TOEFL iBT Listening Section

The TOEFL iBT Listening section is designed to measure your ability to understand conversations and lectures in English. It includes listening for:

basic comprehension
understanding the speaker's attitude and degree of certainty
connecting information

Listening questions

You’ll hear lectures and conversations in this section. Both use language you would hear on a university campus.

3 lectures, 3-5 minutes each, some with classroom discussion; 6 questions per lecture
2 conversations, 3 minutes each; 5 questions per conversation

You can take notes on any audio item throughout the test to help you answer questions.

Test time: It should take about 36 minutes to complete the Listening section.

Listening videos

Watch these videos to learn about the types of questions in the Listening section, plus helpful tips.

Gist-Content and Gist-Purpose

Identify the main point or purpose of the conversation or lecture.

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Detail

Identify specific facts from the conversation or lecture.

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Function

Understand why a speaker said something.

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Attitude

Recognize how a speaker feels about something.

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Organization

Understand why the lecture is structured the way it is.

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Connecting Content

Predict an outcome, draw a conclusion or understand a cause-and-effect relationship.

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Inference

Recognize information that is implied but not directly stated.

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Accents

The Listening section includes native-speaker English accents from North America, the U.K., New Zealand or Australia to better reflect the variety of accents you might encounter while studying abroad. For example, listen to this talk about the greenhouse effect (MP3). The lecturer is from the U.K.