Listening practice test
Dictation and the interactive conversation set, including the Listen and Complete and summary tasks.
- 16 minutes, 2 task types — not a full hour
- Moves Listening, Comprehension, Conversation on your report
- A real adaptive engine — difficulty moves with your answers
This section serves only the task types that feed your Listening subscore, at difficulty that adapts to how you answer — the same engine that runs a full mock, pointed at one skill.
Because Listening also feeds Comprehension and Conversation, work here moves three of the eight numbers on your report.
Three listening tests, no shared questions
Each one draws from its own slice of the bank, so sitting all three measures you three times rather than measuring what you remember.
Listening Test 1
The first slice of the listening bank, running the full difficulty range so it finds your level wherever it is.
Take test 1Listening Test 2
A separate set. Nothing here appears in test 1 or test 3, so a second sitting is a fresh measurement rather than a memory test.
Take test 2Listening Test 3
The third disjoint slice, same difficulty range and same scoring, so all three listening scores are directly comparable.
Take test 316 minutes each. Free for a limited time.
What is in the listening section
Listen & Type
You hear a sentence and type exactly what was said. You can replay it a limited number of times.
How it is scored → 6 minutesInteractive Listening
A spoken conversation unfolds in turns. At each turn you choose the best reply, then afterwards answer comprehension questions and write a summary of what was said.
How it is scored →What happens when you start the listening test
A short equipment check
Microphone and audio are checked before the clock starts, so a hardware problem surfaces now rather than halfway through a recording.
The engine starts near the middle and moves
Your first item sits around the centre of the scale. From there difficulty tracks your answers — get one right and the next is harder. It is the same item-response engine that runs a full mock, pointed at Listening alone.
2 task types, 16 minutes
Each task carries its own timer, exactly as it does in the real test. Timers do not pause and there is no going back to a submitted answer.
A score on the same scale
You get a Listening estimate on the 10–160 scale with a confidence range, not a percentage. Because it is one skill, there is no overall score — that needs all four.
Feedback where a rubric applies
Every written and spoken response comes back with what worked and the one thing to change, graded by model against a rubric.
What listening is really costing you
Listening is the skill that improves slowest, because recognising a word on a page and catching it in connected speech at conversational pace are different abilities. It is also the one candidates most often misjudge — understanding the gist of a sentence feels like success, and dictation then reveals that half the function words never registered.
Find your pattern, then fix that
Four failure patterns cover most of what goes wrong here. Read down the left column until one describes you — the fix is beside it, and it is usually not the fix people assume.
| If this sounds like you | What to actually do |
|---|---|
| You catch the content words and drop "the", "a", "-s" | The classic pattern, and it is grammar rather than hearing. Unstressed function words reduce almost to nothing in speech, and your ear only supplies them if your grammar expects them. |
| You spend all your replays on one unclear word | Type everything after the first play, then use the replays to check. Starting with a replay is the most expensive habit on the dictation task. |
| You follow conversations but pick the wrong reply | Interactive Listening distractors are natural English that answers a slightly different question — usually one that ignores a condition just set. Listen for if, unless, provided that. |
| Some accents throw you and others do not | Narrow exposure, not narrow ability. The test draws on a range of accents deliberately, and widening what you listen to fixes this faster than anything else. |
Where listening shows up
One skill, three numbers. This is why a single weak section costs more than people expect.
Listening
Measured directly by every task in this section.
Comprehension
An integrated subscore built partly from Listening, so it moves when this does.
Conversation
An integrated subscore built partly from Listening, so it moves when this does.
Start a practice test
An hour under real conditions, all eight subscores, and feedback on every written and spoken answer.
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