Listening Part A

The first thing you should do is use the 30-second pause before each dialogue to
examine the incomplete notes. You can employ two prediction techniques here:
structure and content. Structure prediction involves using the grammar of the notes to
predict the type of word that will fill the gap. For example, your existing knowledge
of English will tell you that a preposition is followed by a noun, so a gap after suffers
from requires a noun or noun phrase. This is also an opportunity to use content
prediction, in which you focus on the meaning of the words around the gaps to come
to logical conclusions about what the answers will be. In this case, suffers from will
almost certainly be followed by the name of a disease or other condition.

The words that fill the gaps are taken directly from the dialogues, so there is no need
to transform words to make them fit. However, the language before and after the gaps
is not usually the same as the recording, so you need to use your knowledge of
synonyms and paraphrasing to recognise when the speakers are discussing the subject
of the answer. So, while the notes might refer to oral medication, the patient might
say pills or tablets, or you might read inability to ______ and hear the patient say I
can’t ….
You will hear the answers in the same order as they are printed on the question paper,
so you should follow the notes closely as you listen. You will be helped by the fact
that the notes are organised into sections with headings and subheadings, so a section
called Medical history might contain subsections called Medication and Surgical
history. Pay particular attention to the speakers’ use of intonation, pauses and
signposting words to identify a change of subject. In this example, the doctor might
pause before saying Now, let’s talk about any operations you’ve had. This tells you
that you need to focus on the Surgical history subsection.
Finally, don’t worry too much about accurate spelling, as this is not one of the criteria
for a correct answer in Part A. Spelling errors are acceptable as long as your meaning
is clear.
STRATEGY 1 : Predict the answer by looking at words before & after the blank.
STRATEGY 2 : Be prepared to hear a different structure in the sentence.
STRATEGY 3: Be prepared to hear Synonyms in the extract.
STRATEGY 4 :Be on the lookout for a collective word that may represent a group of
words.