A wide range of listening skills are assessed, including:

• understanding of main ideas
• understanding of specific factual information
• recognizing opinions, attitudes, and purpose of a speaker
• following the development of an argument.

From 4 January 2020, some small changes were introduced to the instructions and layout of the paper-based Listening test:

• The word ‘Sections’ was changed to ‘Parts’ – The paper-based test will now be divided into Part 1, 2, 3, 4.
• The Part 1 example was removed.
• We have also removed the page number references.

There are four parts with ten questions each. The questions are designed so that the answers appear in the order they are heard in the audio.
The first two parts deal with situations set in everyday social contexts. In Part 1, there is a conversation between two speakers (for example, a conversation about travel arrangements), and in Part 2, there is a monologue in (for example, a speech about local facilities). The final two parts deal with situations set in educational and training contexts. In Part 3, there is a conversation between two main speakers (for example, two university students in discussion, perhaps guided by a tutor), and in Part 4, there is a monologue on an academic subject.
The recordings are heard only once. They include a range of accents, including British, Australian, New Zealand, American and Canadian.