Listening Part 3 gives you five short monologues on the same theme and a list of statements, of which you use five. Every speaker touches several of the statements, so the task is deciding which one is the speaker's main point rather than which words they happened to use.
There are more statements than speakers, so knowing them all is the task. Read them twice if there is time and underline what makes each one different from its neighbours.
‘Underestimated the cost’, ‘surprised by the people’, ‘wishes they had started earlier’. Short labels are what you can hold in your head while someone is speaking.
Speakers often open with the detail that matches a wrong statement. The main point usually arrives in the second half of the turn.
Each turn is short. Deciding after three seconds means matching on a detail rather than on a gist.
Write both letters and resolve them on the second hearing. Forcing an early choice usually loses the next speaker too.
A statement can only be used once, so each confident answer narrows the field. Do not let elimination override what you actually heard, though.
Extra options exist precisely because speakers mention them. Mentioning is not the same as making it the point of the turn.
Regret, relief and irritation are often what separates two statements about the same subject.
Keep the answers you were sure of. The second hearing exists for the one or two turns that were genuinely unclear.
Fill every answer. If two speakers are unresolved, pair them with the two statements that are left and choose the closer fit.
Not thisChoosing a statement because the speaker used one of its words.
ThisChoosing the statement that captures what the speaker was mainly saying.
The extra options are written from the speakers' vocabulary. Word overlap is evidence of a distractor as often as of an answer.
Not thisDeciding after the speaker's first sentence.
ThisWaiting for the end of the turn.
Openings often set up a contrast: ‘Everyone told me it would be expensive ...’. The point comes after the contrast.
Not thisRejecting a statement because it fitted a previous speaker.
ThisChecking whether the earlier match was actually right.
Each statement is used once, so an early wrong match causes a second wrong answer. It is worth reopening a doubtful one.
Not thisMatching a passing mention of money to ‘found it too expensive’.
ThisMatching only when cost is what the speaker's turn is about.
Every speaker mentions several themes. The statement has to describe the turn as a whole.
Not thisRewriting all five answers during the second hearing.
ThisChecking only the ones you marked as uncertain.
Second-hearing panic is a real source of lost marks: candidates talk themselves out of answers they heard correctly.
Not thisLeaving a speaker unmatched.
ThisAssigning the best remaining statement.
Unused letters are guaranteed zeros and the elimination often makes the guess better than random.
40 original questions. The first 10 are open to everyone. Answers are checked in your browser and never sent to us, so you can share this page with a class as it is.
2Complete with one noun.
4Complete with one -ing form.
7Complete with one noun.
9Complete with one verb.
10Describe what you do in the pause before Listening Part 3 begins.
One good answer
I read all the statements and shorten each one to a two- or three-word label such as ‘cost more than expected’ or ‘surprised by the people’. Then I underline what makes similar statements different from each other, because in this part two options often cover the same topic and differ only in attitude.
12Complete with one noun.
14Complete with one noun.
16Complete with one plural noun.
19Complete with one adjective meaning ‘glad something bad did not happen’.
21Complete with one verb.
23Complete with one adjective.
25Complete with one verb.
27Complete with one word.
30Complete with one adjective.
32Complete with one verb.
34Complete with one word.
38Two statements read: ‘found the cost higher than expected’ and ‘was surprised by how welcoming people were’. A speaker mentions both. How do you decide?
One good answer
I listen for which one the turn is built around. If the cost is mentioned once and then dropped, and the rest of the turn describes people helping, the welcome is the gist and the cost is a passing detail. The marker is usually a contrast phrase such as ‘yes, it was expensive, but what I remember is ...’.
39Write a short speaker turn of two sentences whose main point is regret about starting late.
One good answer
I enjoyed every minute of it, and the group could not have been kinder about how slow I was. If there is one thing I would change, it is that I waited until I was forty to walk into that room.
40Explain why turning each statement into a two-word label helps.
One good answer
A full statement is too long to hold in memory while somebody is speaking, so candidates end up rereading the list instead of listening. A two-word label such as ‘cost surprise’ or ‘made friends’ can be scanned in a second, which leaves your attention on the recording where it is needed.
Note
Pick Two Activity is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Cambridge University Press & Assessment, the British Council, IDP, ETS, Duolingo or any other exam board. Exam names are trademarks of their owners and are used here only to describe the exam you are preparing for. Every question on this page is original practice written by us: we do not provide, copy or reproduce official exam papers.
More than there are speakers, so several are never used. Expect every one of them to be touched on somewhere in the recording.
No. Each statement matches at most one speaker, which is why confident answers usefully narrow the remaining choices.
No. The statements are listed in no particular order, so you have to hold them all in mind, which is why short labels matter.
Leave it, keep listening, and come back on the second hearing. Chasing a lost speaker usually costs you the next one as well.
Short, around thirty seconds. That is long enough for a set-up and a main point, which is why the point often comes in the second half.
Listen to short personal accounts and write a one-sentence summary of each. Summarising trains gist listening in a way that answering questions does not.