0: All right, so the goal is pretty simple here, to be able to identify each question type

4: in the TOEFL Listening with ease, and we're going to look at a lot of examples to help

8: help you do that. It's a real headache to try to remember all these question types, it

13: is really annoying, for me especially, I've been teaching this for a while and I still get confused.

20: So, I want to try to make it as simple as possible. You still might be a little bit

24: confused by the end, that's okay, but you should be a little bit more, you should understand more.

30: Let me give you a quick rundown of these question types. This is from our TOEFL Quick Guide.

35: Gist- content, gist-purpose, detail, understand the speaker's attitude, understand the function,

41: making inferences, understand organization, and connecting content. So, you may see those

46: question types and think, "I kind of get what some of them mean, some of them are a little confusing".

52: So, let's talk about that more. Rule number one, gist-content and gist-purpose questions

56: always come first. These are always the first question after the passage, conversation or lecture.

64: Gist-content is the most popular. They're almost always asked about after lectures, and about 50

70: percent of the time after conversations. And this always asks you, "What is the professor

76: mainly discussing? What is this about?" It's a main idea question. It's always the first question.

82: Sometimes you will have gist-purpose questions. These are asking you, "Why does the student go to

88: the career center?" This is usually in conversations, and it's asking you why the student went somewhere.

95: That could be different than the main idea. So, gist-purpose is asking you why the student went

101: somewhere, gist-content is asking you, "What does, what does the professor talk about? What does

107: the student talk about?" So, those, that's the big difference between the two, but they're always the

112: first question, and that's it. You'll only get one question per passage, that's either gist-content or

117: gist-purpose. Look, already making your life easier, I hope. Number two. Gist-purpose questions will ask

124: why, So again, they ask you, "Why does the student do this? Why does the student go to the career center?"

131: So, pretty simple. "What do the professor and student mainly discuss?" That is a gist-content question. So,

139: gist-purpose will always come after conversations. Sometimes you'll get a gist-content question,

145: what-question like this, sometimes you'll get a gist-purpose question

149: with why, but in lectures, it's almost always gist-content, "What is the lecture mainly about?"

157: Alright, so as you can see, this is a gist- purpose question, and the one below is a gist-content

162: question. I want to give you a lot of examples so you get an idea of what it looks like. Rule number

166: three. Detail questions are pretty straightforward and often use what. So, when you see the word "what",

173: a lot of times it's a detailed question, What does the professor say about shooting stars?

180: According to the lecture, what is an example of the effects of climate change?

184: This isn't always the case, but it's very common. Here you see where it begins, with which.

189: Which of the following is an indicator that you might suffer from sleep debt?

193: Even though it begins with which, it is still a detailed question. So, detailed

197: questions are pretty straightforward. They're asking you about information that you heard.

204: Again, "What is the professor mainly discussing?" This is a what-question but in this situation what

209: type of question is it? Not a detailed question, it's a gist-content question. Remember, number one,

217: the first question, is gist-content or gist-purpose, asking you about the main idea. So, hopefully, you

223: caught that. Alright, so here we see, "What does the professor say about shooting stars?" That is a gist,

230: I'm sorry that is a detailed question. Which of the following is an indicator that you might

234: suffer from sleep debt? That is a detailed question. What does the professor mainly discussing? So, we

240: see what, but in this situation, it's not a detail question but gist-content. So, just be aware of that.

249: Rule number four. Connecting content questions are often tables. Now, this is where the information

254: is going to get a little tricky, rule number four and rule number five. Let's start with

259: connecting content. A lot of times they look like this. Now, this is the part that always confused me

267: with listening question types is between connecting content and making inferences. After

273: doing a lot of research, teaching this for a long time, this is my conclusion. I see no significant

279: difference between connecting content and making inference questions outside of filling out a table.

286: In other words, connecting content questions are a table that's the only thing you have to worry

291: about. Now, why do I say this? I don't say this because it's my assumption, I say this because

296: these are the words from ETS, the company that makes the TOEFL. So, this is from their book, from

302: the TOEFL ETS book, and they show you the question wording of inference questions and

309: connecting content. Notice the parts highlighted in red. "What does the professor imply about x?" is

316: an inference question. Look at that, connecting content, same exact question, "What can be inferred

322: about x?" that's an inference, "What can be inferred about x?" same exact question. So, don't worry about

330: is it an inference question, is it a connecting content question, don't worry about that. If you

335: see a table, it's connecting content, that's all you need to know. And that leads me to number five.

342: Understanding the function, understanding the speaker's attitude, making inferences, they all

347: ask you to infer, imply, or ask you why. So, I was always confused about these question

355: types. I never could tell the difference between an inference, speaker's attitude a little bit, but an

361: inference, connecting content, and understanding the function, it was always confusing to me. So,

368: basically, bring them together, these are basically not asking you what you heard,

373: but instead, why the speaker said something, what do you think this means, they're asking

379: you to infer or imply, to take a guess. They're not asking you what. For the TOEFL listening

385: questions the most important thing to consider is whether the information was stated directly,

390: detail or gist-content, or if you have to make an inference, which is making inference, understanding

396: the function, speaker's attitude. Don't worry about identifying a specific question type. That's the

400: big secret here, don't worry about the question types in the Listening. All you have to worry about

407: is that is it asking you for a detail, a what, or is it asking you to make an inference. Why does

413: the person say this? What does the person imply when they say this? What do you think they suggest

419: here? That's all you have to worry about. What is the professor implying when she says this?

424: Okay, that's probably a function question, but you don't have to worry. All you have to know is

429: that you have to listen and you have to make an inference, a guess. What does the professor imply

435: about the sister theory? Again, not something directly stated but an inference that you're

440: going to have to guess. Why does the professor say this? Probably a function question here,

447: don't have to worry about it, just listen and then take a guess based on what you hear. What

454: do you think the student is most likely to do next? Again, this is an inference question, you

458: have to guess what the student will do based on the information. It's not stated directly.

466: Again, why does the student go to the career center? Here we have a why question

470: but this isn't a speaker's attitude or understand function. Do you remember what's this? Question

476: number one, this is a gist-purpose question. So, this isn't always the case. Sometimes you'll see why

483: and it's not an inference or function, but a lot of times it is. Just keep that in mind.

490: So, here we have some examples. What is the professor implying? What do you think the

494: student's going to do next? But be careful. Why does the student go to the career center? Why does

499: the student go to the career center? That's gist-purpose. So, don't worry about the question types,

505: where it's understanding the function, or speaker's attitude, or making inferences. All you have to know

510: is that you have to make an inference, you have to guess based on information that's not directly

517: stated. Okay, pro tip here. Answer the question. Don't worry about identifying the question type by name.

524: Don't worry about all that stuff, just be sure that you can tell the difference between something

528: directly stated and an inference. I said it five times already, I'm going to say it again. All you

533: have to worry about is telling the difference between something that is directly stated

538: and something where you have to make an inference, that's the most important thing.

542: So, those are the five rules. Gist-content and gist-purpose are always the first question.

546: Gist-purpose ask why, detail questions are straightforward and often use what,

551: connecting content often uses tables, and there's not a significant difference, in my opinion, between

557: understanding functions, speaker's attitude, and making inferences. Hope that's clear. I hope that

563: made things easier. Visit tstprep.com so you can download a free and complete TOEFL test so you

569: can actually practice this stuff and do some real listening. And that's it. Thank you guys so much

575: for watching, I hope you found that helpful and yep, make sure you hit the subscribe button. I never,

580: I never remember to do that, hit the subscribe button, and thank you guys so much for watching.