CEFR C2 · CPE · Listening
CPE Listening Practice
CPE Listening tests near-native listening: dense academic talks, nuanced opinion discussions, fast colloquial speech. About 40 minutes, 30 questions across four parts. Each recording is played twice.
Duration: ~40 minFormat: 30 questions across 4 parts
CPE Listening: part by part
- Part 1 — Multiple Choice (6 questions): 3 short extracts (2 questions each). Conversations or monologues.
- Part 2 — Sentence Completion (9 questions): one monologue, often academic. Fill 9 gaps.
- Part 3 — Multiple Choice (5 questions): one longer interview or discussion at C2 level.
- Part 4 — Multiple Matching (10 questions): 5 short monologues. Two matching tasks on the same recording.
Sample CPE Listening item
A typical listening task you'd see in a CPE mock exam.
CPE · Part 1 · Multiple Choice
🎧 Audio transcript preview:
You hear two students discussing a lecture they've just attended. What did the man find most surprising?
A · How few people attended
✓B · How relevant the examples were to current events
C · How quickly the lecturer spoke
Common CPE Listening mistakes
- C2 recordings reward inference and tone-reading — explicit answers are rare. Train yourself to spot understatement, irony, and hedging.
- Part 2's gaps often need exactly the right collocate or particle, not just the topic word. Listen for the full phrase.
- On the second listen, prioritise multiple-choice items where two options seemed plausible — that's where C2 distractors do their work.
Practise CPE Listening now
Free to start. Auto-marked with detailed per-question explanations.