The whole Listening paper under exam conditions. The transcripts are hidden, there are no Check buttons, and the clock starts on your first answer. Play each part twice, as the exam does, answer all 25 questions, then Hand in the paper. Everything is marked at once; the transcripts and the support open for the debrief and the redo.
This is the exam-conditions mock: nothing is checked until you hand in. The clock starts when you answer your first question. After you hand in, every part is marked at once and the support opens for the debrief.
For each question, choose the correct answer. You hear each recording twice. In the real exam the three options are pictures; here they are in words, which changes nothing — all three things are mentioned, and only one of them answers the question.
Part 1. There are seven questions in this part. For each question there are three answers. You will hear each recording twice.
Question 1. You will hear a boy talking about a photography competition.
Boy: I had three I liked. The one of the river at sunrise was the prettiest, but my sister said it looked like a postcard, and she was right. The dog one was funny, and everyone who saw it laughed — but the rules said “your town”, and a dog isn't a town. So I sent the one of the market, with the rain and the umbrellas. It's not the best photo. It's the one that's actually about the place.
[pause 5s] Now listen again. [repeat] [pause 5s]
Question 2. You will hear two friends talking about going to the cinema.
Girl: The website says six fifteen, but that's the adverts. The actual film doesn't start till quarter to seven.
Boy: So we could meet at half past six?
Girl: You'll miss the beginning — it's the sort of film where the first five minutes matter. Be there at quarter past, get the seats, and I'll bring the popcorn.
Boy: Fine. Six fifteen.
[pause 5s] Now listen again. [repeat] [pause 5s]
Question 3. You will hear a message from a delivery company.
Man: Hello, this is a message for Mrs Osei from Fast Track Deliveries. I'm sorry, the van missed you today, Wednesday. We don't deliver to your area on Thursdays, so it will be with you on Friday — between eight and one. If nobody's in, we'll leave it with a neighbour. Thank you.
[pause 5s] Now listen again. [repeat] [pause 5s]
Question 4. You will hear Tom and Nila talking about homework.
Nila: Have you done the thing for tomorrow?
Tom: The history essay? Finished it on Sunday.
Nila: No, that's Thursday. Tomorrow is geography — the map, rivers of Britain, labelled, with the cities.
Tom: I thought that was science.
Nila: Science is the experiment write-up, and that's not till next week. Tomorrow. Map. Rivers.
Tom: Right. Have you got a spare map?
[pause 5s] Now listen again. [repeat] [pause 5s]
Question 5. You will hear a woman talking about a flat she is going to rent.
Woman: It's on the main road, which everybody warned me about, but the windows are new and honestly, with them shut you can't hear a thing. The kitchen's tiny — one person at a time — but I don't cook much, so that's fine. What I keep thinking about is the heating. It's an old building, high ceilings, and the last tenant said her winter bills were double what she'd expected. That's the bit I lie awake over.
[pause 5s] Now listen again. [repeat] [pause 5s]
Question 6. You will hear an announcement at a railway station.
Announcer: This is a platform announcement. The 10.42 service to Oxford has been cancelled. Passengers for Oxford should board the 10.50 to Birmingham, which is now at platform four, and change at Reading. Please do not wait at platform two; the next direct train to Oxford is not until twelve fifteen. We apologise for the inconvenience.
[pause 5s] Now listen again. [repeat] [pause 5s]
Question 7. You will hear a man talking about his new bicycle.
Man: People ask if it's fast, and it is, a bit — I've knocked five minutes off the ride to work. It's lighter than the old one too, which matters when you're carrying it up three flights of stairs every night. But if I'm honest, the thing I'd pay for again is the seat. Forty minutes on the old bike and I couldn't sit down for the rest of the day. Now I get to work and I've forgotten I cycled.
[pause 5s] Now listen again. [repeat] [pause 5s]
That is the end of Part 1.
How to read this part. If this part went badly, here is what usually happened: you answered on the first mention. Every option in Part 1 is said out loud, and the first one you hear is nearly always the one being cleared away. The answer is what is left standing at the end — after the so, after the but if I'm honest, after the second refusal.
Do it in this order.
Question 6 is the shape that costs most marks in this part: an option made of two true details joined wrongly — platform four and twelve fifteen. Whenever an option combines two facts, check that the recording combined them too.
On each question. The help for the ones you missed is now attached to the question itself — the options that cannot be right are crossed out, and the place to look is marked.
You will hear six different recordings. For each question, choose the correct answer. These are longer than Part 1 and they are not about facts: they ask what somebody feels, means or wants. You hear each one twice.
Part 2. Now listen to six different recordings. For each question, choose the correct answer. You will hear each recording twice.
Question 8. You will hear a girl talking about a camping weekend.
Girl: I didn't want to go. It rained on the Friday, the tent leaked, and by Saturday morning I'd decided my friends were mad and I was never doing this again. Then the sun came out. We swam in the river, we cooked on a fire — badly — and we sat up till two talking. On Sunday, packing up wet everything into the car, I realised I was already planning the next one. I'd never have said so on Friday.
[pause 5s] Now listen again. [repeat] [pause 5s]
Question 9. You will hear two friends talking about a new café.
Boy: It's nice, but you can't get a table. I went on Tuesday at three and there was a queue.
Girl: I got in straight away on Thursday. The girl on the counter was lovely — she remembered my name from last time.
Boy: The man who served me barely looked up. But I'll say this: six pounds for that breakfast is nothing. You'd pay ten anywhere else.
Girl: That's exactly why I keep going back. It's the cheapest proper breakfast in town.
[pause 5s] Now listen again. [repeat] [pause 5s]
Question 10. You will hear a man talking about running.
Man: I ran for ten years — every morning, in every weather, and I did the London marathon twice. And then last spring my knee said no. I tried everything: rest, physio, expensive shoes. Nothing. So I've bought a bike, and I'm slowly learning to love it, but I'm not going to pretend. I miss running every single day. I don't miss the knee.
[pause 5s] Now listen again. [repeat] [pause 5s]
Question 11. You will hear a football coach leaving a voicemail for a player.
Coach: Hi Amara, it's Dan from the club. Saturday's kick-off is still ten, so no need to come early — the pitch is open from half nine as usual. What I do need is the form I gave out last week, the one your mum or dad has to sign for the away trip. Without it, I can't put you on the coach. Bring it Saturday, signed. If you can't find it, ring me and I'll email another one. Cheers.
[pause 5s] Now listen again. [repeat] [pause 5s]
Question 12. You will hear a woman talking to her son about his grandmother's visit.
Woman: Gran's coming on Sunday, and before you say anything — I'm not asking you to clean your room, I've given up on that, just shut the door. And Dad's picking her up from the station, so you don't need to worry about that either. But you are going to be here. Not at Jamie's, not at football — here, at one o'clock, at the table, for the whole meal. She's eighty-four and she's coming to see you, not the cat.
[pause 5s] Now listen again. [repeat] [pause 5s]
Question 13. You will hear a boy talking about helping in his uncle's shop on Saturdays.
Boy: My uncle doesn't pay much, and to be honest my parents would rather I studied on a Saturday, so it's not that. And the customers — most of them are lovely, but it's a hardware shop, so it's mainly people asking where the screws are. What it is, is the guitar. Nine hundred pounds, second-hand, and the shop's holding it for me till March. Every Saturday is another forty pounds towards it.
[pause 5s] Now listen again. [repeat] [pause 5s]
That is the end of Part 2.
How to read this part. If this part went badly, here is what usually happened: you heard a word from an option and stopped listening. Marathon, room, early, customers — every one of them is in the recording, and every one of them is attached to a sentence that removes it. This part is about what the speaker means, and the meaning is said in different words from the options every single time.
Do it in this order.
Question 8 is the time trap: three feelings across three days, and the question asks for the last. When a stem says by the end, now or at first, the wrong options are the speaker's real feelings at the wrong time.
On each question. The help for the ones you missed is now attached to the question itself — the options that cannot be right are crossed out, and the place to look is marked.
You will hear a man called Dave on local radio, giving details of a car boot sale — a market where people sell things from the back of their cars. For each question, write the correct answer in the gap: one or two words, or a number. Write the word you actually hear. You hear the recording twice.
Sellers: gates open at 14 ______
Sellers pay £15 ______ for a car.
Buyers pay 16 ______ each to come in.
Sellers may not sell any 17 ______.
Buyers park in the 18 ______ field.
The sale finishes at 19 ______
Part 3. You will hear a man called Dave on local radio, giving details of a car boot sale at Hill Farm. For each question, write the correct answer in the gap. Write one or two words, or a number. You now have twenty seconds to look at the notes.
[pause 20s]
Dave: Morning, and yes — it's on. Hill Farm car boot sale, this Sunday, rain or shine, and the forecast says shine, so let's see.
Dave: If you're selling: gates open for sellers at half past six. Not seven — half past six — because by seven the queue of cars is back to the roundabout and I get letters. It's ten pounds a car, fifteen if you're in a van, and you pay at the gate, cash, so bring the right money; my daughter's on the gate and she's not a bank.
Dave: If you're buying: gates open at eight and it's fifty pence a person to come in. Kids under twelve free. Bring a bag, bring change, and bring your patience, because everybody has the same idea at eight o'clock.
Dave: One rule, and I'm serious about it: you cannot sell food. None. Not cakes, not sandwiches, not your grandmother's jam. The farm café is open all morning and that's the deal we have with the farm — they let us use the field, we don't sell against them. Anything else goes: books, toys, tools, that exercise bike you've never used.
Dave: Parking. Sellers go straight into the top field — that's the flat one by the barn — and you set up next to your car. Buyers park in the bottom field, by the road, and walk up. Please don't try to drive into the top field to have a look; the farmer's had a tractor across that gate since the last time somebody tried.
Dave: And the end. Some stalls start packing up around twelve, which I can't stop, but the sale doesn't finish till one, so if you come at half twelve there's still plenty to see — and to be honest, that's when the prices drop.
Dave: Hill Farm, Sunday. Bring the sun.
[pause 10s] Now listen again. [repeat] [pause 10s]
That is the end of Part 3.
How to read this part. If this part went badly, here is what usually happened: you wrote the first number you heard. Dave says the wrong figure first four times out of six — seven before half past six, fifteen next to ten, the top field before the bottom, twelve before one — and every wrong figure belongs to somebody else: vans, sellers, the stalls that pack up early. The printed note tells you whose figure you want. Read it.
Do it in this order.
Gap 17 is the shape that catches strong students: a general word followed by a list of examples — food… not cakes, not sandwiches, not jam. The note says any, so it wants the general word. If you wrote cakes, you heard well and read the note too fast.
On each question. The help for the ones you missed is now attached to the question itself — the options that cannot be right are crossed out, and the place to look is marked.
You will hear an interview with a young woman called Leila Morgan, who runs a dog-walking business. For each question, choose the correct answer. The six questions follow the order of the interview, so if you are lost, the next question will find you. You hear it twice.
Part 4. You will hear an interview with a young woman called Leila Morgan, who runs a dog-walking business. For each question, choose the correct answer. You now have twenty seconds to look at the questions.
[pause 20s]
Interviewer: Leila, you're nineteen and you've got a business with a name and a van. How did that happen?
Leila: It was Mrs Patel next door. She'd had a hip operation, her dog was going mad, and I was sixteen and bored, so I offered. Then Mrs Patel told the woman at number nine, and the woman at number nine told her sister, and by the summer I had six dogs and a diary.
Interviewer: What's the hard part? The weather, I'd guess — or the dogs themselves?
Leila: The dogs are the easy bit — honestly, a dog is the same every day; that's the point of a dog. Rain's rain; you buy a good coat. It's the owners. One wants photos every walk, one wants a message the second I'm back, one doesn't want her dog to meet any other dog, ever. I spend more time managing people than animals.
Interviewer: Do you take every dog you're offered?
Leila: No — and this surprises people. Before I take a dog on, I meet it three times: once at their house, once on a walk with the owner, once on a walk without. People think I'm being difficult. I'm finding out whether I can get that dog back if it decides to run. Three walks tells me. One doesn't.
Interviewer: Has one ever decided to run?
Leila: Nobody got hurt, which is the only reason I can tell it. A dog called Biscuit saw a deer in the park and went. Two hours. I rang the owner after twenty minutes, which is the hardest phone call I've ever made, and then I walked the whole park calling his name like an idiot. He was found by a man walking his own dog — sitting outside a café. Biscuit, not the man.
Interviewer: Can you make a living out of it?
Leila: It's more than my friends make in shops, which I still find hard to believe — I'm being paid to walk in a park. But I've done the sums: I walk four hours a day, six days a week, and there's the insurance, the van, the coat. It's fair. I don't feel bad about it.
Interviewer: And what's next?
Leila: Everyone says “go and be a vet”, and I'd be a terrible vet — I can't do the sad bit. The shop idea is my mum's, not mine. What I actually want is two more walkers, people I've trained, so I can take on more dogs without walking eight hours a day. I've already got one. She starts in June.
Interviewer: Leila Morgan, thank you very much.
[pause 10s] Now listen again. [repeat] [pause 10s]
That is the end of Part 4. That is the end of the test.
How to read this part. If this part went badly, here is what usually happened: you waited for the words of an option and they never came. Leila says the owners, the option says dealing with the dogs' owners; she says hard to believe, the option says surprised; she says two more walkers, the option says take on other people. Every answer is a paraphrase, and every answer sits just after she has refused what the interviewer assumed.
Do it in this order.
Question 22 is the trap that costs strongest students: a real number moved to the wrong noun — three meetings turned into three dogs. In Part 4 a wrong option can be made entirely of true words. Check what each number counts before you trust it.
On each question. The help for the ones you missed is now attached to the question itself — the options that cannot be right are crossed out, and the place to look is marked.
The marks below are the paper as you handed it in — or, for any part you redid afterwards, your best unaided attempt with the transcript shut.
Under exam conditions the usual result is one part clearly weaker than the other three. That part's debrief names the habit that cost you; redo only that part, twice, and leave the rest alone.