She panicked. She kept pausing the audio mentally, trying to rewind, but couldn’t. Her answers became random. Afterward, she scored a 4.5.
“Exactly,” Mr. Van der Berg said. “And that’s the skill. You trained with perfect audio. But VWO listening tests use authentic speech: interruptions, accents, background noise, self-corrections. Here’s what works:”
Lisa was a VWO 5 student who always did well on English tests—grammar, vocabulary, even writing. But the luistertoets Engels was her nightmare. Every time, she’d freeze. Accents blurred together, speakers talked too fast, and by question 5, she was guessing.
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.
