Part 2 is the largest part of the Listening paper: ten questions out of the thirty marks the four parts share between them, a full third of the total. And unlike the others, the answer does not have to be deduced or chosen from three options. It is said out loud, almost always in the very words you have to write. It ought to be the fairest part of the exam.
It is, instead, where most marks are lost by candidates who had the answer. Because between hearing the word and getting it onto the page there are three filters that have nothing to do with your level of English: the form you write it in, how many words you write, and how you spell them. You can understand the whole recording, catch the exact word, and still score nothing.
Ten sentences, and they follow the recording
One person speaks for about three minutes: a talk, a presentation, someone describing their work or a journey. You hear it twice. On the page you have ten sentences with one gap each, and those ten sentences follow the order of the recording. It is the only part of the paper that hands you that anchor, and it is worth using: if gap four escapes you, you know gap five comes afterwards and not before, so there is nothing to hunt for — there is something to wait for.
What you write is a word or a very short phrase. The instruction allows up to three words, but in practice most answers are a single word, and a three-word answer is usually the sign that you have copied too much.
The inversion almost nobody notices
If you have been working on Part 1, you are carrying a rule: the correct option is a paraphrase of what you hear, and the option that repeats a word from the recording word for word is suspect. That rule is true there. In Part 2 it works exactly the other way round.
Here the paraphrase is on the page, not in the answer. The printed sentence says in other words what the speaker says in their own, and the gap is filled with the literal word you hear. The recording says “the one thing I’d never go without is a decent pair of walking boots” and the sentence on the page says “Anna says the most useful item to take is a pair of ________”: the paraphrase is “most useful item”, and what you write is walking boots, exactly as spoken.
It is the same underlying skill in both parts — recognising that two wordings say the same thing — but the end product is the opposite. In Part 1 you look for the option that does not echo the recording. In Part 2 you write precisely what the recording said.
The gap has a shape before anything is played
The printed sentence is not merely context: it is a grammatical constraint. Before you hear a word you already know what category fits the gap, and often whether it is singular or plural. That rules out candidates while you listen, which is exactly when you have no time to reason.
| What you see in the sentence | What the gap allows | Example |
|---|---|---|
a or an immediately before | A singular countable noun | Members receive a free ________ |
A number, several, various | A plural noun | She mentions three ________ |
the … of around it | A noun | the ________ of the building |
A form of be before it | An adjective or a noun | The atmosphere was ________ |
in, at, on before it | A place or a time | The class meets on ________ |
A possessive (his, their) | A noun, and no article | their main ________ |
With that reading done in advance, a gap preceded by a rules out any plural you hear, however clearly it was said. And a gap between the and of tells you that you are waiting for a noun, not a verb or an adjective, even if the speaker says those nearby.
Three gaps, taken apart
The examples below are invented, built to the shape of real exam items.
The speaker corrects themselves, and the answer is in the correction
Recording: The first thing visitors notice is the roof, which everyone assumes is slate. In fact it’s tile — local tile, made about a mile from here.
On the page: Visitors are often surprised to learn that the roof is made of ________.
Two materials are spoken and both are nouns that fit the gap. The one that comes first, slate, is attached to “everyone assumes”: the speaker raises it in order to knock it down. The right one arrives after “in fact” — and the printed sentence was announcing exactly that with “are often surprised to learn”, which is the paraphrase of a correction.
It is the most frequent mechanism in this part: when you hear in fact, actually, though, it turns out, what people don’t realise is, whatever follows outweighs whatever came before.
The article in the sentence rules out half a dozen words
Recording: Members get a magazine four times a year, plus discounts on equipment and free entry to the autumn fair.
On the page: Members of the club receive a free ________ every three months.
Three candidates are spoken here — magazine, discounts, entry — and all three are things members receive. But the gap is preceded by a free, so it only admits a singular countable noun: discounts is out on number alone, without touching the meaning. And entry, though it would fit grammatically, is not what arrives every three months.
Notice as well that the page says every three months while the recording says four times a year. Same fact counted the other way round, and that equivalence is what confirms you are on the right gap.
Writing too much costs the whole mark
Recording: …honestly, the one thing I’d never go without is a decent pair of walking boots.
On the page: Anna says the most useful item to take is a pair of ________.
The answer is walking boots, two words. The temptation is to write a decent pair of walking boots, which is what you hear, and the result is an impossible sentence: “a pair of a decent pair of walking boots”. The prompt already contains a pair of, and what is already printed is not repeated.
From which comes a check that works for all ten gaps: read the whole sentence with your answer inside it. If it does not sound like English, you have not found the wrong word — you have written too much or too little.
The three ways to lose the mark while holding the word
The form. The answer is the word as spoken, with the ending as spoken. If you hear advertising and write advertisement because it looks more exam-like, you have changed the word. And there is a useful corollary: if you write what you heard and the sentence does not work grammatically, it almost never means the word needs transforming — it means you caught the wrong word. Listen again instead of tinkering.
The length. One word or two in the overwhelming majority of cases. Three is the ceiling, not the target. And never a word already printed in the sentence: if the prompt says a pair of, your answer begins after it.
The spelling. This part does penalise it, because you are writing. British and American spellings are both accepted — colour and color, centre and center — but a misspelling that turns the word into a different word costs the mark. If you are torn between two spellings, write the one you can justify; with long or unfamiliar words, the second listening is better spent securing the spelling than re-opening the doubt.
Two listenings, two different jobs
As in Part 1, you hear it twice and most candidates do the same thing twice. Splitting the work pays better.
On the first listening, catch. Do not stop to decide whether the word fits, or to think about how it is spelled: write it down as it sounded, even half-formed, and move on. The recording does not wait, and the cost of lingering over gap three is losing gap four.
On the second, check. The job is now a different one: read each complete sentence with your answer inside and verify three things — that the grammar holds, that you have not written too much, and that the spelling survives. The gaps you left blank are attacked here, and with an advantage: you now know where the recording is going and can wait for the exact spot.
And one survival rule: never leave a gap empty. There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so a plausible word in the form the gap requires is always worth more than a blank.
Before the recording starts
The reading time you get is short. It pays to have a fixed procedure rather than improvising each time.
- Read all ten sentences straight through. Not to answer them, but to learn what the talk is about. Thirty seconds gives you the topic, and the topic narrows the vocabulary you are going to hear.
- Mark the shape of each gap. A small symbol is enough:
sfor a singular noun,plfor plural,adjfor adjective,timeorplacewhen the preposition says so. This is what will rule out candidates when you have no time to think. - Underline the key word in each sentence. The one that captures what that gap is about: it is what will warn you, in the recording, that the moment has arrived — usually said in different words.
- Notice what is already printed. If the prompt carries
a pair of,the name oforevery three months, your answer does not repeat it.
What to practise this week
If you are going to spend time on Part 2, do not spend all of it listening to whole recordings. Spend it on two short exercises.
The first: take the ten sentences from a practice test without listening to anything and note beside each gap what category it admits. Then listen, and count how many times the grammatical constraint alone would have been enough to rule something out.
The second: go back over the answers you got wrong and sort them into four boxes — I did not hear it, I heard it and wrote another form, I wrote too much, I spelled it wrong. Almost nobody has those four evenly spread. Once you see which one is yours, you know what you are actually training — and you will notice that three of the four can be fixed without improving your listening by a single degree.
Frequently asked questions
How many words can I write in each gap?
Up to three, but treat that as a ceiling rather than a target: most answers are a single word and a fair number are two. If you find yourself writing three, check before committing that none of them is already printed in the sentence — that is usually where the surplus is.
Is spelling penalised?
Yes, because this is a writing task. British and American spellings are both accepted, and perfect punctuation is not expected, but a misspelling that turns the word into a different word costs the mark. It is worth using the second listening to secure the spelling of long words.
Do I need to change the form of the word so it fits?
Almost never. The answer is usually the word exactly as spoken. If writing it leaves the sentence ungrammatical, the likeliest explanation is not that it needs transforming but that you caught a different word: the one you want is slightly before or slightly after.
Do the sentences always follow the order of the recording?
Yes, and it is the best news in this part. If you lose a gap, do not hunt backwards: get ready for the next one, which is still coming. And if two in a row go blank, anchor yourself on the key word you underlined in the third and wait to hear it.
Conclusion
Part 2 rewards a habit that is not quite the same as listening better: reading the gap before anything is played, catching without judging on the first pass, and checking form, length and spelling on the second. Do that, and a third of the paper stops depending on luck. And the skill you train here — recognising that the printed sentence and the speaker’s words are the same thing differently worded — is the one that returns, with more voices and more text, in Parts 3 and 4.