Tips for the Listening Test - Part 4

Spelling tasks

As simple as it sounds, the spelling task is not so easy. You should practice a little to be prepared for it. Just ask someone to spell the names of cities from the following list for you. If you study alone, you could record yourself spell those names and numbers, and then play it. The same goes for the list of telephone numbers I include here. It is a good practice and will only add to your confidence. Note: in numbers "00" sometimes is read as “double o” instead of “zero-zero”.

Eliminate

When you deal with multiple-choice questions, elimination is a good strategy. Usually only one answer is correct, unless instructions say something else.This task is similar to True/False/Not Given. You should decide for every choice of answer - is it True, False or Not Given in the passage. After you have decided, choose
the one that is True – this is the correct answer. Any other choice, False or Not Given, is incorrect. Keep in mind that there are cases when all the choices are correct or none of them is correct. Read the instruction carefully and you will know what to do in such cases.

Gap-fill strategy
Look at the words around the gap to understand what’s missing, a noun (like boy, toy, truck), an adjective (little, pretty, shiny) or a verb (stands, looks, moves).
For instance, if you see Noun before the blank (“The boy is___”), it means that it’s Adjective (“The boy is small”) or it’s Verb (“The boy is smiling”) is missing. Once you have picked a word, write it above the gap and then read the whole sentence to be sure that it makes sense.

"Chameleon" questions
They might use different words with the same meaning to confuse you. It could be expressions or synonyms.
For example, the tape says “All the candidates have to fill an application form” and the question says “The candidates must fill an application” – is it True, False or Not Given? The correct answer is True because "have to" means "must".