TOEIC Strategies: Short Conversations & Short Talks

In today's post, I will go over strategies for both short conversations (part 3) and short talks (part 4) of TOEIC's listening section.

Short Conversations

As always, stay calm, and listen carefully. 

You will be asked three questions for each conversation. The topics for the conversation could be about anything, so, the best thing to do (if you're writing the paper test) is read the questions first, and try to guess the situation (where are the people talking, what/who are they talking about, etc). 

Reading the questions will help you get the topic of the conversation, and give you a better chance of answering the questions correctly.

Again, in short conversations, and the rest of the listening section, watch out for:

• similar words and same words

• similar or same sounds (mean, lean, for example)

Also, in the listening sections, the answers are not always said out loud. You will often have to think about the situation to get the answer.

 Try these strategies on the Exam English website. 

Short Talks

Again, first read the questions to find the topic of the talk. 

 

Short Talks is mostly announcements, reports, and advertisements, and speeches. You will hear a lot of time expressions (dates, clock times, etc). Remember these can be expressed in different ways.

For example:

"TOEIC classes will be every Wednesday afternoon at 3.

Question: How often are TOEIC classes held?

a) Every day

b) Once a month

c) Once a week

d) On Tuesday afternoon

Or, unspoken answers:

Man: So, when are you going to Tokyo?

Woman: I'm not. I'm going to Bangkok instead. Tokyo would cost $1500, but is 50% less. 

Question: How much is the Bangkok trip?

a) $1500

b) $700

c) $1750

d) $750

Here's a practice from Exam English.

These strategies can be applied to most language tests. It is important to relax, and stay calm when you're writing your tests. If you worry too much, you'll get stressed and make too many mistakes.