Listening multiple choice: keywords, distractors and timing

The recording is short, the question looks simple, and the wrong answers still look right. They look right because they are built from words you heard. Picking the option that sounds most like the recording is the habit to break.

Before the audio: question first, then options

Use the moment before the recording starts, and spend it in this order:

1. Read the question and decide what kind of answer it wants: a reason, a number, a person, an action, an opinion.
2. Read the options and find the keyword in each, the word that makes it different from the others.
3. Hold two or three keywords in your head. On paper you would underline them. In the test, keep them in mind or jot them down if your note material allows.

While you listen: meaning, not matching

Listen for the idea, not the word. The right option usually says the same thing in different words: "costs less" becomes "is cheaper", and "at the end of the trial" becomes "once the trial is over". Distractors do the opposite. They use the speaker's exact words and change the meaning, the timing or who did what.

Jot a few notes as you go: a number, a name, a "but". You are collecting evidence for and against each option, not writing a transcript. Keep the three phases apart: read before, listen during, decide after. If you are still reading options when the speaker reaches the key sentence, you will miss it. And because the recording will not replay, decide from your notes instead of rereading every option three times.

A worked example

Here is a recording I made up for illustration:

The question is: What will the library do at the end of the trial?

The keywords in the question are "end of the trial". Now check each option against the recording:

• B borrows "children's section" and "close", but the speaker only said the section would still close at six each day. Nothing was said about closing it for good.
• C borrows "Saturday" and "ten", but ten belongs to weekdays, and Saturday times will not change.
• D borrows "count visitors", but the counting happens throughout the trial, not at the end.
• A is a paraphrase: "keep the new hours" has become "the longer hours should stay".

All four options use the library's vocabulary. Three of them attach it to the wrong fact, and only one matches the recording in meaning.

When more than one answer is needed

On the multiple-answer version, wrong choices can lower your mark, and the exact rule is in Pearson's current test guide. Treat each option as a true-or-false statement and tick only those you can place in the recording. A choice you are half sure about is a gamble with a penalty attached. Try it on the library recording. Which of these are true?

1. The reading room stays open until ten on weekdays.
2. The children's section will also stay open late.
3. Saturday opening times are unchanged.
4. Visitors will be counted during the trial.

Statements 1, 3 and 4 are true. Statement 2 is false, because the children's section still closes at six.

A drill for today

1. Take a short news clip with a transcript.
2. Listen once and write one question about it, with four options. Make two of the options borrow the speaker's words but change the meaning. You are playing the game the test plays, and it shows you how the options are built.
3. Leave it for an hour, or swap with a friend, then listen again and answer using only your notes. Give yourself a fixed few seconds to choose, so that deciding quickly becomes a habit.
4. Check against the transcript and underline the sentence that proves the answer.

The reasoning behind careful ticking is in multiple choice, multiple answers: living with negative marking, and the elimination steps are the same ones used in Highlight Correct Summary. Then try some questions in the practice tests on this site, and after each wrong answer work out which sentence in the recording should have decided it.