Organization

Identify the organization of the lecture and understand the connection of ideas across the lecture. TOEFL Listening Organization questions ask test takers to explain how information was presented in the lecture or conversation. There are usually 1 or 2 per passage. They may ask about the overall organization of the passage, the relationship between two parts of the lecture, or why a particular thing was mentioned. The first two kinds are rarely[if ever] seen in conversations, but the third type is pretty common in them. The entire lecture may be organized in many ways like chronological order, levels of complexity, likelihood, comparison, and general to specific. The second type will specifically refer to two smaller parts of the lecture and how they are related to each other. The third type usually names a particular word or phrase in the passage that is included in the question, although they may also replay a portion and ask about why the professor made that statement.