Pre-sessional English

Academic Engagement
Listening Exam Information for students
The Listening Exam will be on Monday 18
th
August. It will consist of three parts. You will hear each
listening text twice, with pauses between each section.
Each listening text is short, usually not longer than 6 minutes or so, but with repetition and time for note-
taking the exam will last approximately 1.5 hours.
The first part consists of three short excerpts from lectures and multiple choice or ordering tasks.
In the second part you are required to take notes, and then to use your notes to complete
sentences.
When taking notes you are not expected to write in complete sentences: instead, use
abbreviations and symbols.
The third part consists of listening to a short filmed lecture which you will be expected to answer
questions on.

Exam tip 1: The notes section in Part 2 is given a smaller number of marks than the following gap-
fill section, but try to make your notes as detailed as possible so that you can answer the following
questions.

Exam tip 2: The best way to revise for the exam is to listen to lectures, TED Talks and podcasts, and
to practice taking notes. Taking clear, detailed notes is difficult for many people in their first
language as well as in second languages, but your skills will improve with practice.

Exam tip 3: notetaking
In order to note down large amounts of information in a short period of time, it is better to write
down only key words and phrases. Abbreviations and symbols are also useful. (You will not have
time to write complete sentences anyway.) The best way to improve your notetaking skills is to
practice, practice, practice!













Pre-sessional English