Listening is the section where people lose marks they had every right to keep. The audio isn’t usually the problem. The problem is a handful of small, avoidable mistakes that turn a correct answer into a wrong one. Fix these and your score often jumps half a band without you understanding a single word more.
You hear it only once
Let’s start with the rule that catches everyone out: each recording plays a single time. There’s no rewind. So if you get stuck on one question and keep staring at it, you’ll miss the next two while you panic. The skill isn’t catching every word — it’s letting go of the one you missed and being ready for what’s next.
Read ahead during the pauses
Before each section, you get a few seconds to look at the questions. Use them ruthlessly. Read the next set, underline keywords, and predict what kind of answer fits each gap — is it a number, a date, a name, a noun? If a blank clearly needs a time, your ear is already primed to catch “half past nine.” This one habit does more for your score than any amount of extra listening.
The mistakes that quietly cost you
- Spelling. A correct answer spelled wrong is marked wrong. Words like “accommodation,” “Wednesday” and “necessary” trip people up constantly. If a word gets spelled out letter by letter in the audio, write each letter as you hear it — don’t trust your memory afterward.
- Plurals. “Ticket” and “tickets” are different answers. Listen for that final ‘s’, because the test loves to punish people who don’t.
- Word limits. “No more than two words” means exactly that. Write three and you get zero, even if the meaning is perfect. Underline the limit on every set of instructions.
- Number and date formats. Get comfortable with how dates and large numbers are said aloud. “Nineteen ninety-five,” “a quarter to six,” “double seven” — these are standard and very catchable once you’ve practised them.
Don’t leave blanks
Even if you missed it, guess. There’s no penalty for a wrong answer, so an empty box is just a thrown-away chance. Put down something plausible and move on.
Transfer carefully (on paper)
If you’re sitting the paper test, you get extra time at the end to copy answers onto the answer sheet — and people lose marks here too, by misaligning rows or introducing spelling errors that weren’t there before. On the computer version there’s no transfer step, just a couple of minutes to check, so use them.
Listening rewards calm, prepared candidates more than “good listeners.” Train the habits above and you stop donating points you’d already earned.