Don’t spend your time studying what you know
Isolate your weak points. When you are practicing, find the parts that you do not understand and focus on these. You may not understand them because of the grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation or contractions used. Maybe they used a new combination of words or maybe they spoke faster than you are used to.
Find your weak points and work on these parts. I speak to lot of students who like to say that their grammar is bad, but actually they have trouble with listening because they have only ever spoken with teachers who speak slowly because they are asked to. Know yourself to improve yourself.
Words are the pieces of the puzzle
Use word maps to help you to remember new vocabulary but remember to note the nuances in similar words. And when you remember new vocabularies, look at them in sentences, look at the words that are often used with them and look at similar words to help you to remember them.
When you do come across words that you haven’t heard yet, don’t be surprised, just look at the rest of the sentence and the situation and take your best guess.
Don’t fall for red herrings
Get into the habit of eliminating the options that are obviously wrong first and then looking at the two options that are left. A lot of the questions have two answers that are obviously wrong and two that are more likely. Eliminate the first two and your chances are now 50/50.
Of course the only way that you will get the score that you want is to practice regularly. Set a study schedule and practice a listening section 2-3 times a week and you will see your scores getting higher and higher.
I would say best of luck but good technique and practice are much better than luck.
