Cambridge English / CPE / Listening
Cambridge English / CPE / Listening
What’s in the Listening paper?
The C2 Proficiency Listening paper has four 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 |
|---|---|
| Number of parts: | 4 |
| Number of questions: | 30 |
Part 1 (Multiple choice)
| What's in Part 1? | Three short, unrelated recordings lasting approximately 1 minute each. You have to listen to the recordings and answer two multiple-choice questions for each recording. Each question has three options (A, B or C). |
|---|---|
| What do I have to practise? | Listening for gist, detail, function, purpose, topic, speaker, addressee, feeling, attitude, opinion, etc. |
| How many questions are there? | 6 |
| How many marks are there? | One mark for each correct answer. |
Part 2 (Sentence completion)
| What's in Part 2? | A monologue or prompted monologue lasting 3–4 minutes. The questions are a series of incomplete sentences. You have to listen to the recording and identify the information you need (one to three words) to fill each gap. |
|---|---|
| What do I have to practise? | Listening for specific information, stated opinion. |
| How many questions are there? | 9 |
| How many marks are there? | One mark for each correct answer. |
Part 3 (Multiple choice)
| What's in Part 3? | A recording with interacting speakers lasting 3–4 minutes. You have to listen to the recording and answer a series of multiple-choice questions, each with four options (A, B, C or D). |
|---|---|
| What do I have to practise? | Listening for opinion, gist, detail, inference. |
| How many questions are there? | 5 |
| How many marks are there? | One mark for each correct answer. |
Part 4 (Multiple matching)
| What's in Part 4? | Five short, themed monologues, of approximately 35 seconds each. There are two multiple-matching tasks. Each multiple-matching task requires the selection of the five correct options from a list of eight. |
|---|---|
| What do I have to practise? | Gist, attitude, main points, interpreting context. |
| How many questions are there? | 10 |
| How many marks are there? | One mark for each correct answer. |