I have heard on the grapevine that there are concerns about how the new Listening Comprehension component is going to work, when it is put into practice for the first time under real exam conditions next May. These concerns are principally related to the basic practicalities of the procedure – in summary, how candidates in different languages are going to be organized, in different rooms, with equipment that is appropriate and that works properly. Now, I am in no sense at all an official IB source, but I can comment on some of these concerns, in the hope of perhaps seeing how to resolve or at least diminish some of these concerns.

So, let’s look, in general terms, at the kind of worries that people have…

Testing the IT systems involved … or to put it another way, making sure that the encoded exams can be downloaded correctly and in time. This issue is addressed pretty comprehensively, in my view, in the important document ‘Language acquisition listening comprehension examinations user guide’, available on the PRC. Simply, the encoded exams can be downloaded from a date one week before the timetabled date of the exam concerned – so there will be plenty of time to contact the IB about any conceivable problems with downloading (improbable, surely?). Then, the encoded files can be opened by applying an access code which will be made available 24 hours before the exam. Again, this should be quite straightforward – although it appears that a particular type of zipping software is required, and must be downloaded safely before the exam session starts (see page 4 of the ‘user guide’).

There is an issue here about what ‘24 hours before’ means in practice, given that schools are scattered all around the time zones … but it would appear that this simply means ’24 hours before in your local time’.

Anyway, I would bet that the software will work perfectly reliably – the IB will have chosen programmes that are reputable, and will have test-run the system hundreds of times.

Copying exams, where necessary … and “where necessary” is mainly going to be required where students in a particular language are going to be listening on headphones working off their individual laptops. I have heard concerns that there will be too little time before the exam to do lots of copies “to CDs”. Well, there are 24 hours to play with, so if one gets going promptly… and anyway, do copies have to be made to CDs? Surely, copying to a set of cheap USBs / pendrives would be much quicker? Worth checking with your IT people, I suppose … and the IB if necessary, but I would doubt whether the IB is much concerned whether the copies are on CD or pendrive.

(Although… my reading of the ‘user guide’ is that all of these copies should be collected in and held securely after the exam – and probably wiped or destroyed into the bargain. It would appear that the IB doesn’t want hundreds of copies of their Listening Comprehensions floating around the world!)

Organising exam rooms … which will involve two issues: (i) deciding whether the students will do the exam by listening to loudspeakers, or by listening to headphones; and so (ii) finding separate rooms, reasonably soundproofed, for each language (and level, of course) which will be done via loudspeakers, and (iii) grouping together languages + levels which will be done via headphones.

All of this is going to involve some serious concentrated work on the part of the IB Coordinator, in consultation with the language teachers concerned of course. It’s worth noting that Listening Comprehension exams are spread out within the exam timetable for May 2020, thus –

• 13 May – all languages apart from English, French & Spanish
• 15 May – English
• 20 May - Spanish
• 22 May – French

Being spread out like this must mean that the problems of finding suitable rooms must be reduced. Basically the same two rooms could be used for HL and SL for each of the three main languages – although this will depend on the numbers sitting each language and level, naturally.

That’s probably enough for this blog entry, right now. I have decided to blog about this in order to encourage comments and feedback … and even, perhaps, up-to-date news if any of you have the latest official answers to any of these issues, hot from the IB !

So, please comment and discuss through the ‘Comments’ below…