DSE English listening exam tips: master main ideas, avoid common pitfalls and ace Paper 3 with strategic preparation. Photo: Shutterstock This year’s Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) English listening exam takes place one day after the Ching Ming Festival, giving candidates an extra day to prepare for Paper 3. Experts strongly recommend using the holiday to focus on revising for the exam rather than studying other subjects.
“This component carries a substantial portion of the DSE English exam and can make or break your final score. There are various things that you can prepare and watch out for to maximise your chances of success,” said Ansley Lee, an English teacher at Kiangsu-Chekiang College.
Be ready for these text types
Candidates should familiarise themselves with the style and format required for the following genres: emails for specific purposes, such as rejecting a request or outlining an incident with measures; letters; reports; biodata; speeches and scripts; and proposals.
Main ideas vs supporting details
Lee said that students should practise telling key concepts apart from supporting information. The audio often includes lots of supporting details, such as examples or anecdotes, which are meant to mislead candidates.
She drew an example of an audio clip discussing climate change, in which the speaker said: “Sea levels are rising, causing coastal erosion and flooding. For instance, over 1,000 people died in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2024 due to widespread flash flooding caused by heavy rainfall.”
Lee explained: “The main idea is rising sea levels. The supporting details are the consequences, i.e. coastal erosion and flooding. If a question asks about the effects of rising sea levels, you would focus on erosion and flooding. If the question asks for the main cause of those effects, the answer is rising sea levels.”
Should students have exams before, not after, a holiday break?
Common pitfalls
Alan Chan, a top tutor at King’s Glory Education Centre, reminded candidates to pay attention to details such as capitalising names and titles correctly, as well as spelling and grammar.
“Even if it’s just fill-in-the-blanks in the first two tasks of Part A, you still need to make sure your answers make sense grammatically,” the tutor stressed.
As for Part B, candidates should use the data file as a source and interpret the data to answer the questions.
“The data file often contains informal or spoken language, while the questions may require students to rewrite the information in a formal style,” Chan said.
Other details to look out for
Chan added that Tasks 1 and 2 usually require direct responses. Tasks 3 and 4 need more attentive listening as the required information is often implied. As such, listen for phrases like “Let’s have a look at …” or “Let’s say,” as they typically point to the answers.
According to Lee, action verbs and tenses in the question also hint at the sorts of information that need to be extracted from the data file. For example, if the question is about planning an event, candidates should look for information in the data file that is expressed in the future tense or outlines future actions.
A question may require students to write an incident report about something that happened. In this case, they should focus on information in the data file presented in the past tense and select only the details relevant to the incident.
Lee said that tone is equally important in Part B. She advised candidates to use adverbs and adjectives that show the correct tone for the intended audience.
For example: “If it is a welcome speech for new students, aim for an encouraging and friendly tone. You can use ‘we’ instead of ‘you should’,” she said.