Business English Certificate (BEC) Higher Level C1 / Listening

Business English Certificate (BEC) Higher Level C1 / Listening

What’s in the Listening paper?

The C1 Business Higher Listening paper has five parts. For each part you have to listen to a recorded text or texts and answer some questions. You hear each recording twice.

Summary
Time allowed: About 40 minutes, including time to transfer your answers onto the answer sheet.
Number of parts: 3
Number of questions: 30
Marks: 25% of total

Part 1 (Note completion)
What's in Part 1? A monologue of 2–3 minutes which contains some information. To answer the questions, you have to take notes or complete sentences using a word or a short phrase (up to three words).
What do I have to practise? Listening for and noting specific information.
How many questions are there? 12
How many marks are there? One mark for each correct answer.

Part 2 (Matching)
What's in Part 2? Five short monologues linked by theme or topic, by five different speakers, followed by two tasks which relate to the content and purpose of the monologues. You listen to the recordings and you then have to match each speaker to one of the items (A–H) in Task 1 and one of the items (A–H) in Task 2.
What do I have to practise? Listening to identify topic, context, function, speaker’s opinion, etc.
How many questions are there? 10
How many marks are there? One mark for each correct answer.

Part 3 (Multiple choice)
What's in Part 3? A conversation/interview/discussion between two or more people and some multiple-choice questions. You listen to the recording and then choose the correct answer from three options (A, B or C).
What do I have to practise? Listening for gist, specific information, attitudes, etc.
How many questions are there? 8
How many marks are there? One mark for each correct answer.