[lemon14]

I am preparing for Cambridge examination and I meet some problems at listening. Do you happen to know some sites or books that could be helpful for me? Thank you.

[Wondergirl]

Can you be more specific about your listening needs? Do you mean, if someone says a word, you know what it means or can spell it or write it down?

[lemon14]

If I hear a word I can do all those, but when I'm given a discussion between two or more people and I have to choose the right answer or fill in the gaps I usually make mistakes. In general, I understand what is being said, but I can't focus on both listening and reading + giving the answer, so I need some practice.

The types of exercises that I need are:
1. Multiple choice, which consists of some short independent listening texts, and there are two or three option multiple-choice questions.
2. Sentence completion, where I have to complete the missing information.
3. Multiple matching, where I have to complete two tasks at once (there are some dialogs and some sentences which should fit the speaker or what the speaker says).

[Wondergirl]

This would work best in real life by talking with English-speaking people. Isn't there a literacy group or English-speakers-as-volunteers who live in your area? This kind of listening study would be very difficult to do online.

May I ask where you live? Is Cambridge an ESL course?

[lemon14]

Yes, it is an ESL course, but unfortunately, there aren't such volunteers in my town. The course is kept only once a week and I study with another 30 students, so is pretty difficult to learn everything in the classroom, that's why I am looking for some alternatives to study on my own. The listenings we have are little, in my opinion and I thought that somebody may give me some ideas about this. I don't want to buy the teacher's book and listen to that CD until I learn it by heart and just by listening to people speaking doesn't help me practise these types of exercise.

[Wondergirl]

Are you in an Asian country?

How do the other students practice?

Is there a public library anywhere around?

[lemon14]

No, I live in the Eastern Europe and the other students don't seem to care about how much they know or if they know. Many of them take the course because they 'have to', not because they want, so I have nobody to ask. My teacher recommended me some books by Michael Vince (Intermediate Language Practice and Advanced Language Practice), but the CDs have only grammar exercises. She told me that I should pay attention in the classroom and listen to as many English speakers as possible. I always did this, but I need more practice. In general, it takes me a little bit longer than it should to learn something, but when I learn that thing, I learn it for good.