When students do the Listening part of the Cambridge Proficiency/CPE English exam in the actual exam they are given a certain amount of time, first a spoken introduction/instruction to the part and then a period of silence, before they hear the actual audio for the particular questions. This is to give them time to read the questions which they are going to answer from the audio dialogue they will hear.
As a teacher it is important that you know what this amount of time the students will have for each part of the CPE Listening exam is. The reason why is that the audio material you will be using when you are giving your students practice parts of the exam in class (from a course book or book of practice exams) may often not include either the spoken introduction/instruction to the part, the period of the silence for it, or both. So you need to ensure that if either one or both of these parts is missing from the audio track you are playing them that you give the time they would have if it/they were.
Below you will see what the times are for each of these for 4 different parts of the Proficiency Listening exam:
Part 1
Spoken Introduction/Instruction: 40 seconds
Period of Silence before each of the 3 audio extracts/dialogues: 15 seconds
Total: 55 seconds
Part 2
Spoken Introduction/Instruction: 27 seconds
Period of Silence: 45 seconds
Total: 72 seconds
Part 3
Spoken Introduction/Instruction: 35 seconds
Period of Silence: 60 seconds
Total: 95 seconds
Part 4
Spoken Introduction/Instruction: 55 seconds
Period of Silence: 45 seconds
Total: 100 seconds
Although there are similarities in the times for the equivalent parts in the First and the Advanced Listening exams, they are different. To see what they are for these Cambridge exams, click on the links below:
Times for the First Listening exam parts
Times for the Advanced Listening exam parts
Some more advice
If there is no spoken introduction/instruction on the audio recording, there is no need to read one out, just give them the time (in addition to the time of the period of silence) that it would take if there were before you play the recording.
I would also recommend that each time you are planning to give them a practice listening exam exercise in class, quickly listen to the audio track from the book you are using beforehand to see if they are included. In addition, I would recommend if you are giving them a part 1 exam you listen to make sure if the audio dialogue for each of the 3 extracts/dialogues is repeated directly after it is heard in the recording. In my experience, it normally isn’t from most books. So this is something which you have to do yourself.