Whether you’re taking 2-skill or 4-skill MET, you’ll have a listening section to complete. It’s important to prepare for it so you can feel confident about your responses to this section of the test. Additionally, practicing your listening skills can help you improve your performance in all skill areas in English.
If you’re preparing for an MET listening section, follow the tips below for maximum benefit.
- Set aside at least 15-20 minutes a day.
Consistency is key with learning anything, especially a language. Set a reminder for yourself or add it to your daily task list to listen to English materials for at least 15-20 minutes. If you can manage to set aside more time, then do so. The more time you practice, the better!
- Listen with purpose.
Just listening passively to English won’t be enough to help you ace the listening section of MET.
In order to succeed, you must listen with purpose or “listen actively.” When practicing listening comprehension while preparing for MET, a useful strategy for active listening is to write questions for yourself before you listen to something in English. That way, you’re listening for key words, main ideas, and other important pieces of information. Answer and read your questions as you go along and score yourself by relistening and checking your answers.
- Practice listening for the main idea.
Your MET listening section will likely have questions about the main ideas in the dialogues. Start practicing taking mental notes of the key phrases and ideas in what you hear to help you identify the main idea of the passage.
- Make predictions.
Before listening, make predictions about what you’re going to hear. As you listen, check whether or not your predictions were correct. This is a simple and fun way to guide your studying.
- Reconstruct materials.
Listen and take notes then reconstruct what you heard into your own words. Summarize it as if you were giving a brief report. Who were the speakers? What were they talking about? What was the outcome of the conversation? After reconstructing it, listen to the material again to see how accurate you were. This approach helps your writing skills in addition to listening skills.
- Use a transcript.
Read along with the material you’re listening to. If it’s an audiobook, read the text with it, too. This strategy enhances your vocabulary because as you listen along you can highlight words, phrases, and grammar you don’t understand and go back later to define them. By using a transcript, you can also speak alongside the narrator speaking, reading, and listening at the same time!
- Discover new podcasts in English.
By far the most useful authentic English materials to use for listening practice are podcasts. Find podcasts on topics you enjoy so you are more likely to want to study and might easily understand the vocabulary, then venture into new topics as you grow more comfortable. Try to diversify the podcasts you listen to by finding both dialogues and monologues, as both will be on your MET.
- Watch English language TV and movies.
A fun way to listen to English is to watch authentic (not dubbed) movies and TV shows. It’s important to listen to authentic English to get a feel for the natural tones, pace, and accents you might encounter during your MET. Guide your listening by enabling captions and reading along.
- Play music and sing along.
Put in earbuds while doing chores or hobbies and listen to songs in English. Try to understand what the lyrics are portraying. Pinpoint the meaning and emotion of the songs you listen to.
- Try a variety of activities.
However you decide to study for your listening section of MET, ensure that you try a variety of activities. By doing so, you will remain interested and engaged. You may want to set a schedule for your listening practice. For example, you could plan to watch a movie on the weekends and listen to music or podcasts a few days during the week.
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