Listening Comprehension (リスニング)
Listening comprehension comes first on the Ibaraki prefectural entrance exam paper. Each question is played twice from the recording, with a short pause for notes, so your marks depend on what you catch the first time and confirm the second time, not on reading speed. The section tests practical understanding: following directions, catching a time or price, choosing the right picture, and deciding what a speaker will do next.
What the recording actually asks
- Picture selection: which of four scenes matches the dialogue (weather, transport, food, room layout).
- Numbers: times (half past six, a quarter to seven), prices, dates with ordinals (the third, the twenty-first), floors, platform numbers.
- Action questions: "What will the boy do next?" - the answer is usually the last plan mentioned, not the first.
- Reason questions: why the speaker changes plans (a delayed train, illness, rain).
- Directions: turn left at the second corner, next to / across from / between.
Worked example
You hear: "The movie starts at six thirty, but we should get there twenty minutes early to get good seats." Question: What time should they arrive?
Work the numbers step by step: six thirty is 6:30; twenty minutes early means 6:30 − 0:20 = 6:10. The answer is 6:10. Writing 6:30 is the classic error - that is the start time, not the arrival time, and the clue word is "early".
Traps
- -teen and -ty: thirteen/thirty, fourteen/forty, fifteen/fifty. The -teen forms are stressed on the second syllable.
- First plan stated, second plan chosen: but / actually / instead / let's not signals the real answer.
- Conditional plans: "if it rains, we'll use the gym" - the question may ask about the indoor plan.
- Wrong units: dollars and cents, hours and minutes, months and dates.
- Writing during the first playing: use the replay to confirm what you already guessed, not to start from zero.