Online Listening

I have listen http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0710/071030-sweatshop.mp3 and http://www.voanews.com/specialenglis/2007-11-06-voa1.cfm and more five podcasts.
Listening was not difficult but I can not say that it was easy. In all I understood what was speaking about, but I am not sure that I will answer to the questions about details. I have listen seven podcasts and they were really different. Speakers were fast in some of them and native English is different from our English. The accent was strange, but after few minutes it became normal. It was good lesson. I try to listen BBC news in compare and I must say that BBC news was more difficult than podcasts. For another hand, when you see who is speaking it is easier to listen. Listening podcast was little bit boring, because there was no questions and in some moment I start thinking about something else. In my opinion more useful was BBC news listening, but podcast were good practise. I do not know am I ready to exam listening, because it depends on questions and speaker. Between native English and American English is big difference. American speakers are speaking very fast, but English one has very interesting accent. I do not know what is better.
In conclusion, I would like to say that class listening is the most useful , because you hear the questions and that you are looking answers in a speech. But this activity was useful, because you choose what to listen and how many times, and you know were are your problem.