VSTEP · Guides · November 6, 2026 · 6 min read

VSTEP Listening: the three parts, a heard-once strategy and a worked example

VSTEP Listening takes about 40 minutes, including five minutes at the end to transfer your answers, and it has 35 multiple-choice questions with four options each. It is a quarter of your overall score. What makes it hard is not the vocabulary but one rule: every recording is played once. There is no second chance to catch a number or a change of plan, so the skill being tested is partly English and partly attention management. This guide explains each part, a method for using the seconds before each recording, the traps that appear most often, and a worked example.

The three parts

Part 1 is short and practical: an airport gate change, a teacher explaining what to bring on a field trip, a voicemail from a dentist’s receptionist. Each question usually targets one detail (a time, a place, what someone should do) or the purpose of the message.

Part 2 gives you longer conversations: two students planning a presentation, a customer arranging a delivery, colleagues discussing a new schedule. The four questions usually move through the topic, details, a reason or an opinion, and what the speakers decide to do.

Part 3 consists of talks of several minutes on subjects such as psychology, the environment, technology or education. Five questions per talk include the main idea, details, the speaker’s attitude, and what can be inferred.

Because difficulty rises through the paper, a B1 candidate typically scores best in Part 1, while B2 and C1 are decided in Parts 2 and 3. On the approximate proportional conversion (correct answers × 10 ÷ 35; no official table is published), 21 correct answers is about 6.0 and 14 is about 4.0. More on this in VSTEP scores and levels.

Before each recording: read, mark, predict

There is a short pause before each recording. Use it in three steps:

1. Read the question stems, not every option. Stems tell you what to listen for: why, when, what will the man do next.
2. Mark the key word in each stem: cost, reason, decide, disappointed. In Part 2 and Part 3, also note the order: the questions follow the order of the recording, so question 2’s answer comes after question 1’s.
3. Predict the kind of answer. If the stem asks “What does the woman suggest?”, listen for Why don’t we…, How about…, I’d go for…. If it asks about attitude, listen for the speaker’s evaluation: surprisingly, to be honest, I wasn’t convinced.

Then glance at the options if time remains. Seeing four times or four places in advance helps you notice which ones are mentioned.

While listening: answer as you go

Since you cannot replay anything, choose your answer as soon as you have heard enough, and move your eyes to the next question immediately. Two practical habits:

• Do not wait for certainty. If you are 70% sure, mark it lightly and listen on. A question you stay stuck on costs you the next one too.
• If you miss an answer, let it go. Guess at the end; there is no penalty for wrong answers. The real loss is missing two questions because you were still thinking about one.

The distractors VSTEP-style questions use

Wrong options are rarely invented out of nowhere. Usually they are things you actually hear, used in the wrong way:

• The changed plan. A first suggestion is rejected or corrected: “Let’s meet at nine — oh, wait, the room’s booked until ten.”
• The other speaker’s preference. One speaker wants something; the question asks what the other one wants or what they finally agree.
• The right word, the wrong detail. All four options mention things from the recording, but only one matches the specific question (the price of the student ticket, not the adult one).
• Too broad or too narrow. In main-idea questions, one option covers only one example the speaker gave, while another is so general it could describe any talk.

Worked example: a Part 2 conversation

This is our own example, written in the style of Part 2. Read the questions first, as you would in the exam, then the transcript.

1. What are the speakers mainly discussing? A. how to choose a topic for a presentation B. when to rehearse a group presentation C. which member should present the results D. where to find data for their project

2. Why can’t Linh meet on Wednesday? A. She has an exam that day. B. She works in the afternoon. C. She is visiting her family. D. The library room is not available.

3. What does Daniel think about the slides? A. They contain too much text. B. They need more pictures. C. They are almost finished. D. They should be redesigned completely.

Transcript:

Daniel: So, our presentation’s next Monday. I think we really need to practise it together at least once before then. Linh: Definitely. What about Wednesday afternoon? The library has those small group rooms. Daniel: Wednesday works for me. Can you book one? Linh: Hmm, actually, no — sorry, I’ve just remembered I’m doing an extra shift at the café on Wednesday. They asked me yesterday. Thursday morning? Daniel: Thursday morning’s fine. And the slides — I looked at them last night. Honestly, they’re in good shape. Maybe one or two charts need bigger labels, but that’s about it. Linh: Great. I was worried we’d have to start again.

Answers and explanations:

1. B. The whole conversation is about finding a time to practise together (“we really need to practise it together”). Option C sounds plausible because a presentation is involved, but nobody discusses who will present.
2. B. Linh says she is “doing an extra shift at the café”, which means she is working. Option D is the classic trap: the library room is mentioned, but nothing suggests it is unavailable. Notice also the changed plan: Daniel accepts Wednesday first, then the plan moves to Thursday.
3. C. Daniel says the slides are “in good shape” and only “one or two charts need bigger labels”. Option D echoes Linh’s worry (“start again”), but that is her fear, not Daniel’s opinion, and he has just said the opposite. Option B mentions visuals, but Daniel asks for bigger labels, not more pictures.

Look at how each wrong option uses something from the recording. That is why “I heard that word” is never a reason to choose an option.

Mistakes that cost the most marks

• Answering the first thing you hear. In Part 2, the first time or place mentioned is often changed. Wait for confirmation: OK, so…, Let’s go with….
• Ignoring the speaker in the question. “What does the man think?” and “What do they agree?” have different answers.
• Spending the transfer time checking. At the end, transfer first, then check. Running out of transfer time with blank answers is a pure loss.
• Practising with repeated audio. If you always replay, you train the wrong skill. In practice, play everything once, answer, and only then listen again with the transcript.

How to practise

A good session takes about 30 minutes: one recording heard once, answers checked, then a second listen with the transcript, where you underline the exact words that gave each answer and note why each wrong option was wrong. Over a few weeks you begin to hear the turns (“actually”, “the thing is”, “but then again”) that signal an answer is coming.

You can practise each part on Nomto, with recordings in British and American voices played once and every answer explained: start with Listening Part 2, the part where most candidates have the most to gain. Our scores are estimates using the proportional conversion, not official results. For how Listening fits into the whole exam, see the VSTEP exam format, and for weekly practice ideas, the preparation plan.

Nomto is independent and is not affiliated with the Ministry of Education and Training or any VSTEP test centre.

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