Ascolto: cogliere il senso, non le singole parole
What the paper asks
At B2 you are no longer listening for isolated words: you must separate what a speaker says from what a speaker means. Expect authentic-sounding recordings - phone calls, radio interviews, announcements, short discussions - in which you have to catch the main point, retrieve concrete details (times, prices, places, numbers) and read the speaker's position: agreement, doubt, irritation, polite refusal, mild complaint. Hesitations, self-repairs, overlapping turns and regional accents are part of the task, not a defect in the audio.
The traps
B2 distractors feed on lexical echo: a wrong option repeats a word from the recording while the right option paraphrases it. Other recurring traps are negation buried mid-sentence («non è che non mi piaccia, però…»), a plan that changes halfway («avevo pensato di… alla fine ho…»), numbers offered in contrasting pairs, and two speakers who disagree, so that each option is true of a different voice. Always ask yourself who is speaking when you tick an answer.
Working method
Read the questions before the first playing and underline the key element - a person, a time, a reason. On the first listening mark provisional answers; on the second verify only the doubtful ones. Never freeze on a word you missed: the information almost always returns in another form.
Worked example
Recording: «Avrei voluto prendere il treno, ma con lo sciopero ho dovuto ripiegare sull'aereo.» Question: How will the speaker travel? a) by train b) by plane c) by car. The word treno is physically present, so it attracts the eye - but it sits inside a counterfactual («avrei voluto»). The realised action is in the main clause: ho dovuto ripiegare sull'aereo → b. Rule of thumb: when an option matches the audio word for word, treat it as a suspect until you have checked the grammar surrounding it.