B1 Preliminary Writing and Listening Quiz

The writing assessment criteria...

• are confidential.

• ara available to teachers and students.

• depend on each examiner.

Answer explanation

The writing assessment criteria, as well as the speaking assessment criteria, are in the official Handbook for Teachers, which can be downloaded for free.

What will candidates have to write in Part 1 of the Writing paper?

• an email

• a letter

• a story

• an article

• an essay

Answer explanation

Part 1 of the Writing paper is an email replying to input provided in the question booklet. The answer must fit the communicative context.

What will candidates have to write in Part 2 of the Writing paper?

• a story

• an article

• a story and an article

• a story or an article

Answer explanation

In Part 2, candidates are given a choice between writing an article or a story. In either case, the topic is provided in the question paper.

If students write much less than the requested number of words...

• They will fail the test.

• It's fine as long as the quality is good.

• They will get fewer points due to insufficient content.

Answer explanation

Writing much less than 100 words means a likely omission or underdevelopment of content and may also provide too small a sample for assessing organisation and language.

If students write much more than the requested number of words...

• They have better chances of receiving a good score.

• They will fail the test.

• They will get fewer points due to irrelevant content.

• It will not affect their result.

Answer explanation

The tasks are designed so that 100 words are enough to convey the required content. Writing much more than 100 words means that there is likely some irrelevant content or excessive wordiness.

If a student makes a mistake on their Writing answer booklet, they should...

• cross out the error with a single, clean line.

• use correcting fluid or tape.

• let it go and keep the error.

• completely cover the error in ink.

• request another answer booklet.

Answer explanation

The use of correcting fluid or tape is not allowed and will result in disqualification. If a candidate makes a mistake in the Writing test, they must cross it out with a single, clean line. They can enclose the crossed-out error between brackets to make it easier to distinguish from the main text, but they should not fully cover it in ink.

If a student runs out of time during the Writing test...

• they can ask the invigilator to wait for a little.

• they can hurry and finish while other people's tests are collected.

• they must stop writing immediately.

• they will unavoidably fail the test.

Answer explanation

Failing to stop writing when told to do so will result in disqualification. On the other hand, an unfinished writing test may still get enough marks for a passing grade, depending on its quality and on how much was left unfinished.

In the multiple choice tasks of the Listening paper, candidates must...

• Spot which alternative is mentioned in the recording.

• Identify which alternative answers the question.

• Understand paraphrase.

• Listen first and read the questions afterwards.

Answer explanation

In the multiple choice picture task, all alternatives will be mentioned in the recording, but only one of them will correctly answer the question.

In Parts 2 and 4 it will be common for distractors to contain words from the recording and for correct answers to contain a paraphrase (though this is not always the case).

In Part 3 of the Listening paper, candidates should...

• try to understand every word from the recording.

• quickly predict some potential answers.

• listen for the exact sentence they must complete.

• write three or more words per gap

Answer explanation

It is never necessary to understand every single word in order to successfully complete the task, though the missing words must of course be understood.

Even though candidates must use an exact word or two-word phrase from the recording to answer, the sentence they must complete is a paraphrase of what the speaker says.

Predicting possible answers before listening is useful in order to follow the recording more easily, even if the predictions do not match the actual answers.

Knowledge of pronunciation...

• is only relevant to the Speaking test.

• is the main skill assessed by the Listening test.

• can help improve comprehension of spoken sentences.

Answer explanation

The Listening paper evaluates more than just the candidate's ability to recognise spoken words, yet familiarity with the pronunciation of key vocabulary and the prosodic patterns of English is necessary for learners to be able to make out the words and sentences they hear.