Some TOEFL Listening questions ask not what a lecture said but how it was built: three types of something, a process in stages, an old explanation set against a new one. Connecting content questions turn that structure into a table or an ordering task. Both are answered from notes that record where each section began, which is what these 40 items train.
Many lecturers announce the plan: ‘Today I want to do three things.’ Write those three things as headings before the content arrives.
A line across the page each time the topic changes turns your notes into a map of the lecture’s structure.
Write ‘3 types’, ‘stages’, ‘old vs new’ in the margin. That label alone answers most organisation questions.
Professors often mention a late stage early to explain why the first one matters. Renumber the stages in your notes as you go.
One heading per category with features under it. A table question is then a matter of reading down your own columns.
Which brings me to, on the other hand, that said, before we get to. These are the sentences organisation items are written from.
Background, evidence, exception, digression. If you can name the job of each section, ‘why does the professor discuss X?’ answers itself.
Partial credit is available, so work down the rows quickly using your columns rather than replaying the talk mentally.
Not thisOrdering a process by when each stage was mentioned.
ThisOrdering it by when each stage happens.
Lecturers preview the outcome before the first step, which reverses the two orders.
Not thisAnswering ‘why does the professor discuss X?’ with what X is.
ThisAnswering with the job X does in the lecture.
It is a function question wearing a content question’s clothes.
Not thisRecording three categories without their distinguishing features.
ThisRecording each category with the feature that separates it.
Table questions ask exactly for the separating feature, not for the names.
Not thisTreating a restatement as a new point.
ThisMarking it as the same idea.
‘In other words’ signals repetition, and counting it twice distorts the structure you report.
Not thisIgnoring a digression the professor flags as one.
ThisNoting it briefly in the margin.
Digressions are often the subject of an organisation question: why the talk stepped sideways.
Not thisLeaving a table question half finished.
ThisFilling every row.
Partial credit exists, and an empty row can never score.
40 original questions. The first 10 are open to everyone. Answers are checked in your browser and never sent to us, so you can share this page with a class as it is.
2Complete with the past participle of a verb beginning with s.
5Complete with one noun beginning with s.
7Complete with one noun beginning with c.
8Why does noting the professor’s section divisions help with organisation questions?
One good answer
The divisions are the structure: if your notes show where each new part began, you can say whether the talk classified, compared, traced a process or moved from problem to solution.
10Complete with one noun beginning with c.
11Complete with one noun beginning with t.
16Complete with one noun beginning with d.
18Complete with one verb beginning with m.
19Write a one-line note that captures the structure of Extract A.
One good answer
3 dune types: barchan (little sand, 1 wind) / transverse (much sand, 1 wind) / star (winds from several directions)
20Complete with one noun beginning with t.
23Complete with one noun beginning with s.
25Complete with one noun beginning with e.
27Complete with one noun beginning with r.
29Complete with one noun beginning with l.
30Give one reason candidates get the order of a process wrong.
One good answer
The professor often mentions a later stage early in order to explain why the first one matters, and candidates record the order the stages were spoken about rather than the order in which they happen.
31Complete with one noun beginning with q.
33Write the sentence a professor might use to preview the structure of a lecture.
One good answer
Today I want to do three things: define the term, look at two explanations for it, and say why the evidence favours the second.
35Complete with one noun beginning with f.
37Complete with one noun beginning with d.
40Complete with one plural noun beginning with s.
Note
Pick Two Activity is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Cambridge University Press & Assessment, the British Council, IDP, ETS, Duolingo or any other exam board. Exam names are trademarks of their owners and are used here only to describe the exam you are preparing for. Every question on this page is original practice written by us: we do not provide, copy or reproduce official exam papers.
At least one organisation or connecting content question turns up in most lecture sets. They are predictable enough that a note layout built for them pays off every time.
They award credit for the rows you get right, so an incomplete table throws away marks you could have had. Fill every box even when one row is a guess.
Count the things being discussed. Two things weighed against each other is a comparison; three or more sorted by a feature is a classification.
No. You need to notice that one occurred and draw your line. The wording matters less than the fact that the talk has turned a corner.
Not always. Watch for ‘only then’, ‘not until’ and ‘before that’, which reorder the stages after they have been introduced, and renumber your notes when you hear one.