Get more answers right in Listening Part C by simplifying the answer options

For each recording in Listening Part C, you have 6 multiple-choice questions to answer.

You will not be able to guess the correct answer before the recording starts. The recordings are chosen to be accessible to all healthcare professionals and to ensure everyone has the same chance of success regardless of their experience or expertise. This means that the questions are not guessable based on prior knowledge.

You should use the reading time to understand the key differences between the three options, which will help you identify the correct one when the listening starts.

Simplifying Listening Part C answers

Look at this example question from sample Listening Test 1:

39. Because Ted seemed uninterested in treatment, Anna initially decided to focus on:

• A   what he could achieve most easily.
• B   allowing him to try and help himself.
• C   making him come to terms with his injuries.

The highlighted section shows what is the most important part of the question. One way to approach this is to put the section into your own words as you read (i.e. Anna started with).

If you look at the three answer options, we can see that A and B are different to C.

Specifically, A and B focus on things Ted can do while C focuses on a psychological aspect of Ted’s recovery process. Again, it may be helpful to simplify C to something like 'helping Ted accept his injuries'.

Looking at answers A and B, A’s keyword is 'easily' while B’s is help 'himself'. If we simplify these options, we can say that A is easy improvements while B is encouraging independence.

Putting this all together we now have this simplified question and answer options:

Anna started with:

• A   easy improvements
• B   encouraging independence
• C   helping Ted accept his injuries

Getting the gist of Listening Part C 

Look at the script for this section of the recording:

Ted showed little interest in receiving treatment. Some colleagues at the hospital took the view that if he stubbornly refused to help himself, there was little they could do, it was his right, they said. But I didn’t agree. Since Ted couldn’t use his legs or right arm, I made sure we concentrated on what he could do with his left hand. For example, I worked on strategies to help him dress himself, and things like that. We even worked on fine motor skills, like writing with his left hand. I wanted to make sure that even if he didn’t ever regain use of his right arm, I could at least get him to function by whatever other means were open to him.

We can see that there is no mention of encouraging independence or working with Ted to accept his injuries. Instead, the gist of this section is on improving the range of activities Ted can do by himself:

• “we concentrated on what he could do with his left hand; help him dress himself, writing with his left hand; get him to function.”

 For more practice, check out the sample Listening tests.