notes is encouraged during the TOEFL Listening test, there will not be time for notes during this task. Here are some tips to help you tackle these questions:

• Pretend you are having the conversation. What would you say in response? What would make the most sense?

• Some answer choices will pop out to you immediately as being correct, but be sure to read all answer choices carefully; there might be an even better one.

• If you see an answer choice that is obviously wrong, discard it and just focus on the choices that could be correct.

• There may be some nuances in some of these questions. In other words, you may have to look beyond the actual statement or question to find something that is inferred but not specifically stated.

• If you do not think you see a correct answer or there are two that could be correct, look for the one that is the most connected to the prompt.

• Consider watching for the correct tense in the answer choice. If the speaker is talking about something that already occurred, you’ll probably need to find an answer choice that is in the past tense.

• Some incorrect answers may use some of the same words as the speaker did but are still not connected to the statement or question, so don’t be fooled.

• If the prompt is a question, listen for words like “why,” “when,” “where,” “who,” etc., to determine what response is appropriate.

Here is an example of a “Listen and Choose a Response” question:

First of all, answer D is definitely out because it introduces a whole new topic: the speaker, not her roommate, which is whom her statement is about. Answers A and C are about the speaker’s topic, but don’t address the speaker’s concern, so they are just related to the topic. Answer B, on the other hand, directly responds to the speaker’s statement by offering a possible solution to their worry.

Listen to a Conversation

For this task, you will listen to a short (20- to 30-second) conversation between two people, usually a female and a male. They will generally be trying to decide something or make plans, and the conversation topic will be a familiar one taken from daily life experiences.

After that, you will be asked two questions about the conversation and have 20 seconds to answer each. One question will probably involve your literal memory of what was said or what was being decided. The other question could be one concerning figurative language or why one person made a certain statement or asked a certain question.

It’s a very good idea to try to take brief notes while listening to the conversation, but they can be very simple. Here is an example of how to take notes during a conversation and the type of conversation you might hear, with two sample questions.

Let’s say two people were discussing where to go out to dinner. You notice that one voice sounds like a man and the other sounds like a woman. You could start by making a simple chart like this. This type of chart will work for most, if not all, the conversations you listen to.

On the actual test, you would listen to the following conversation. For now, read it and pretend you are listening to it.

On the chart you created, try to briefly note things you think might be important from each person’s input—things you think might come up in a question. Your chart could look like this:

If an idea belongs to both of them, note it on the vertical line, which saves writing it twice. Note ideas unique to one person in their column. Both appear to be tired, judging from their first statements, and the woman does not have a dinner plan, so she probably does not want to cook. The guy suggests going out, but she is concerned about money. So, the man presents some cheaper options. Italian was nixed for the woman because of the calories involved, but they could agree on the food bar.

With these notes, you are well prepared to answer questions like these about this conversation:

(This question assesses whether you understood the point of the entire conversation. The answer would be c. Choices a and d are mentioned in the conversation, but neither is the topic. And nothing was mentioned about a grocery list.)

(This question assesses your understanding of figurative language, and the correct answer is b. To be “beat” is another way of saying you are tired. None of the other answer choices has anything to do with this conversation.

If you are torn between two answer choices, pick the one that is most connected to the question, and always consider that the information you seek may not have been directly stated in the conversation, but it may have been only implied.

Remember that you will not have time to write notes in sentences: just jot down meaningful words and/or symbols that you will recognize. Also, be sure to be ready to look up from your notes and read the first question, which will appear on the screen immediately after the conversation ends.

Listen to an Announcement

This section of the TOEFL Listening test consists of listening to an approximately 30-second announcement, typical of one you might hear on campus or in a public space. It usually reveals important information about an event or class, or it announces some sort of change.

There will then be two questions to answer about the announcement, which you will have 20 seconds each to answer. Again, you will need to choose the best answer, even if you don’t think any of the choices are exactly correct.

Imagine you hear this announcement over the loudspeaker at a ballgame:

Notes are helpful during this listening task, too. You might have quickly written down:

Road—Park Lot X Move car 15 min. emerg. veh. towed

Now, try to answer the following questions about what you heard.

Answer choice a has nothing to do with the announcement. Answers b and c are related to the announcement, but neither was the purpose of it. The basic purpose of the announcement was choice d.

This is a tricky one. Read the question carefully: It asks why there is no parking on the road. The answer choice b is correct, because emergency vehicle passage is the reason for no parking there. “Being towed” is a result of parking there, and choices a and c were not mentioned in the announcement.

Listen to an Academic Talk

This section of the TOEFL Listening test is probably the most taxing for most people. The reason is that the content usually does not come from everyday topics but is academically based. This means it may involve ideas and terms with which you are unfamiliar. The talk is also longer than the listening part of any other section: between one and a half and two minutes. Additionally, there will be four questions asked, but you will have 30 seconds to answer each one of these.

Here are some tips for tackling the academic listening task:

Notes

Since this talk is longer, your notes need to be a bit more organized, or they won’t make much sense. Most academic speakers cover about three main points. They may tell you this at the beginning of the talk. Information they give between these points will be details about, or support for, the point. Here are several ways to organize your notes:

Consider using an outline format (I., A., 1., a., etc.). You may want to use a list format, instead, and just underline big topics, then put dashes or bullet points by the ideas that go under each heading. Here are examples of these two structures for note-taking:

Another method is sometimes called “Mindmapping.” Look at this example:

The notetaker has written the main topic of the talk in the center box. As points were presented, they enclosed them in loops around the main topic. Then, they noted details or support with lines radiating from the loops. Notice that this person has also divided the positive and negative points above and below the main topic, marking them with + and – symbols.

There are various techniques you can use to help you pinpoint important details in your notes. For instance, you can mark topic changes with a star or brackets. Try circling introductions and conclusions and use symbols like + and – to represent “for” and “against” or “positive” and “negative.”

Whatever you do, remember that these notes are for you, so be sure you understand them when using them to find answers to questions. Also, as in the other listening tasks, be ready to focus on the screen and the first question immediately after the talk ends.

Topics and Vocabulary

The subjects and vocabulary in these academic talks may be challenging, even intense. Not only do you have to listen carefully, but you also have to try to understand the content. Here are some tips for doing these things:

• If you hear a word you are not familiar with during the actual test, write it down, spelling it the best you can. This may help the word “click” with you. During practice sessions, do this and also look up the word after practice. This will enrich your vocabulary in case this or a similar word is presented on the test.

• Many of the TOEFL academic talks are not on concrete subjects, like “The History of Bears” or “Animals in the Ocean.” Quite a few of them concern topics related to thought processes, philosophy, and ideas, such as “hope” and “confidence.” Be ready to try to understand presentations like this and get the most out of them that you can.

The Questions

You will see several types of questions in this section, including questions about the main idea of the talk, things specifically stated in the talk, things only implied by the speaker, and the tone or opinion of the speaker. You may be asked about the point of view of the speaker or the purpose of their talk: was it informative or just the speaker’s opinion? Did it include a call to action? (What does the speaker want the audience to do?)

The answer choices may seem tricky. You will probably see words in some choices that you heard in the talk but are not necessarily part of the correct answer. Be careful to make sure the entire answer choice fits that question and is not just a random detail included in the talk.

Remember to refer to your notes if you think the answer may be there. Some of what you wrote down may trigger your memory and lead you to the correct answer.