Note completion with a speaker who corrects herself mid-message
Listening Part 2 is note completion. The recording is a 1 minute 40 second voicemail from Riverside Training Centre about a first-aid course, played twice, with 20 seconds between playings. The notes read: Venue: ____ ; Day: ____ ; Start time: ____ ; Bring: ____ . The instruction is 'Write one word and/or a number for each gap.' After the first playing you have written 'Room 12', 'Tuesday', '6.30', 'workbook'. What you heard was: 'The course won't be in Room 12 after all - they're painting it - so we're in the annex, behind reception. And it's not Tuesday, sorry - Wednesday, same time, half six. Oh, and the workbook's online now, so just bring your ID.' You are confident about spelling except for 'annex', and you are worried about losing marks for it. You wrote in pencil.
1. List what you change after the first playing, in priority order, and give the cue words that justify each change.
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Priority order, because the second playing will not give you time for everything:
- Venue - 'won't be in Room 12 after all' plus 'so we're in the annex'. 'After all' signals a changed plan; 'so' marks the replacement. 'Behind reception' is extra detail and the gap takes one word, so write 'annex' only.
- Day - 'it's not Tuesday, sorry - Wednesday'. The apology is the correction signal. Cross out Tuesday, write Wednesday.
- Bring - 'the workbook's online now, so just bring your ID'. This is a replacement, not an addition; 'workbook' is where the trap sits.
- Start time - leave 6.30. 'Same time, half six' confirms rather than changes it. Do not overwrite a correct answer just because a number is mentioned late. Cross out rather than rub out: rubbing wastes seconds and can leave an unreadable smudge.
2. The second playing is about to start. Describe what you listen for and what you deliberately do not do.
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The second playing is for verification, not fresh listening. Before it starts, look only at the four gaps and what you have written, so your eyes and ears are checking the same thing. As it plays, listen for the four specific moments - the venue sentence, the day sentence, the time phrase, the 'bring' sentence - rather than following the whole message again. Deliberately do not rewrite everything in case you misheard, add words the gap does not allow, or change 6.30 to 6.00 because a number appears near the end ('half six' is 6.30). If a gap is still empty when the audio stops, write your best one-word guess rather than leaving a blank: an empty gap scores zero with certainty.
3. 'ID' versus 'photo ID' versus 'annex': what are the format and spelling risks here, and what do you do about them?
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The instruction allows one word and/or a number per gap, so 'photo ID' is two words and risks being marked wrong; write 'ID'. For 'annex', write it as clearly as you can and move on - a single misspelling normally does not cancel the mark if the word is recognisable, whereas a blank or a two-word answer to a one-word gap often does. The real risk is the habit rather than the spelling: candidates write what they first heard and never revisit it. At the end, check every gap against the word limit, and check that you have not left 'Room 12' in place simply because it was the first thing you heard.