FCE Listening

• English
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 2

FCE: EXTRA HELP

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SCORE IN THE LISTENING PAPER

The Cambridge B2 First listening test has 4 parts, 30 questions, and takes about 40 minutes. 

You normally do this after the Reading and Writing tests, so you might be quite tired before the listening test even begins. Every recording is played twice, but you will have to concentrate hard both times.

KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT!

* While Cambridge staff are explaining what to do (as you will  already know this) .......

Use whatever time you have to read the questions, underline keywords, and PREDICT possible answers. Guessing the answer before you listen is really helpful - just bear in mind that the answer you chose might be a distractor (see the next section).

There are built in pauzes between the tasks

You get time to look at the questions

Each piece is heard twice

You are clearly told in writing and in the audio file exactly what you are going to listen to. 

See part 3 in the link on next slide of how Cambridge may try to distract you from giving the correct answer!

3. DISTRACTORS, LINKERS, AND OTHER CAMBRIDGE FAVOURITES

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FCE Listening Part 1 Tips

The first part of the exam is quite easy, as long as you pay attention and don't get fooled by the distractors. You hear 8 texts (monologues or dialogues) and there's no connection between them. Each question is worth one point.

FCE Listening Part 2 Tips

This is a task called sentence completion. On your answer paper is a text with ten gaps. You listen to a monologue for about 3 minutes and you have to put the missing words (or numbers) into the text. It looks like this:

You get a little time (45 seconds) to read through the text before the recording starts to play. The phrase will never be more than 3 words long.

FCE Listening Part 2 Tips

Right, let's take 5 seconds to guess some words that might fit the gap: mother / history / smell / nose / fluffiness.

:

 The phrase will never be more than 3 words long.

Spectacled Bear

MORE TIPS FOR PART 2

• Never write more than 3 words.
• If the answer is a number, you can write the number. 300 (or you can write three hundred), 1918, etc.
• Be careful to read the whole sentence to make sure your answer fits grammatically. For example, if I wrote 'name that interested her' as my answer to the bear question, I wouldn't get a point. It says 'interested' later in the sentence. See?

 

More tips for Part 2

• The sentences on your paper are different from what you hear on the recording. But the words you write should be exactly the same as what you hear.
• Spelling isn't super-important in this part of the exam, though if you spell something really incorrectly you could miss a point. Basically if it's clear that you heard and understood the word, you should get a point. The only way to be REALLY sure of getting a point is to spell it properly!

Testing for specific information 

Part 3: OVERVIEW

• In part 3 of the listening test you hear 5 short clips, each from a different speaker, on the same topic. 
• There are 8 options and you have to match the options to the speakers. 
• Obviously that leaves 3 options that don't match any of the speakers.
• The introduction is always the same and you should pay attention to two things:

Write on your exam paper!

You have time to transer the answers at the end!

You need to s

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FCE Listening Part 4

You hear an interview or conversation (about 3 minutes long) and have to answer 7 multiple choice questions. By this time, you might be quite tired from concentrating so this will be a challenge even if you’re normally quite good at this kind of task.

Like in the rest of the listening test, you have to ignore distractors, listen for linking words, and understand the meaning of what the people are saying.

What does it look like?

After underlining key information, eliminating wrong answers, and choosing the right answer, your paper might look like this:

Tips for Part 4

READ THE QUESTION - CAREFULLY!

Make sure you read the questions carefully because some of the answers might be true without being the answer. A good example is when the question asks you to find the main reason for something. Example:

The speaker mentions all three choices - the food, his girlfriend, the food. But only one is the MAIN reason for his move.

GUESS BEFORE YOU LISTEN

Another good tip is to think what the answer will be before you hear the recording. 

MORE TIPS

When you’re practicing this before the exam, don’t only try to find the answer. Also say why the wrong answers are wrong. That will really help you build the skills you need to do well in the exam.

• The answers are in the same order as the questions.
• You’ve got a lot of text to read in part 4, so as soon as part 3 finishes, turn to part 4 and start underlining key words.
• As always, be very suspicious when you hear the exact words from the answers in the audio.
• You probably won’t know every word, so sometimes you’ll have to guess the meaning. That’s a skill you can work on while you’re preparing. Take a text with a new word and instead of reaching for your phone to check the meaning, think about what it could mean from the context.

Usually this is an interview.