Interactive Listening & Summary Template! Hardest Duolingo English Test Questions, Part 4

hi friends teacher Luke here and welcome to the final video in my series on the most challenging question Types on the DU lingo English test today we're tackling a question a lot of my students find to be particularly difficult it's interactive listening and summary this question type is especially tricky because it is divided into two parts part one is called listen and respond and part two is summarize the conversation in today's video I'm going to break down each part for you and share key strategies to help you to succeed and feel more confident sounds good

well let's just jump right into it let's start with the basics interactive listening is a unique question type where you participate in an academic conversation yes I said participate which means that you are one of the speakers in the conversation here's how it works you'll listen to a series of short conversation segments and choose the most appropriate response from multiple choice options each conversation will have five or six questions and you have 4 minutes to complete the task after answering the question the audio turns to text as you can see right here so you can

refer back to it to help you with the following questions but that's not all because because after you've completed the listening part of this question type you then move directly into the summary part where you'll have to write a short summary of that conversation in 75 seconds Yes you heard right just 75 seconds alog together this interactive listening question type tests your listening writing comprehension and production skills and of course it contributes to all of those sub scores meaning it's a particularly tricky yet important question type for you to master but don't worry because I've

got a bunch of tips and strategies for you we'll go through them covering each part let's start with the first part the listen and respond part of this question tip number one is to read the situation carefully before the conversation starts you'll see a short description of this scenario so pay close attention to the details of this scenario such as the relationship of the speakers are they professor and student or student and student and of course the topic focusing on these two things will help guide your choices and give you some really useful tips to

choose the correct answer tip two is to understand speaker relationships the conversation you participate in will either be between a professor and a student or between a student and an another students a conversation with a professor will require more formal language while a chat with a friends will be more casual so you can use this information to eliminate inappropriate options tip number three is to eliminate distractors incorrect answers often include more exaggerated statements unrelated topics or answers that don't fit the conversation's context so try to identify these distractors and this will save you time and

help you to focus on choosing just the correct options review the text as you go once you've chosen your answer the audio does turn into text allowing you to see if you've selected the correct response and also read the correct answer so use this text to review earlier parts of the conversation as there might be Clues to help you with any upcoming questions really don't overlook these hints because they can make a big difference tip number five is to always guess if you're unsure never leave a question unanswered because an unanswered question is 100% incorrect

so even if you're unsure take an educated guess to keep moving forward you'll be able to see if your answer was right or not and if you get it correct that will give you some confidence and remember you can still earn a partial points for this question type even if you get one or two wrong so don't stress if you get one wrong just keep moving forward now let's take a look at some strategies for writing a summary a lot of test takers find summarizing the conversation to be really challenging because you have to summarize

the conversation you just had in a very short amount of time just 75 seconds and because you only have 75 seconds it means you need to be well prepared in advance and learn a simple structure for summarizing a conversation of course I do have a simple structure which I'm going to teach you right now along with some other tips to help you succeed on this question type number one paraphrase the situation for your first sentence in your summary start by rephrasing the scenario for example the scenario could be you are a student in a journalism

class discussing cultivating sources and the first sentence of my summary I asked my professor to explain the concept of cultivating sources during today's Journey journalism class by paraphrasing the situation in your first sentence it ensures you have a strong opening and you have at least written down one sentence relatively quickly next up study some openin phrases in order to save some precious time memorize and practice using some common opening phrases here are a bunch you can use take a screenshot of these and practice using them when you take your practice tests on the real dualingo

English test website I have put all these opening phrases into a PDF which you can download by clicking on the link in the description honestly having some of these phrases ready and memorize will help you begin writing super quickly which is essential especially when you only have 75 seconds to summarize the conversation tip number two is to use a simple structure once you've started your answer you can use this simple structure which I'm going to teach you in one moment to write a high score in summary because it will allow you to write up to

three sentences and include lots and lots of details which is important so let's go over this simple structure for your first sentence you want to write an introduction where you rephrase or paraphrase the situation start by explaining who you spoke to and what the conversation was about in general and like I mentioned earlier you can paraphrase the situation and use those open in phrases to help you to do this well now for your second and possibly third sentences you want to go into details here you can highlight the key ideas or main points discussed during

the conversation and for your final sentence you can talk about the outcome conclude What was decided and what you learned from the conversation and here is a full example so you can see it in action I had a conversation with my professor about the low grade I got in my English writing class she suggested I use the University's online Grammar and Writing resources to improve my Advanced grammar and learn to organize academic essays I agreed with my professor and said that I begin using these online resources right away don't worry if you can't cover all

three parts in your answer simply keeping this structure in mind will help you write a clear and organized response also remember to focus on grammar and coherence use comp complete sentences and don't write in bullet points after all this is an English exam another helpful tip is to stick with the active voice which makes your writing sound more clear and natural so use pronouns like I and we along with active verbs to help keep your sentences direct and easy to understand tip three is to practice writing under time pressure so last but not least of

course you need to practice with only 75 seconds to write your answer practice is essential practice every single day to get used to typing quickly and summarizing effectively within the short 75 second time limit the more you practice the faster you'll become and the more confident you'll feel and that's it for today's lesson on interactive listening and the summary question I hope this was helpful do you have any questions write them Below in the comments and I'll make sure I answer as many as I can and if you haven't already I recommend you watch this

video right here which will help you with another tricky question it's called read and complete and of course I cover lots of strategies and give you some practice questions to help you to get really confident with this question type so click here and I'll see you in this video right now