What’s in the Listening paper?
The B2 First Listening paper has four parts. For each part you have to listen to a recorded text or texts and answer some questions. You hear each recording twice.
Summary
| Time allowed: | About 40 minutes |
|---|---|
| Number of parts: | 4 |
| Number of questions: | 30 |
| Marks: | 20% total |
| Recordings may be from: | Monologues: answer phone messages, radio broadcasts and features, news, public announcements, stories and anecdotes, lectures and talks; or interacting speakers: conversations, interviews, discussions, radio plays. |
Part 1 (Multiple choice)
| What’s in Part 1? | Eight short extracts from monologues or conversations between interacting speakers. There is one multiple-choice question for each extract, and you have to choose A, B or C. |
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| What do I have to practise? | Listening for feeling, attitude, opinion, purpose, function, agreement, gist and detail. |
| How many questions are there? | 8 |
| How many marks are there? | 1 mark for each correct answer. |
Part 2 (Sentence completion)
| What’s in Part 2? | A monologue (which may be introduced by a presenter) lasting approximately 3 minutes. You have to complete the sentences on the question paper with the missing information which you hear on the recording. |
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| What do I have to practise? | Listening for specific information, stated opinion. |
| How many questions are there? | 10 |
| How many marks are there? | 1 mark for each correct answer. |
Part 3 (Multiple matching)
| What’s in Part 3? | A series of five themed monologues of approximately 30 seconds each. On the question paper, you have to select five correct options from a list of eight possible answers. |
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| What do I have to practise? | Listening for gist, attitude, opinion, purpose, feeling, main points and detail. |
| How many questions are there? | 5 |
| How many marks are there? | 1 mark for each correct answer. |
Part 4 (Multiple choice)
| What’s in Part 4? | A conversation between two or more speakers of approximately 3–4 minutes. You have to answer some multiple-choice questions by choosing the correct answer from three options (A, B or C). |
|---|---|
| What do I have to practise? | Listening for attitude, opinion, detail, gist, main idea and specific information. |
| How many questions are there? | 7 |
| How many marks are there? | 1 mark for each correct answer. |