Listening and Integrated Skills (Paper 3): From Data File to Finished Text
Paper 3 (Listening and Integrated Skills) is worth 30%, the largest single component, and runs for roughly two hours. Part A contains listening tasks; Part B requires you to combine what you heard with material in a Data File and produce a specified text type. As in Paper 1, Part B offers B1 or B2, and B1 caps the paper at Level 4.
Listening: what is actually tested
- Selective attention: record key nouns, numbers, names and the speaker's stance, not full sentences.
- Signposting language ('The main reason is...', 'What worries me is...', 'To put it another way...') marks where answers sit.
- Transcription accuracy: spelling of names, dates, prices and units.
The Data File is a resource, not a script
- Select only material that answers the task. Data Files deliberately include irrelevant or conflicting items.
- Paraphrase. Lifting sentences shows no adaptation and damages your language mark.
- Match the text type: a report needs a title and headings; a letter to a sponsor needs a formal opening and a clear request; a speech needs direct address to its audience.
- Track conditions and constraints such as budget, deadlines or rules set by a sponsor. Tasks are often built so that ignoring them loses content marks.
Worked example
Task: your school's Green Week committee must write a report to the Principal summarising proposed activities and recommending two. Sources: meeting notes, a sponsor's letter, an article. Reasoning: audience is the Principal, so formal register and headings; purpose is to summarise and recommend, so a shortlist section followed by a recommendation section. The sponsor's letter states that funding covers only activities open to all year groups, which removes one attractive option. Two activities survive. Each recommendation needs a reason drawn from the sources and paraphrased.
Traps that cost marks
- Copying chunks of the Data File verbatim.
- Adding plausible ideas that appear in none of the sources.
- Wrong text type or missing headings and titles.
- Missing a number or name in the listening and never returning to it.
- Drafting before selecting points, then running out of time to organise.