CAE LISTENING

Listening (40 minutes)

You hear and see the instructions for each task, and you hear each recording twice,
but you cannot pause or rewind the audio.
Part Task Type Questions Format

1 Multiple choice 6 Three short extracts with two people

talking for about a minute in three
different
situations. For each of two questions,
you choose from answers A, B or C.
2 Sentence 8 One person speaking for about three
completion
minutes. Complete sentences by writing
a word or short phrase.
3 Multiple choice 6 An interview or conversation of about
four minutes. Choose from answers A,
B, C or D.
4 Multiple matching 10 Five extracts of about 30 seconds each,
with a common theme. For each extract
there
General Tips to Ace CAE Listening
 General Tips to Ace CAE Listening

• Before the recording starts, read the questions for each

section carefully. This will help you to follow the recording
and identify the answers.
• Remember in CAE you hear everything TWICE so don’t
worry if you are not sure after the first time.
• After completing a section, it is better to look ahead to the
next section and read the questions, than to worry about
the last section.
 General Tips to Ace CAE Listening
• Be careful to note word limits. If there is an instruction:
‘Write no more than three words’, writing four words or
more will mean you will receive no marks for your
answer, even if some of the words are correct.
• Try to listen for key words or synonyms (words that
have the same or similar meaning as another word)
from the question to help you identify the answer,
particularly when people are expressing opinions or
beliefs. For example, on the recording you might hear:
“Maria doesn’t like going to the gym and usually just
stays at home watching TV”. On your answer sheet, this
could appear as “Maria isn’t a very active person.”
 General Tips to Ace CAE Listening
• You are sometimes asked to write down words that have
been spelled out in the recording. In order to do this well,
you need to know the English alphabet and how each
letter is pronounced (for example, the letter ‘I’ is
pronounced ‘eye’, and the letter ‘W’ is pronounced as
‘double-u’).
• Listen carefully for words that indicate which stage of the
recording you are listening to, e.g. ‘firstly’, ‘after that’, ‘so
finally’. These words will help you identify which question
you have reached.
• As you are listening to the recording, in the multiple
choice tasks, cross out options that you think don’t fit. This
makes it easier for you to find the right answer.
 General Tips to Ace CAE Listening

• If you are writing dates as an answer to any question,

remember that there are several correct ways to write
them (e.g. ‘11th May’, ‘11th of May’, ‘May 11’ and ‘11
May’ are all correct).
• Even after the second listening, if there are questions
you are not sure about, choose the best answer and
move on. This will help you to stay calm and positive.
You can go back to those questions at the end, if you
have time.
Listening Part two
 Listening Part two

Part 2 – Sentence Completion

• Sentence completion – complete sentence with word or
short phrase
• 8 questions, 8 marks
• 45 seconds to read task – underline key words (highlight in
case of CBT) and make predictions about type of word
(adjective, noun, verb) and possibilities (number? animal?
place?)
• While listening for first time watch out for distractors.
 distractors

Identify the distractors in this question:

• Sentence: The subject Steven was teaching when he first read
about the bath toys was ____________________.
• Listening text: “So how did I get involved? I’m a college lecturer but
not teaching anything like economics or even geography; media
studies is my field.”

• Confirm answer on second listening.

• Check that word or phrase makes sense in the context of the
sentence, Should it be plural? Does it need an article? (a/an/the)
Step by Step Strategies to Ace CAE
Listening Part 2
• The second part of the CAE listening test is one that
many students find difficult and perhaps are even afraid
of. The most common concerns that students associate
to it are the speed of the speaker, the difficult accent,
and the intentional traps or distractors that hide within
the test.
• However, just like the other sections of CAE, the
listening test also has some useful strategies that can
facilitate it and make you feel more confident. So let’s
go through the ones that can be applied to Part 2.
 Description of the task

Part 2 of the CAE Listening test involves a monologue (or

sometimes dialogue) which lasts for about 3 minutes. This
will be played twice. Your task is to complete 8 sentences in
the summary of this monologue, which will be provided to
you. The topics of this monologue can vary; for example,
you might listen to a report mentioning the results of a
survey, a person talking about a personal experience, a
description of a new technological device and etc. To fill
each gap, you will need 1 to 3 words.
 Step 1: Read the instructions
carefully!
The instructions provide some very useful information about what you are
going to listen and can basically familiarise you with the topic. Let’s have a
look at two possible examples.
Example 1
You will hear a news report about ‘NOKIA’, a popular communications and
information technology company. For questions 7-14, complete the
sentences with a word or short phrase.
Example 2
You will hear an interview with a veterinary doctor talking about his work.
For questions 7-14, complete the sentences with a word or short phrase.

Comparing these two examples, you can see that the topics and therefore,
the information required, must be quite different. This enables you to
predict the vocabulary categories that you will need for each task (eg.
Technology for the first and medicine/work-related words for the second).
 Step 2: Read the summary
quickly!

Before you start listening, it’s important to read the text

quickly. This will give you a basic idea of what will be
mentioned in the monologue, and, most importantly, of its
structure. In this way it will be easier for you to associate
specific parts of the text to the relevant ones of the audio.
 Step 3: Predict

• You are probably not a psychic, but you can certainly make
some "life-saving" predictions while reading the text. First and
foremost it’s good to predict what type of word is needed in the
gap. It can be a noun, adjective, adverb or verb/verbal form
(gerund, infinitive or participle). Or a combination of those –
adjective and noun. Let’s have a look at this example sentence.
• Tim complains that although his work is similar to that of a (7)
_______________________, he does not have as many perks.
•
By looking at this sentence we can assume that the word we are
looking for is a NOUN. And not only that, but it’s also a singular
countable noun given the article “a” before the gap. And it’s
also one that starts with a consonant sound. Perfect! So maybe
now we can predict the word itself.
Maybe paediatrician or dentist or even plastic surgeon.
 Stage 4: Fill in the gaps
Then it’s finally time to listen and fill in the gaps. It’s definitely easier said than
done, but it’s not impossible. You need to be aware that as the text is the
summary of the recording, the information you will hear might be worded
differently. So listen carefully and make sure that the word you have chosen to
write is grammatically correct and meaningful. Even if you haven’t caught the
word itself, it’s always worth filling the gap with a guess, but make sure this guess
is relevant to the topic! Watch out for traps! For example, if you are looking for a
noun, make sure you’ve given it in the correct form (plural/singular). Don’t stop
at the gap, but always read around it! Look at these two sentences.
•
Tim complains that although his work is similar to that of a (7)
________________________, he doesn’t have as many perks.
Tim complains that although his work is similar to that of a (7)
________________________ paediatrician, he doesn’t have as many perks.
• Both stop at an article, but in the second sentence the noun “pediatrician” is
there. So what’s missing is probably an adjective rather than a noun.
 Quick steps to Listening Part 2

• We are going to work out a sample question. Before

starting, keep these steps in mind:
• Read the introduction, the title and the question to get
an idea of the context.
• The first time you listen, just fill in the answers in the
blanks.
• The second time you listen, check your answers and
make necessary changes.
• Tip: Write the words you hear; don’t try to rephrase
them.
 Let’s Practise

• Let’s work out a sample Question of Listening Part Two.

You will see the questions as well as hear the recording.
• Listen carefully, and answer the questions keeping all the
tips in mind.
• Once the exercise is done, Let’s review the answers.
 Answers

• 1 (an) open-air museum 2 a mountain lion

• 3 windows 4 (fierce) sun 5 folk dancing
• 6 (multicoloured) costumes 7 models 8 spectators
Know your weaknesses and Correct
your mistakes

• If you have got any wrong answers, have a look at the

recording script to know where you have gone wrong
and to avoid such traps in the future.
 LEARNING FROM MISTAKES
One of the best ways to improve (and to learn about
distractors) is to read the transcript of the recording after
you've done the exercise. In my experience, students never
do this, and it's a real shame. Not only will you learn some
vocabulary and grammar by studying the transcript, but
you'll see which of Cambridge's traps you fell into.
 Practice is the key to success.

• Practice is the key to success and you will notice, with time
you will get better and better.
 How to Practice?
• Listen to as many radio and TV programmes as you can and
try to listen to different ones involving different people and
topics. This will make your ear adapt to the different accents
and speed.
• Work on paraphrasing. Try to do many reading and listening
tasks in which you have to answer questions. Make sure that
you give the answers using your own words as much as
possible. Try to use an English dictionary and learn
vocabulary with definitions and not translations as this is an
excellent example of paraphrasing.
• Work on your speed! The stages mentioned above seem very
time-consuming to be followed during the exam, and they
can be. Therefore, you need to train yourself well in advance.
Start at your own pace and gradually switch to a faster pace
until you can do it within the time limits of the exam.
 The End

I hope you found these tips useful. Best of luck with your
Cambridge CAE exam!