B2 First Listening Practice Test 1

Eight unrelated short recordings, one multiple-choice question each. Different speakers, different situations — a feeling, a reason, an opinion, or what someone decides to do.

• Read the question and all three options in the pause before each extract starts — you get about twenty seconds.
• Underline what the question actually asks. The topic is rarely the answer; the attitude or reason usually is.
• Two options are usually close to true. A single detail decides which one is exactly right.

One speaker talking at length, often about a personal experience. You complete ten sentences using the words you actually hear, in the order the recording gives them.

• Write what you hear. Rephrasing it in your own words is the most common way to lose an easy mark.
• Read around the gap first and decide what is missing: a noun, a number, an adjective.
• Answers are short, usually one to three words. If you are writing a clause, you have misread the gap.
• Spelling counts, and so does the singular or plural you heard.

Five short extracts on a shared theme. You match each speaker to one option from a single list of eight — three options are never used.

• Skim all eight options in the pause and note which ones sound similar. Those are the pairs being tested.
• Match on the first listening. Use the replay to confirm, not to start again.
• An unused option is not evidence you got another one wrong — three are always spare.

One extended interview or discussion, seven multiple-choice questions that follow the order of the conversation.

• The questions follow the interview in order. If you are lost, jump to the next one and re-anchor.
• Listen for opinion and reasoning, not just topic. The wrong answer is often said out loud and then rejected.
• Let the speaker finish the thought before you choose — the qualification usually comes after the claim.

The real exam gives you time before each part for exactly this, and it is not filler. Knowing what to listen for is most of the work — once the audio starts, you are only confirming.

Treat the replay as confirmation, not as your real attempt. Candidates who save everything for the second play run out of time and end up guessing under pressure.

There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so a considered guess is always worth more than an empty box. Put something down, then come back to it on the replay.

Read them while the audio plays again and find the exact moment each answer was given. Hearing the words that carried the answer is where the improvement actually happens.

Most lost marks repeat: a distractor mentioned early, a plural you missed, a speaker changing their mind. Patterns are fixable in a way that individual mistakes are not.