1. Information about TOEFL Listening Gist Content/Purpose Questions
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.
2. TOEFL Listening Gist Content/Purpose Question Examples
Here is an excerpt from a passage and its Gist Content question:
Professor
Let’s continue with our discussion about human languages by looking at the origin of language itself. We are not concerned with how modern languages developed, but rather with how humans developed the capacity to use language in the first place.
Female Student
Professor, why isn’t the development of languages important?
Professor
Oh, it is, but the diversification of languages is a relatively recent phenomenon. Hindi, Russian, and Spanish are starkly different languages, but just 8,000 years ago, they were the same language, which we refer to as Proto-Indo-European.
Q. What is the lecture mainly about?
(A) The diversification of modern languages
(B) The earliest human languages
(C) The origin of the Proto-Indo-European language
(D) The development of human language
The correct answer is (D) because the professor said “We are not concerned with how modern languages developed, but rather with how humans developed the capacity to use language in the first place.”
(A) is incorrect because it contradicts the professor.
(B) is incorrect because the professor does not mention what the earliest human languages were.
(C) is incorrect because it is a minor detail that the professor mentions.
Here is an excerpt from a passage and its Gist Content question:
Female Student
Hi, Professor Halstatter. Your teaching assistant said that you would like to speak with me. Did I do poorly on the exam about impressionist artists?
Professor
Hello, Marina. Have a seat. No, you did quite well on that exam, so you needn’t worry about that. I just noticed that you hadn’t made an entry on our class page regarding your term paper.
Female Student
Oh, no, I forgot …
Professor
That’s fine. There isn’t really a deadline—at least not yet. Have you chosen the artist you want to write about? That is the purpose of posting on the web page: to make sure that everyone writes about a different artist.
Q. Why did the professor want the woman to come to his office?
(A) To discuss her performance on a recent examination
(B) To point out that she had not posted some information
(C) To provide some advice about a research paper she wrote
(D) To suggest that she change the topic of her upcoming project
The correct answer is (B) because the professor said “I just noticed that you hadn’t made an entry on our class page regarding your term paper.”
(A) is wrong because that is what the student incorrectly guessed was the reason why the professor wanted to speak to her.
(C) is incorrect because the professor does not give her any advice, and she has not written her paper yet.
(D) is incorrect because the professor does not make that suggestion.
3. Notes from the Test Developer
When writing Gist Purpose/Content questions, all of the answer choices must contain details and topics that were mentioned in the lecture or conversation, otherwise they do not make effective distractors. Only one of them correctly defines the main idea or topic of the talk or the reason why one person wanted to talk to the other person.
When writing Gist Content questions, I try to make all of the distractors sound plausible by including information that was in the passage. Some of them will make incorrect statements about ideas that are in the talk, while others will correctly define minor topics or details.
For the Gist Purpose questions, it depends on the person the question asks about. Whether it is a professor-student conversation or a student-university employee conversation, the distractors will describe common reasons why they might want to speak to each other and details from the conversation, but the reasons or the details will be incorrect. I often include an incorrect guess from one of the people, like answer choice (A) in the example.
4. Advice to Test Takers
I would advise test takers to do a few things when they need to solve a Gist Purpose/Content question. First, keep in mind that all of the answer choices will include details from the talk, but only one will define the actual main idea or reason for the conversation.
Second, if you are unsure which answer is correct, use the process of elimination. Some answer choices may be more obviously wrong than others and easier to rule out. So, look for any answers that present information that is incorrect or was not included in the talk or that state an incorrect reason.
Finally, the answer choices are written to sound logical and plausible, so you may be unable to decide between two answer choices. In that case, guess. Remember that you do not get points deducted for wrong answers in TOEFL. This is true for all questions so if you don’t know the answer or if you don’t have time to actually solve the question, guess.
In addition, you will only get to hear the lecture or conversation once, but the answers will be presented in the talk in the same order as the questions. Therefore, I recommend that you read the questions before the recording starts and answer the questions as you listen to the lecture or conversation.