Gist-Content and Purpose

Identify the main idea or the purpose of the lecture/conversation. TOEFL Listening Gist Content/Purpose questions ask test takers to identify the main point or idea of a conversation or lecture. Gist Purpose questions ask test takers to identify the reason why the conversation is taking place. Every listening question set will begin with this type of question. Gist Content/Purpose questions are usually written as follows: ❖ What is the main idea of the lecture? ❖ What subject is the professor mainly discussing? ❖ What are the speakers mainly discussing? ❖ What problem does the student have? ❖ Why did the student come to this office? ❖ Why does the professor ask/want to see the student? ❖ With lecture passages, these questions will deal with the overall main idea of the lecture, but that is not necessarily the case with conversation passages. The purpose of a conversation may change. For example, the reason why a professor wanted to speak to a student may be different from the topic of the overall conversation. A professor may want to know why a student was absent from class, but they may spend most of their time discussing an essay that the student is writing.