Listen carefully to the first line of the conversation. The first line of the conversation often contains the main idea, subject, or topic of the conversation, and you will often be asked to answer such questions.

As you listen to the conversation, draw conclusions about the situation of the conversation: who is talking, where the conversation takes place, or when it takes place.

Detail questions are generally answered in order in the conversation, and the answers often sound the same as what is said on the recording.

Strategies before listening:

A helpful strategy is to look briefly at the answers in the test book, before you actually hear the conversations on the recording, and try to determine the topics of the conversations that you will hear.

It is very helpful to your ability to answer individual questions with the long conversations if you can anticipate what the questions will be and listen specifically for the answers to those questions.

Strategies while listening:

Since the first one or two sentences generally give the topic, you should be asking yourself what the topic is while you are listening carefully to the first part of the conversation.

You should be thinking the following thoughts:

Who is talking?

When does the conversation probably take place?

Where does the conversation probably take place?

What is the source of information for the conversation?

There are two possible methods to use while you listen to a long conversation:

1. You can just listen to the conversation (and ignore the answers).

2. You can follow along with the answers while you listen.