Guide to Part 1: Photographs

The Format

This part has six questions. For each one, you'll see a photograph and hear four spoken statements (A through D), played exactly once. Your job is to pick the statement that best describes what's in the photo.

In the real test, you get roughly five seconds to look at the picture before the audio begins, and then the four statements play back to back with no gap between them. It moves fast, so you need to be ready before the audio starts.

What You're Really Being Tested On

This part is testing several things at once:

• Whether you can catch short statements spoken at natural speed, including reduced speech like "gonna" or "there's a"
• Whether you can tell the difference between verb tenses (present continuous vs. present perfect vs. simple present)
• How well you know spatial vocabulary like "next to," "in front of," "across from," and "on top of"
• Your familiarity with workplace and public-setting vocabulary for people, objects, and everyday actions

Photo Categories

Most of the photos you'll see fall into one of these groups:

1. One person performing an action. Something like a woman typing at a desk, a man stacking boxes, or someone examining a piece of equipment.
2. Multiple people interacting. Think colleagues sitting around a table or workers on a job site.
3. Objects or scenery with no people. This could be a parking lot, a row of shelves, or a waterfront scene.
4. People plus objects, where the relationship between them matters. For example, a man standing beside a printer or a woman reaching for something on a shelf.

Each category comes with its own set of typical traps, which we'll get into next.

How the Test Tricks You

Similar-sounding words. The audio swaps a key word for one that sounds close but means something completely different. For example, the photo might show someone painting a wall, but the wrong answer says they're pointing at the wall.

Right object, wrong action. This is the most common trap by far. The statement correctly names what's in the photo but gets the activity wrong. So a man might be carrying boxes, but the wrong answer says he's stacking them or counting them.

Right action, wrong person. In photos with multiple people, the wrong answer attributes the action to the wrong individual. It might say "the woman is signing the document" when it's actually the man who's doing the signing.

Tense mismatches. The statement describes a completed action ("The chairs have been arranged") when the photo clearly shows someone who is still in the middle of arranging them.

Plausible but invisible details. The wrong answer describes something that would make sense in the setting but simply isn't shown in the picture. For instance, it might say "the customers are paying at the register" when there's no transaction happening in the image at all.

How to Approach Each Question

1. Use your five seconds wisely. Before the audio starts, scan the photo and mentally predict two or three possible descriptions. Focus on the main subject, what they're doing, and where they are.
2. Pay attention to the verb first. Most wrong answers fail on the verb, not the noun. The verb is where the traps usually live.
3. Eliminate as you listen. Don't wait for all four statements before deciding. Cross off each wrong option the moment you hear it.
4. Don't get distracted by background details. Start with the main subject first. Only consider what's in the background if nothing else clearly matches.
5. If you're unsure, just guess and move on. Hesitating here costs you focus on the next question, and that's not a trade worth making.