Chapter 2 — Listening Comprehension

The Listening Comprehension section contains 50 questions in ~35 minutes and accounts for one third of the total score. Each recording is played only once — you cannot go back.

Part A — Short conversations. Two people exchange two turns, then a narrator asks a question ("What does the man mean?", "What will the woman probably do?"). Only the four answer options are printed — everything else is heard. This is the densest part: about 12 seconds per question.

Part B — Longer conversations. One or two extended conversations (60–90 seconds) between two speakers, often in a university context (registration, library, group project). Each conversation is followed by 3 to 5 questions, asked in the order of the recording. The block almost always follows the same pattern: an opening gist question ("What do the speakers mainly discuss?", or a situational wording such as "What is the man's problem?"), two detail questions, and a closing inference question ("What can be inferred about…?").

Part C — Talks. Two or three monologues — mini-lectures or academic announcements (biology, history, campus life…). Each talk is followed by 3 to 5 questions: a gist question ("What is the speaker's main point?", "What is the main purpose of the talk?") followed by detail questions. Unlike Part B, the block does not systematically close on an inference — ETS's official sample talks are built on gist and detail alone. Expect inference, but never assume it.

On this platform, Part A shows an audio player per question, and Parts B and C an audio player per conversation or talk, followed by its questions — exactly the structure of the real exam.