Russian listening comprehension (see Russian Listening & Speaking) depends heavily on recognizing how stress and vowel reduction change a word's actual sound from its spelling.
Train yourself to expect an unstressed "o" to sound like "a," and other reduction patterns, rather than listening for the spelled vowel directly — matching your listening expectations to how words actually sound (not how they're written) closes a real comprehension gap.
Use transcripts initially to confirm exactly where stress falls in words you're hearing, then practice the same or similar material without the transcript to test your unaided comprehension.
Listening to the same short phrase multiple times helps commit specific words' stress patterns to memory in a way a single pass doesn't — repetition is particularly valuable given that stress can't be predicted from spelling alone.
Prioritize memorizing the correct stress (by sound, not just by looking it up) for your most frequently used vocabulary first — this gives the biggest listening-comprehension payoff for the effort invested.
See also the reference page: Russian Listening & Speaking.
Because vowel reduction and unpredictable stress mean words often sound noticeably different from their spelling — training your ear for the reduced sound, not the spelled one, is key.
Using them initially confirms exactly where stress falls in what you're hearing; then practicing similar material without the transcript tests your unaided comprehension.
It helps commit specific words' stress patterns to memory in a way a single pass doesn't, which matters especially because stress can't be predicted from spelling alone.
Your most frequently used words — prioritizing these gives the biggest listening-comprehension payoff for the effort invested.