Free practice questions · Updated 13 August 2026
8 free PSLE Listening Comprehension practice questions, with answers.
Three original passages, 3 picture questions and 5 written-option questions — free, with no sign-up. You read the passages aloud twice; your child answers without seeing the text. That is the closest thing to the real paper you can run at a kitchen table.
Before you start
How to run this properly
Listening Comprehension is the one PSLE paper a parent can reproduce almost exactly at home, with nothing but their own voice. Five rules make the difference between real practice and a reading exercise.
- 1
Your child does not see the text
Sit opposite them, or read from your phone. The moment they can read along, it stops being a listening test.
- 2
Let them read the questions first
In the real exam there is time to look at the questions and pictures before the audio starts. That pre-reading window is where most of the marks are won.
- 3
Read it twice, at a steady pace
The real recordings run at roughly 178 words per minute — slightly slower than most adults read aloud. Pause a few seconds between the two readings.
- 4
No pausing, no rewinding, no repeating
Not even if they ask. The exam will not, and the habit of asking is the thing you are trying to remove.
- 5
Answers are numbers
Have them write 1, 2 or 3 — not A, B or C. The real answer sheet takes a number, and children lose marks to that mismatch every year.
- 6
Mark it together afterwards
Every answer below explains why the right option is right and why the tempting one is wrong. That second half is where the learning is.
Text A · 209 words · 2 questions
A school announcement
Sits where TEXT 1 sits in a real paper — short, concrete, and answered with pictures.
Read this aloud — twice
You will hear an announcement made by a teacher during morning assembly at a primary school.
Good morning, everyone. Before you go back to your classrooms, I have some news about the canteen.
From next Monday, our school will begin the Clean Tray Challenge. Many of you already return your trays after eating, and we would like everyone to do the same. Each class will keep a simple tally. At the end of every week, the class with the highest number of returned trays will receive a small trophy to display outside their classroom.
The tray return racks have been moved. They used to stand beside the drinks stall, which made that corner very crowded at recess. They are now near the side entrance, where there is much more space. Please look for them there.
Prefects will be helping during the first week, so if you are unsure where to go, just ask one of them. Each prefect will be carrying a clipboard for the tally, a marker to write with, and a sheet of stickers to hand out. They will not be carrying anything else, so please do not ask them to hold your water bottle.
Remember, this challenge is not about being fast. It is about leaving the table the way you would like to find it. Thank you, and enjoy your recess.
Which picture shows what the teacher is asking pupils to do?
Show the answerHide the answer
Answer: 2
The announcement is about returning trays after eating, which is picture 2. Picture 1 shows a pupil carrying a full tray to the table — that happens before the meal, not after. Picture 3 shows queueing at the stall, which the announcement never mentions as the thing being counted.
What it is really testing: Whole-scene comprehension. All three pictures are plausible canteen moments, so no single word settles it — your child has to match the shape of the event being described.
Which picture shows what each prefect will be carrying?
Show the answerHide the answer
Answer: 1
The passage lists three things: a clipboard, a marker and a sheet of stickers — picture 1. Pictures 2 and 3 each swap one of those for a water bottle, which the passage mentions only to rule out. That is the classic composite-object trap: the distractor uses a word your child definitely heard, in the wrong role.
What it is really testing: Itemised listening. Treat it as a checklist — tick each named object off against the pictures, and watch for the one item that is added, missing or swapped.
Text B · 187 words · 1 question
Directions to the community garden
Sits where TEXT 3 sits — still picture-answered, but longer, and the questions start asking for sequence.
Read this aloud — twice
You will hear a girl telling her friend how to get from the bus stop to the community garden.
You know the bus stop at the bottom of my block, the one with the green shelter? Start there.
Walk straight up the road with the bus stop on it. Keep going — you will pass the playground on your left, the round one with the climbing frame. Do not turn there, even though it looks like a shortcut. The path behind the playground is closed for repairs at the moment.
Carry on until you reach the junction where the two roads cross. There is a bin and a notice board on the corner, so you cannot really miss it.
At the junction, turn right. Walk along that road, past the block of flats on your left, and keep going. The garden is at the far end on your right, behind a low green fence. There is a small gate.
If you find yourself standing outside the childcare centre, you have walked one block too far — turn round and it will be just behind you.
The whole walk takes about seven minutes. Bring a hat, there is almost no shade until you get inside the garden.
Which map shows the route the girl describes?
Show the answerHide the answer
Answer: 2
Straight up the first road, right at the junction, then along to the far end and the building on the right — map 2. Map 1 turns right at the junction correctly, but then heads up to the building on the far side of the road, which would be on your left, not your right. Map 3 goes straight past the junction and never turns at all.
What it is really testing: Sequence, not detail. Map questions are the one picture type where scanning for a keyword actively hurts — the child has to follow the instructions in order, like steps in a recipe.
Text C · 292 words · 5 questions
A talk about a neighbourhood repair workshop
Sits where TEXT 5 sits — the passage steps up in length, and every option is written rather than drawn.
Read this aloud — twice
You will hear a woman talking to residents about a repair workshop being set up in their neighbourhood.
Good evening. I am here to tell you about something starting in our estate next month, and to ask for a little help with it.
It is called the Fix-It Corner. On the first Saturday of every month, we will set up a few tables at the void deck of Block 12. Residents can bring along small things that have stopped working — a table lamp, a kettle, a toy with a loose wire, a bag with a broken zip — and volunteers will try to repair them.
I want to be clear about what this is not. It is not a free repair service where you drop something off and collect it later. The whole point is that you stay and watch, and where you can, you help. If you have never held a screwdriver before, that is exactly who this is for. The volunteers are there to teach as much as to fix.
Why bother? Every year, an enormous amount of what we throw away is thrown away because of one small fault. A lamp with a broken switch is not a broken lamp. Once you have seen someone open one up, you tend not to throw the next one away.
We do need more volunteers. You do not have to be an expert. Some of our most useful helpers are people who are simply patient and good at explaining. If you can sew, that is especially welcome — the clothing table is always the busiest and we only have two people on it.
Sign-up sheets are on the noticeboard by the lift lobby. Put down your name and what you think you could help with. And do come along even if you have nothing to bring. Watching is free.
What does the speaker say residents must do at the Fix-It Corner?
- 1leave the broken item and return for it later
- 2stay and help with the repair
- 3bring a screwdriver of their own
Show the answerHide the answer
Answer: 2
The speaker says the whole point is that you stay and watch, and help where you can. Option 1 is what she explicitly says it is not — and it is placed first because a child half-listening will grab it. Option 3 is never said at all; screwdrivers come up only as an example of a tool a beginner may never have held.
What it is really testing: Listening through a negative. The passage defines the answer by first stating the opposite, so a child who stops at the first plausible phrase gets it wrong.
Which helpers does the speaker say are most needed?
- 1people who can sew
- 2people who own tools
- 3people who have repaired things before
Show the answerHide the answer
Answer: 1
She says sewing is especially welcome and that the clothing table is the busiest with only two people on it. Option 3 is the tempting one, but she says the opposite — you do not have to be an expert.
What it is really testing: Holding a specific detail while the passage keeps talking. The answer arrives late in a long paragraph, after a more general point about volunteers.
Why does the speaker mention a lamp with a broken switch?
- 1to show how easily a small fault can be repaired
- 2to explain why lamps are the most common item brought in
- 3to warn residents about the dangers of electrical items
Show the answerHide the answer
Answer: 1
The lamp is an example used to make a point: a lamp with a broken switch is not a broken lamp. Option 2 sounds reasonable but she never says lamps are the most common item. Option 3 imports a safety idea the passage does not raise.
What it is really testing: Purpose, not fact. The question asks why something was said, which is a step harder than asking what was said — and it is the shape that most often appears in the paper's later texts.
Where should residents go to volunteer?
- 1the void deck of Block 12
- 2the noticeboard by the lift lobby
- 3the clothing table on the first Saturday
Show the answerHide the answer
Answer: 2
Sign-up sheets are on the noticeboard by the lift lobby. Option 1 is where the workshop happens — a real place from the passage, in the wrong role. That is the most common distractor shape in this paper: a correct fact answering the wrong question.
What it is really testing: Matching a detail to the question actually asked. Both wrong options are true statements about the passage.
What does the speaker suggest about residents who have nothing to bring?
- 1they should wait until the following month
- 2they should bring a neighbour's item instead
- 3they are still welcome to come and watch
Show the answerHide the answer
Answer: 3
Her closing line is that you should come even with nothing to bring, and that watching is free. Options 1 and 2 are inventions — neither is anywhere in the passage.
What it is really testing: Catching the final line. The last sentence of a passage carries an answer surprisingly often, and it is exactly where a tired listener stops concentrating.
Being straight with you
These are not past papers, and that is deliberate
“PSLE Listening Comprehension past papers” is one of the most searched things in this subject, and almost everything offering them is a problem.
SEAB does not publish them
There is no official free archive of PSLE Listening Comprehension papers. Sites offering scanned papers as free downloads are distributing material they have no right to — which is also why those copies tend to vanish.
The audio is the answer sheet
For a listening paper, the transcript gives the answers away. Any practice set worth doing has to be written to be given away, or kept behind the audio. Ours is written to be given away.
Format is what actually transfers
What helps your child is not this year's questions — it is knowing the paper's shape. 20 questions, 7 recordings, pictures on the early ones, three numbered options, played twice with no pausing. That is what this set drills.
Where the format claims come from. The question count, the option count, the picture-item positions and the passage-length ramp used to build this set are measured from real papers, not assumed — nine of them, four SEAB and five commercial. The measurement is written up in full in our Listening Comprehension format guide, which also carries the SEAB sourcing for the exam-day rules.
Keep going
What to do after this set
Eight questions is a diagnostic, not a preparation plan. Where you go next depends on what went wrong.
The picture questions were the problem
The five shapes a graphic item takes, and the pre-reading habit that turns them into the paper's easiest marks.
They ran out of concentration
Technique for the whole paper: what each of the two playbacks is for, and a five-step routine to build at home.
You want the format in full
Marks, timing, the answer sheet, the exam-day rules — with the SEAB sourcing behind each claim.
You want it marked for you
Graded practice with the audio built in, so nobody has to read aloud and nobody marks it by hand.
The oral is still ahead of you
Reading aloud and picture conversation for English and Chinese, with the same exam-faithful approach.
You want a full timed rehearsal
A complete mock under exam conditions once the individual pieces are working.
FAQ
Questions parents ask about this set
Are these real PSLE Listening Comprehension past papers?
No, and we would not publish them if we had them. Every passage and question on this page was written by PSLEPrep to be given away free. They are built to match the measured shape of the real paper — three options per question numbered 1, 2 and 3, picture options on the early texts, passage lengths that climb through the set — but the content is entirely original. SEAB does not publish PSLE Listening Comprehension past papers online, and anywhere offering them as free downloads is distributing material it has no right to.
How do I use these questions without the audio?
You read the passages aloud, and that is the point. Listening Comprehension is the one paper a parent can replicate almost exactly at home with no equipment. Read at a natural pace — the real recordings run at roughly 178 words per minute, which is a little slower than most people read aloud — and read each passage twice, with a short pause between. Do not let your child see the passage text.
How many questions are in the real PSLE Listening Comprehension paper?
Twenty questions across seven recordings, worth 20 marks in total, which is 10% of the English grade. The first seven questions use picture options and the remaining thirteen use written options. This free set gives you 8 questions across three passages — around a third of a paper — so it works as a warm-up or a diagnostic rather than a full rehearsal.
Why are the answer options numbered 1, 2, 3 instead of A, B, C?
Because that is what the real paper does, and it catches children out every year. PSLE Listening Comprehension options are numbered, and the answer sheet expects a number. A child who has only ever practised on A/B/C worksheets can lose marks through transcription alone. We have kept the numbering here for exactly that reason.
Can my child pause or rewind while practising?
Not if you want the practice to be honest. In the real exam the recording plays twice and there is no pausing, no rewinding and no stopping to think. The two playbacks have different jobs: the first is for getting the shape of what is happening, the second is for confirming the specific detail each question turns on. Practising with a pause button trains a habit the exam will punish.
Is there a Chinese Listening Comprehension version of this page?
Not yet. PSLEPrep's Listening Comprehension practice is English-only for now, and we are not going to publish Chinese sample items until we can match them to the Chinese paper's own format with the same confidence. The Chinese syllabus does not describe its listening items the way the English one does, and guessing would not help anyone.