Listening (B2 First Paper 3)
B2 First Listening lasts about 40 minutes, has four parts and 30 questions, and is worth 20% of the total. Each recording is heard twice. It tests gist, specific information, opinion, attitude, purpose and the function of what is said - not just word recognition.
The four parts
- Part 1: eight short extracts, each with a three-option question. Tests function, attitude or detail; answers are usually implied rather than stated.
- Part 2: sentence completion, ten gaps, one or two words, from a monologue. Answers come in text order and must be spelled correctly; a number counts as one word.
- Part 3: five speakers matched to eight statements. Tests gist and attitude; each statement paraphrases one speaker's main point, and the distractors fit other speakers.
- Part 4: seven three-option questions on an interview or discussion; tests opinion, agreement and inference.
Technique that earns marks
- Use the pause before each recording to read the stem and options and underline the difference between options (too long vs too expensive).
- In Part 1, predict the kind of answer, then listen for paraphrase and for the speaker's final position ("I was going to…, but…").
- In Part 2, write during the first listening and confirm during the second; never leave a gap blank.
- In Part 3, note each speaker's main point in two or three words before matching; never match on a single repeated word.
- In Part 4, track who says what; a distractor may be mentioned by the other speaker.
Worked example (Part 1)
Question: What does the speaker say about the film? A It was too long. B The story was weak. C The acting was poor. You hear: "I thought it would be too long, but actually it flew by. The plot was thin, though." Answer B. "The plot was thin" means the story was weak. "It flew by" contradicts A - the speaker expected it to be long but it was not. C is unsupported: acting is never mentioned. The trap is A, because "too long" is heard, but it describes an expectation, not the opinion.
Traps that cost marks
- Matching an option because it contains a word you heard.
- Missing negation or contrast: not as good as, although, whereas, hardly.
- Part 2: writing three words, or a misspelling that cannot be marked correct.
- Part 3: losing your place after a distractor and assigning statements to the wrong speakers.
- Part 4: assuming the first speaker's view is the answer when the second disagrees.