FCE Listening Tips- Part 3- Multiple Matching

1. OVERVIEW

In part 3 of the listening test you hear 5 short clips, each from a different speaker, on the same topic.

There are 8 options and you have to match the options to the speakers.

Obviously that leaves 3 options that don’t match any of the speakers.

The introduction is always the same and you should pay attention to two things:

In this example, the topic is a visit to a city, which probably means vocabulary about travel and cities. You have to say what the speaker liked most about the city. Without looking at the options, what would you expect to see on the list? The food, the weather, the architecture, the people?

When you’ve eliminated the 3 wrong answers and decided which speaker said what, your finished paper might look like this:

2. WHAT SKILLS DOES PART 3 TEST?

This part of the exam is about how you understand attitudes and opinions, plus your ability to work out the overall meaning of what someone is saying.

For example, you might hear 5 people talking about their last holiday, and you have to decide if their holiday was stressful or fun, expensive or cheap.

That means understanding that a person was happy with his holiday even though he never used the exact word ‘happy’.

Now ‘listen’ to speaker 1.

“Oh my time in Rome was fantastic! All the people are so well dressed – they’re so stylish! And the markets were great fun – really good!”

You will be given 30 seconds to view the questions before this listening part starts. It is important that you make the most of these 30 seconds.

Make sure you read the questions carefully. When you are reading them, you should try to think of other ways of saying the same thing.

You will hear words which mean the same. This will help you to identify the speaker.

Do not worry if you don’t get all the answers during the first listening. Make sure that you only fill in the answers that you are absolutely sure of. Then use the second listening to confirm your answers.