I was going through Greg’s season-2 classes for TOEFL, and I found a neat little trick for listening.
Greg says we have to get the main idea of the passage in the first minute of listening. I was trying to do that actively while listening to each line. Is this line the main idea? Is this line the main idea? Maybe it’s this one! While doing this I generally miss out on the other points I should concentrate on. But I found a way. Now, what I have settled on is - Try to take notes in the lecture as if you are a part of the class. Now, you’ll have all the important notes written down. For the main idea, all you gotta do is think “How would I explain this lecture - in one line - to my friend who was absent for the lecture?”. Works wonderfully for me!