Three weeks later, the real luistertoets came. The first question was a lecture on urban planning—clear, slow. She didn’t relax. Halfway through, the lecturer said: “Now, the main benefit is… no, sorry, let me rephrase. The main benefit is actually reduced emissions, not lower costs.” The question asked: What is the main benefit? Most of her classmates wrote “lower costs.” Lisa wrote “reduced emissions.” She passed with an 8.0.

For the upcoming practice test, she decided to prepare differently. She borrowed her dad’s expensive noise-cancelling headphones, found a quiet room, and played a BBC documentary on double speed to “train her ear.” Two days later, she walked into class confident.

Here’s a useful story for VWO students about preparing for an English listening test (luistertoets), with a practical lesson embedded.

Her teacher, Mr. Van der Berg, reviewed her results. “Lisa, you understood the main ideas, but you missed the distractors . For example, in the Australian clip, the scientist first mentioned ‘2 degrees warming,’ but then corrected himself to ‘1.5 degrees.’ The question asked for the final figure. You wrote 2.”