Listening task assessments aim to test both your writing skills and your ability to extract information from auditory excerpts under timed conditions. Whilst they can be difficult to incorproate in your responses, the best way to improve your approach to listening assessments is through practise and applying the following techniques.

1. Make sure you have a holistic understanding of the text
The primary difficulty with listenings tasks is not being able to contextualise the scene or stage where the extract is from. Hence, it is really important to know your text in detail and memorise how the plot unfolds. The best way to achieve this is to write out how your narrative chronologically progresses and label each scene/act to give yourself a clear image.

2. Practise note-taking
It is important to ensure that you are taking down as much information possible when listening to an excerpt from the text. Hence, practise note-taking by listening to sections and writing down the key ideas, quotes and themes under timed conditions. This will help you replicate the exam enivornment and be able to recognise what kind of information from the extract is important.

3. Research and use sound techniques
Listening extracts use a variety of additional techniques that are not used in written texts. It is important to take notice of techniques such as background score, sound-effects, mood music, tempo, digetic and non-digetic sound. By applying these to your analysis you can add more depth and include a range of devices in your argument. This will help strengthen your response and ensure maximum utilisation of the listening extract provided.