In listening, the audio plays once and can't be replayed. So the strategy isn't 'understand everything' — it's 'decide in advance what to wait for.' Each of the 20 question types has a different signal to catch.
50 questions worth 100 points, 60 minutes. Every question is an even 2 points, so Q1 and Q50 carry the same weight.
It gets easier toward the front and harder toward the back. From Q21 on, two questions are paired to a single audio clip, and from Q45 on you get lectures and formal discussions at the highest difficulty.
If Level 3 is your goal, locking down Q1–20 alone gets you 40 points in listening.
| Range | Type | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Q1–3 | Listen and choose the matching picture/graph | Low |
| Q4–8 | Choose the sentence that follows | Low |
| Q9–12 | Choose the next action | Low–Mid |
| Q13–20 | Content match · main idea | Mid |
| Q21–30 | Paired questions (main idea · intent · occupation) | Mid–Mid-high |
| Q31–44 | General knowledge · discussion · lecture · documentary | High |
| Q45–50 | Lecture · discussion (match + attitude/manner) | Highest |
Before the audio starts, skim all four pictures. If you've already spotted what's different between them, you only need to listen for that one difference.
A noun that signals the place or action always appears near the start of the dialogue. Catch that one noun and the answer is decided.
Q3 uses a graph, not a picture. Just listen for which of three things is being described: increase/decrease, the top item, or a comparison.
Focus on the last utterance in the dialogue. The earlier part just sets up the situation; the answer sits at the end.
The answer comes right after expressions like '그럼 ~할게요 (Then I'll...) / ~해 주시겠어요? (Could you...?) / ~부터 하죠 (Let's start with...) / 제가 ~할게요 (I'll...)'.
'-(으)ㄹ게요' means the speaker will do that action, while '-아/어 주시겠어요?' means the other person ends up doing it. Check first whether the question asks about the man or the woman.
The most common mistake is treating every action mentioned in the dialogue as a candidate answer. You have to separate 'what was already done' from 'what will be done next.'
The answer is the one sentence right after the signal word. Don't try to follow the whole discourse — wait for that sentence.
The signal words are '그래서 (so) / 제 생각에는 (in my opinion) / ~하는 게 좋다고 봐요 (I think it'd be good to...) / ~해야 한다고 생각해요 (I think... should...) / 그러니까 (so, therefore)'. Once you hear one of these, focus hard on what comes right after.
Usually two people voice different opinions, and the question asks about only one of them. Check first whether it's asking about the man or the woman, and focus only on that person's speech.
Read both questions' answer choices together before the audio starts. Since you have to solve both questions from a single listen, you need to decide in advance what to listen for.
The pair is usually one 'main idea/intent/attitude' question and one 'content match' question. The first asks about the speaker's claim; the second asks about the facts.
For the content-match question, eliminate choices one by one as you listen. If you wait until the end and try to solve it from memory, you'll miss things.
If Level 3 is your goal, you can give them up. They're the highest-difficulty range, and they're worth the same 2 points as every other question.
But always guess. Guessing on all 6 questions gives an expected value of 3 points.
If you're aiming for Level 5 or above, it's a different story. This range pairs a passage with a question about 'how the speaker talks' and 'attitude' — even if you can't follow all the content, catching just whether the speaker is criticizing, proposing, or expressing concern wins you one of the two questions.
Passive listening alone doesn't help much. Hearing something and understanding it are different problems.
Dictation and shadowing are effective. Pause a past-paper recording sentence by sentence, write down what you hear, then check it against the script — this exposes exactly what you're missing, usually particles, endings, and sound liaison (연음).
If speed is the issue, start at 0.75x and work up to normal speed. This site's study path has audio attached to each question type, so you can practice the same way.