B2 First · Listening
Each part trains a different listening skill. Every exercise comes with the recording and a full transcript.
4 parts, about 40 min, worth 20 % of your B2 First (FCE) result. Every recording plays twice — that is a rule of the exam, not a courtesy, and it changes how you should work: the first listen is for the answer, the second is for the ones you missed and for checking the ones you think you have.
The parts test genuinely different skills. Short extracts with multiple-choice questions test gist and attitude. Sentence completion tests exact wording, and it is marked on what you write, so spelling and grammar count. Multiple matching across several speakers tests your ability to hold a whole speaker's position in mind rather than reacting to individual words.
The distractor pattern is worth learning explicitly: the wrong option is usually something a speaker did say, but not in answer to the question asked. Practising one part type at a time is what makes that pattern visible.
Yes — in the real exam and in every listening exercise here. The audio on this site is built to the same convention, so your practice matches the timing you will actually get.
In the sentence completion part, yes: you write the word you hear, and a misspelled answer can lose the mark. In the multiple-choice and matching parts you are selecting an option, so spelling is not at issue.
