Hi dear Botanist
Congratulation, your writing has been improved dramatically.
"I mean how many vocabularies are familiar with us"
That was interesting, talking about words from their spectacle.
"You can listen and then stop the tape and rack your brains to remember"
Great expression which means to try very hard to remember or think of something
I agree with you, first stage in effective listening of English language tests surely is to understand the gist of them.
I have not experienced the method that you proposed for the listening but I am certain that it would be useful and will use it on my way to the IELTS degree.
In my opinion the most important factor in preparing for the listening module of the English language tests is to listen as much as you can both extensively and intensively as you mentioned the intensive part of it.
But we can also look at the effective listening from another point of view. I mean HONAR-E-Listening, listening in classes for example, or other kinds of listening.
Now I want to put forward some headlines about effective listening, in a context that a professor gives lecture at university, to talk more:
A. We may have the wrong idea about listening.
B. Make sure you know something about the topic
C. The number of key points will be limited
D. Certain words will guide you
E. Choose your seat carefully
F. Interact with the speaker
G. Speaking is a slow form of communication
H. Process what you hear
Source: Objective IELTS advanced student book, page 12.