Practice hearing English from many different sources, including academic English. Sit in English-speaking coffee shops and discreetly listen to others as they converse. Watch movies in English and listen to English music. Utilize every opportunity available to surround yourself with auditory English examples.
Find a native English speaker who is willing to have regular conversations in English. Listen to her speak and avoid asking your friend to repeat a sentence. Passages on the test will only be played once, so you must gain the ability to immediately understand spoken words.
Practice finding signal words or main ideas within sentences. Listen to practice tapes only once to train yourself to search for signal words. Focus on the content of the spoken passage and listen to find clues to meaning.
There will be visual context in the listening section of the TOEFL. Search these images for clues as to the meaning. Some of the visual material, such as the blackboard or illustrations, are provided to support the lecture information. These materials will provide clues as to meaning and context.
Listen for words that show relationships between ideas. The terms "such as," "pertaining to" and "and" are all terms linking ideas to each other. Other content clues will reflect the speaker's purpose, attitude and degree of certainty. These clues will lend meaning to the passage. For example, a speaker may have an upbeat attitude, which cues a listener to search for positive words such as "happy" or "good."
There are no points removed for incorrect answers on the TOEFL. If an answer is incorrect, it is simply not awarded a point. If time is running out, take your best educated guess. There is a 25 percent chance your guess will be the correct answer.