Listening Comprehension: Interviews, Instructions and Telephone Calls
What is tested
Three listening formats recur: a patient interview (complaint history), a set of clinical instructions (how to take a medicine, prepare for a test), and a telephone exchange (booking, cancelling, asking for results, transferring a call). Items test factual detail, numbers and times, and the speaker's intention.
Concepts to control
- Time and duration markers: откога (since when), от два дни (for two days), преди седмица, от време на време, постоянно, през ден (every other day), два пъти дневно, на всеки осем часа, половин час след хранене.
- Pain description: остра, тъпа, пулсираща, стрелкаща, притискаща, разпространява се към.
- Telephone register: Здравейте, обаждам се по повод на…, мога ли да говоря с…, един момент, моля изчакайте, ще ви свържа, обратно позвъняване.
- Instruction verbs in the imperative: вземайте, не превишавайте, разклатете преди употреба, съхранете в хладилник.
Traps
- Self-correction: the speaker says „в понеделник - не, във вторник“ and only the second value is graded.
- Fast spoken numbers: phone numbers are read in groups, doses often as „половин таблетка“ or „една и половина“.
- Negative questions and answers: „Нямате ли алергии?“ – „Не, нямам“ can confuse candidates who expect a positive frame.
- Time anchors buried mid-sentence, and instructions given as a sequence where order matters (първо, след това, накрая).
Worked example
You hear: „Вземайте по една таблетка сутрин и вечер, половин час след хранене, в продължение на седем дни.“ The graded details are dose (one tablet), frequency (twice daily), relation to food (half an hour after eating), duration (seven days). Rule of thumb: while listening, draw four slots - what, how much, when, how long - and fill them as the speaker talks; most items ask about exactly one of these slots.