The listening section of maritime English tests: what it checks and how to pass it

What the listening section looks like

Recruitment English tests for seafarers, whatever the provider, build the listening section from the same material: short recordings of the situations a crew member meets at work. A VHF call between two ships or between a ship and VTS. An announcement over the ship's public address system. An instruction from the Chief Officer or the Second Engineer. A telephone call from the crewing office or the agent. A string of numbers: a course, a time, a channel, a quantity. After each recording you answer one or more multiple-choice questions. Some tests let you replay a clip a limited number of times, some play it once; some mix speakers of different nationalities, all of them use at least a few. The details vary by provider and by the agency running the test, so do not build your preparation on one rumour; build it on the skills every version of the section needs.

Those skills are few and they are learnable: hear numbers the way they are said at sea, keep the sides and directions straight, catch the one detail the question will ask about, and understand who is speaking to whom.

The seven things that lose most points

1. Numbers said digit by digit. "Course one two five" is 125, "channel one six" is 16, "ETA one four three zero" is 14:30. The word decimal marks the point: "one three decimal five knots" is 13.5. If you still hear "one two five" as three separate numbers, every navigation question is a coin toss. Train it with the numbers dictation: a figure is said once, you type it.
2. Teen and ty. Thirteen and thirty, fifteen and fifty, nineteen and ninety. In careful speech the stress is different (fif-TEEN, FIF-ty); on a noisy line it is not. This is why radio procedure says digits one by one, and why tests love the pair. The "which did you hear" pairs drill exactly this.
3. Port and starboard, ahead and astern. Half the wrong answers in listening tests are a side or a direction swapped. When you hear a side, repeat it silently. "Rig the pilot ladder on the port side, two metres above the water": if you remember two metres and forget port, you have lost the question.
4. Times in four digits. "Zero six three zero" is 06:30, "twenty two hundred" is 22:00, "half past ten" is 10:30 and "a quarter to seven" is 06:45. A message often contains three times (pilot, stations, immigration) and asks for one of them. Write them all down as you listen.
5. Accents. A Filipino bosun, an Indian engineer, a Ukrainian officer, a Polish chief officer, a British coastguard, a Chinese pilot, an Indonesian tug master. Tests use a mix of speakers because ships do. If you have only ever listened to one accent, the first unfamiliar voice will cost you the whole clip. Every recording on this site is in one of seven accents, and each can be switched to a second accent with one button, so you hear the same message from two different speakers.
6. Message markers. In standard phrases the word before the message tells you how to treat it: Instruction is an order, Advice a recommendation, Warning a danger, Question, Answer, Request, Intention, Information. Questions often turn on this: was the ship told to anchor, or advised to? See SMCP basics.
7. Who speaks to whom. In a Mayday relay the station calling is not the one in distress. In a tug order the pilot speaks for the ship. In a crewing call the coordinator gives the new date, the seafarer repeats it. Listen for the call sign and the role before the content.

How to train it

The listening trainer on this site was built for exactly this section. Every recording is original, written by a seafarer and recorded in one of seven accents, then processed to sound like a VHF radio, a public address system or an engine room. You can replay it as often as you like, answer, and read the transcript.

• Press "Other accent". Every recording exists in two accents. When you have answered, play the other version: same words, different voice. That is the fastest way to stop depending on one accent.
• Start with the categories that scare you. Distress and routine VHF calls, VTS and pilot, announcements, engine room, deck and cargo work, crewing office and agent, safety briefings. Ten minutes on one category is worth more than an hour on "all".
• Do the numbers dictation until it is boring. A time, a course, a channel or a quantity is said once; you type it. When you get ten in a row, move on.
• Then the forms. An agent, a VTS operator or the Second Engineer gives four or five figures in one go, and you complete a form: berth, pilot time, cargo quantity, phone number. This is the closest thing to real work, and to the hardest questions in a test.
• Long dialogues with true or false. Five or six turns between two speakers, then three statements to judge. It trains the whole-message understanding that "gist" questions test.
• Words on their own. If a term is new, hear it in isolation first: the vocabulary quiz plays the word and asks you to pick it, using the recordings from the glossary.
• Standard phrases with audio. The SMCP trainer has all 435 standard phrases recorded in five accents, with a listening mode that hides the text. The VHF module plays complete Mayday, Pan-Pan and routine calls.
• Finish with the test. The full practice test has a 20-question listening section with two plays per clip, a pronunciation section and a dictation, in the format and under the clock of the real thing.

A two-week plan

Fifteen minutes a day. Days 1 to 3: numbers dictation and the pronunciation pairs, until the teen/ty pairs and four-digit times are automatic. Days 4 to 7: one trainer category a day, headphones on, transcript only after answering. Days 8 to 10: the forms and the long dialogues. Days 11 and 12: the SMCP trainer in listening mode, wheel and engine orders first. Days 13 and 14: two sittings of the full practice test, and a look at which listening skill (details, numbers, times, instructions, main message) still scores lowest. Then rest before the test; a tired ear hears less than an untrained one.

On the day

• Ask for headphones if they are offered, and test the volume before the first clip.
• Read the question before the clip plays if the software allows it; then you know what to listen for.
• Write numbers down as digits while the clip plays; do not try to hold three times in your head.
• If you miss a clip, answer and move on. One lost question is one; a lost minute of panic is five.

Frequently asked questions

Are the recordings played twice?

It depends on the provider and on how the agency runs the test. Some allow a limited number of replays, some play the clip once. Prepare for the harder case: practise answering after a single play and treat a second play as a bonus.

Which accents appear?

A mix of native and non-native speakers, because that is what a ship sounds like. Be comfortable with British and American English and with the accents you will meet on board: Filipino, Indian, Eastern European, Chinese, Indonesian.

Why do I lose points on numbers?

Because numbers at sea are said in a particular way: digit by digit, with decimal for the point, and because thirteen and thirty sound alike. Train them separately, they are the cheapest points in the section.

How long should I practise?

Ten to fifteen minutes a day for two weeks does more than three hours the night before. Listening is a skill of the ear, and it improves with short, regular exposure to different voices.

Independent practice with original recordings. Not affiliated with any test provider; names of commercial tests appear on this site only to explain what they are. Every scenario, ship and person in our recordings is fictional.