FCE Listening Tips- Part 4- Multiple Choice

You hear an interview or conversation (about 3 minutes long) and have to answer 7 multiple choice questions. By this time, you might be quite tired from concentrating so this will be a challenge even if you’re normally quite good at this kind of task.

Like in the rest of the listening test, you have to ignore distractors, listen for linking words, and understand the meaning of what the people are saying.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

After underlining key information, eliminating wrong answers, and choosing the right answer, your paper might look like this:

READ THE QUESTION – CAREFULLY!

Make sure you read the questions carefully because some of the answers might be true without being the answer. A good example is when the question asks you to find the main reason for something. Example:

What’s the main reason the writer moved to Spain?

• a) the weather

• b) his girlfriend

• c) the food

‘What everyone knows about Spain is that the climate is perfect for writers, and I’m a bit of an amateur chef so it’s great to be surrounded by good restaurants and fresh ingredients. But despite that, I would have stayed in England had it not been for my partner. She wanted to be close to her family, whereas it’s quite easy for me to work from anywhere in the world.’

As you can see, the speaker mentions all three choices – the food, his girlfriend, the food. But only one is the MAIN reason for his move.

GUESS BEFORE YOU LISTEN

Another good tip is to think what the answer will be before you hear the recording. But while that can be VERY helpful, some students go too far with it. A lot of  students work in banks, so imagine you’re a banker and this question comes up:

What is the speaker’s opinion of bankers?

• a) They are true heroes; princes among men

• b) They are thieves and criminals

• c) They are bad people in good suits

Sometimes students will decide ‘the answer must be A, of course!’ and as a result they don’t listen to the recording. The correct method is to think, ‘My answer is A, but I wonder what the speaker says?’ That way, you are alert and attentive.

SOME MORE TIPS

• When you’re practicing this before the exam, don’t only try to find the answer. Also say why the wrong answers are wrong. That will really help you build the skills you need to do well in the exam.

• The answers are in the same order as the questions.

• You’ve got a lot of text to read in part 4, so as soon as part 3 finishes, turn to part 4 and start underlining key words.

• As always, be very suspicious when you hear the exact words from the answers in the audio.

• You probably won’t know every word, so sometimes you’ll have to guess the meaning. That’s a skill you can work on while you’re preparing. Take a text with a new word and instead of reaching for your phone to check the meaning, think about what it could mean from the context