CAE Listening Test 5: everyday journeys, audio description and old objects
CAE Listening Test 5 is a free C1 Advanced Listening practice test: 30 questions in four parts and 39 min 33 s of audio, with every recording played twice. You hear discussions of live and studio recordings, shared leadership and visual notes, a journey-mapping talk, an audio-description interview and accounts of preserving objects.
- Free, no sign-up to start
- Layout modelled on the computer-based exam
- Estimated Cambridge English Scale score
What is in CAE Listening Test 5
| Part | Task | Questions | What you hear | Audio, both plays |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Multiple choice, three extracts | 1–6 | Three conversations, 6 voices | 9:56 |
| 2 | Sentence completion | 7–14 | “Mapping everyday access”: A researcher called Mara describing a study of everyday journeys. | 7:07 |
| 3 | Multiple choice, interview | 15–20 | An interview with an audio describer called Daniel, who writes descriptions of exhibitions for visitors who cannot see all the visual detail. | 12:21 |
| 4 | Multiple matching | 21–30 | Five short extracts in which people talk about deciding to preserve an old object. Task 1: each speaker’s main reason for keeping the object. Task 2: the effect that preserving it had on the speaker. | 9:54 |
| Total | 9 synthetic voices: 7 British, 1 New Zealand and 1 Australian | 39:33 | ||
Part 1: the conversations and questions
- You hear two musicians discussing whether to release a live recording or a studio version of the same piece.1. What does the woman particularly value in the concert recording? 2. Why do the musicians decide not to identify the recordings’ origins to other listeners?
- You hear two colleagues discussing a period in which they shared leadership of a team.3. What benefit does the woman identify in shared leadership? 4. What do they decide should be clearer next time?
- You hear two students discussing a workshop on making visual notes.5. What did the woman value about explaining the arrows? 6. What do both students suggest about using the technique in lectures?
Part 2: the sentences you complete
- The idea for the study developed from a participant’s (7).
- Participants initially drew their routes on (8) placed over a street plan.
- When a participant stopped, researchers recorded the (9) as well as the duration.
- Participants frequently mentioned the location of (10).
- Some journeys were repeated (11) to check differences in visibility.
- Each person was given a (12) to protect their identity in the working records.
- The first map’s red circles were replaced with (13) explaining specific circumstances.
- Participants will discuss the developing map at the (14).
Marking and review notes
CAE Listening marking
1 mark per question. In Part 2, correct spelling is expected (British or American). 18/30 is about 180 and 26/30 about 200 on Cambridge’s guidance. Scores are estimates.
From our review
Our reviewer found that Part 4 relies on word matching more than C1 usually does, and that Part 2 answers are easy to locate.
More CAE Listening tests
CAE Listening practice tests · CAE Mock Test 5 · Updated 15 November 2026
Ready for CAE Listening Test 5?
About 40 minutes. Free, no sign-up to start: you give an email address when you submit, and your marks open straight away.