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Taking Notes for the Listening Section of the TOEFL® Test

Author

Josh MacPherson
Head Instructor at TST Prep

Taking Notes for the TOEFL Listening A Step-by-Step Guide

Let’s start by addressing the big, fat elephant in the room.

Every student’s favorite question…

“Do I have to take notes?” 

No, you don’t have to take notes.

Say what? 

Seriously. Many students find the TOEFL Listening Note taking process so difficult that they give up and just listen without taking notes.

And, some do well.

However, almost none score above a 25/30 in the TOEFL Listening section.

Most TOEFL Listening passages are at least five minutes long, and they are jam-packed with content.

It’s nearly impossible to remember enough information to answer every question correctly, which is why most who don’t take notes fail to score higher than a 25.

But if you’re anything like us, you want to be at your best. You want to maximize your potential and reach the highest possible score you can in the listening section.

And we want to show you how to do it.

We are going to take you step-by-step through the notetaking process for the TOEFL Listening so you know exactly what you need to do to take more notes in less time.

We will start with the three TOEFL Listening notetaking tips you must master first. And from there, we are going to use those tips to help us write notes for listening to conversations and lectures.

Let’s do it!

Oh snap, before I forget, let me add a link here to our free download of 100 Practice Questions for the TOEFL Listening Section.

We specifically designed these questions for students like you who are looking to build their TOEFL Listening note taking strategies.

Check it out and let us know if you have any questions.

How to take notes in the TOEFL Listening section?

 All right, back to the lesson.

Three rules for taking TOEFL notes

When it comes to what words to write and how to write them, there are three simple rules you need to follow.
  1. Write down only nouns, verbs, and adjectives (content words)
  2. Write down consonants (vowels are hardly ever needed)
  3. Know your core symbols
Why are these rules so important? The key TOEFL note-taking strategy is to be succinct. If you spend time writing down unnecessary information, you will miss important content. Now let’s take a look at these three rules on how to take notes in the TOEFL Listening section in action.

#1 Write down only nouns, verbs and adjectives

Let’s use some fancy vocabulary here.

You should write down only content words, and leave out function words.

Content words are meaningful words that contain significance, such as people or places, actions, and descriptions.

Function words are things like prepositions, articles, auxiliary verbs (have), and modals (may, could), which provide almost no useful information about the material.

Well, there are SOME cases in which function words come in handy. They may help you in instances where they are essential to understanding the main idea of a given sentence, for example, “He’s in the car”, and “He’s under the car,” carry a significant difference in meaning.  Still, for the most part, you should focus only on writing down nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Let’s practice. Only jot down the content words that will be most helpful in aiding your memory.

Insomnia, a consistent difficulty in falling or staying asleep, is the most common of the sleep disorders.

Insomnia common disorder

 

It is not uncommon for people suffering from insomnia to experience increased levels of anxiety about their inability to fall asleep.

More anxiety falling asleep

 

Chronic insomnia is almost always associated with feeling overtired and may be associated with symptoms of depression.

Chronic symptoms overtired depression

Not so bad, right?

Now let’s move on to the next rule.

#2 Write down consonants, not vowels

You remember the difference between consonants and vowels, right? Vowels consist of the letters a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. Consonants are all the other letters …b, c, d, f… and so on. You probably never thought about it much before, but almost every word in English contains at least one vowel. Here’s the interesting part. Vowels are so common that you could write a word without any of its vowels and still understand the meaning. Here are a few examples:
  • sleep → slp
  • symptoms → smptms
  • depression → dprsn
Seems simple enough, but it will take some getting used to. If you’re anything like me, you may be imaging some words that need vowels in order to be understood (i.e. apple –> ppl?) Don’t hesitate to throw in a vowel sometimes when you have a word that you will not understand without one.
  • anxiety → anxty 
  • create → crete
  • treaty → trty 

Experiment and find an approach that works best for you.

Let’s try those sentences again, this time incorporating rule #2, only consonants.

Insomnia, a consistent difficulty in falling or staying asleep, is the most common of the sleep disorders.

  • Insma cmn dsrdr

Now try the next two on your own…

It is not uncommon for people suffering from insomnia to experience increased levels of anxiety about their inability to fall asleep.

  •  

Chronic insomnia is almost always associated with feeling overtired and may be associated with symptoms of depression.

  •  

Exciting right? 

I know, I know, the TOEFL can be a bit dry sometimes, so, if you are reading this right now I am so proud to be able to share this information with someone as motivated as you are to achieve your TOEFL score.

Let’s get back into it.

There’s one more important rule to consider when taking notes for the TOEFL Listening section.

#3 Know your core symbols

Below is a chart of the nine most important symbols to incorporate in your TOEFL Listening note taking.

Important Symbols
Symbol Meaning
+ benefit, positive, also, as well, together, combined
Ø not, no, negative, stop
? I'm not sure, lecturer not sure, question
↑ rising, increase, improve, positive, beneficial
↓ going down, decreasing, problematic, hurting
→ leads to, results in, follows
= is equal to, the same as, something is like/similar to
≠ not equal to, not the same as, dissimilar
/ and, connected to

Symbols are important. Not only do they save time, but also increase the amount of information you write down about the listening passages.

But if you are new to using symbols, do NOT try to incorporate all nine of these symbols in your notes at once.

The key is to keep it simple. Start with just two or three. I suggest the arrows since they are the easiest to understand.

As you start to feel more comfortable, incorporate more of these symbols in your note taking listening exercises. Remember, it’s hard to change a habit. You have been taking notes your own way for years. It will take some time to get used to all of this information, so take it slow.

Let’s look at those sentences again.  So far we have noted the content words and omitted most of the vowels, now let’s include a few symbols.

Insomnia, a consistent difficulty in falling or staying asleep, is the most common of the sleep disorders.

  • Insmna = cmn slp dsrdr

It is not uncommon for people suffering from insomnia to experience increased levels of anxiety about their inability to fall asleep.

  • ↑ anxty ⌀ aslp

You try the last one…

Chronic insomnia is almost always associated with feeling overtired and may be associated with symptoms of depression.


See. It’s getting easier already!

Right?

Right…

How to take notes for TOEFL Listening Conversations

You know what to write down. That’s a HUGE step in the right direction. Here’s a quick recap.
  1. Write down content words
  2. Write down consonants 
  3. Know your core symbols
It’s time to apply what you have learned. The good news is that TOEFL Listening Conversations are easy to follow. You have conversations every day! And it gets better… All the conversations follow the same structure:
  1. The student presents a problem
  2. The campus worker offers a solution
  3. They discuss how to solve the problem
When listening to the lecture, try to find these pieces:
  • problem
  • solution
  • steps
To help you organize your thoughts, we suggest creating a table like this:
As you can probably guess:
  • S = student
  • W = campus worker
When you’re trying to decide what’s important and what’s not important to write down, there are three types of information to consider.
  1. Things you could write down – relatively easy to remember, so you probably don’t have to write it down
  2. Things you should write down – important information that is slightly more difficult to remember
  3. Things you must write down – information that is definitely important and difficult to remember
You could write down the main idea, the student’s problem, the tone of voice, and the inferred mood of the speaker. Nothing here is incredibly important, but might still be useful. Problems and feelings are easier to remember than details. You should write down possible solutions to the problem and the position of the campus worker. This type of information is more important because when you know the stance of the individual speaking, you will have a better idea of how to answer the questions and eliminate choices. Also, this information is easier to recall.  You can probably remember the stance and possible solutions without writing anything down. Things you must write down include assignment requirements or rules that need to be followed. These details are important to help you answer the questions and may be hard to remember. The best way to master this skill is to practice.

Get access to TST Prep’s Complete Test #13 so you can learn exactly what to expect on test day.

Go to the listening section and practice taking down notes for the two conversations. Don’t try to write down everything, but instead focus on the structure of the TOEFL Listening conversation and the most important points.

Consider the hierarchical structure of importance when taking notes.
  • could 
  • should 
  • must
Here’s a handy chart of what you could, should, and must write down in your notes if you are ever feeling lost when listening to a TOEFL conversation passage in the listening section.

Your Notes
could
  • the main idea
  • the student's problem
  • the tone of voice
  • the inferred mood of the speaker
should
  • the possible solutions to the problem
  • the position of the campus worker
must
  • assignment requirements
  • rules that need to be followed

Stop trying to understand every detail of the listening. Start to focus on points you must write down, like assignment requirements and rules that need to be followed, which are much more likely to help you answer the questions. 

How to take notes for TOEFL Listening Lectures

Most TOEFL teachers and books tell you that when you are listening to the lecture, you have to write down the main idea. Well, I have some surprising news…

Despite what you might think, the main idea of the lecture is not the most important thing you want to look for.

That’s right, you do NOT have to write down the main idea in your notes.

The main idea is still the most important piece of information you need to find when you listen, but you don’t have to write it down in your notes. The reason? Most of the time, the main idea isn’t directly stated. Instead, it emerges as the lecture unfolds. By the end of the lecture, if you understood most of the content, it should be easy to recognize the main idea. In other words, it’s easy to remember, without taking notes. So, you could write down the main idea. That’s right, just like in the TOEFL Listening conversation passages, there are some pieces of information that are more important to write down than others. Let’s take a step back for a second and look at the overall structure of the lecture. What does an academic lecture look like? Each lecture is about 5 minutes long, and some take the form of a strict lecture, whereas others are more of a discussion between the professor and some students. Regardless of the type of lecture, your mission is to identify the main idea, followed by the most important points that elaborate on and support the main idea. The best way to do this is to consider the structure of the lecture. Instead of asking questions like, “What’s the best answer?” or “What does this word mean?”, ask questions about the structure of the passage and why a particular piece of information has been included.  Here are some questions you should ask:
  •  “Why does the professor say this?”
  • “What does the professor want the students to know by the end?”
  • “Why is this information important?”
And also…
  • “How does the professor elaborate on, explain, or illustrate the main idea?”

Your job is NOT to understand every word you hear, but instead to identify the main idea and the important points that elaborate on the main idea.

While all this is important to consider during lectures, some of this information will be easier to remember than others, which is why we are going to break it down in terms of could, should and must. Remember the difference between the three:
  1. Things you could write down – relatively easy to remember, so you probably don’t have to write it down
  2. Things you should write down – important information that is slightly more difficult to remember
  3. Things you must write down – information that is definitely important and difficult to remember
In regards to the TOEFL Listening lecture, you could write down the main idea and the tone of voice of the professor in certain parts. Remember, the main idea is crucial for you to identify, but not much of a challenge to remember. When the lecture starts, you should write down the type of class. The narrator will begin each passage with the phrase, “Now listen to part of a talk in a __________ class“. True, you will not get a question about the class type, but it will help you narrow the type of information you focus on. You should also write down the two or three subtopics that are used to illustrate the main idea. Like the main idea, the subtopics are usually fairly general and directly related to the main idea, so they should be easier to remember. In the TOEFL lectures, you must write down at least one characteristic of each subtopic and an important detail within the first minute. Your notes are designed to help you prepare for the six questions that follow the passage. The first question is always a main idea. The second question is usually a detail or function question, which is why I would like you to write down an important detail within the first minute. The questions go in the same order as the lecture is presented. Trying to identify one important detail in the first minute is designed to help you answer that question and to focus your attention on the listening so you are more attuned to the lecture. I also included basic characteristics of the subtopics in the must field because this type of information is difficult to remember and you could be asked a detail question about this type of information. Again, remember the order of importance when taking notes. Focus on what you must write down first. Here’s a table of what you could, should and must write down in the TOEFL Listening lecture passages.

Your Notes
could
  • the main idea
  • the tone of voice in certain parts
should
  • the type of class
  • the 2-3 subtopics that explain the main idea
  • 1-2 characteristics of each subtopic
must
  • an important detail within the first minute
  • categories connected to the main idea

Practice makes perfect?

Now you know how to take notes for the TOEFL Listening. Let’s put these new notetaking skills into practice.

Practicing not only helps you get better and faster, but it makes you feel more confident.

You can check out our 100 Practice Questions for the TOEFL Listening Section.

I know this TOEFL stuff can get a bit frustrating sometimes. So don’t hesitate to reach out and let us know if you have any questions or concerns: [email protected]

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Please add your ideas in the comments section below.

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