The best way to prepare for the listening test is to practice as often as you can but here we have some IELTS listening tips that can help you prepare for your IELTS exam.
- Attempt all questions – there are no penalties for incorrect answers. Be careful to not waste time on a question that you don’t know though – guess and move on.
- Watch out for plurals in answers. If the question requires a plural answer, a singular answer is incorrect.
- Answers appear in the order they are heard in the audio. They come quickly or with large gaps between them.
- Prepare to hear a potential answer that is not the actual answer. This is common when two people are making plans. They first agree on meeting at a certain time, but then one remembers that they cannot so they decide on a new time.
- Take care when you transfer your answers and pay attention to the word limit for your answers on your answer sheet!
- Multiple choice answers will ask for a letter (a, b, c, d). Write the letter and not the corresponding answer.
- When asked to complete a sentence using no more than two words, and the correct answer is “leather coat,” then “a coat made of leather” is incorrect. Same goes for numbers.
- Hyphenated words (like “part-time”) are considered as one word.
- A date (1990) is considered one number.
IELTS Listening Tips to predict answers in the Listening Exam.
- You have the opportunity to read the questions before listening to the recording. Take advantage of this!
- The questions can help you determine what type of answer you’re looking for. For example, if you have the following question:
“He would like to meet in ____________.” - The preposition “in” clues you into the type of answer you should be looking for.
- The answer in this case has to be either a period of time (2 days), a month (April), a year (2018), or a season (Winter).
Different prepositions will dictate different answers.
Here are some examples:
| Preposition | Possible Answers | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| at | Time, Part of Day, Place | 9pm, dawn, the restaurant |
| in | Period of Time, Month, Year, Season | 2 days/hour/minutes, April, 2018, Winter |
| on | Day, Date | Monday, January 15th (or 15th of January) |
| no preposition | Person other | Emily now, at once, tomorrow, next year, this afternoon, person |
What happens on the listening test?
The IELTS listening test is designed to assess how well you can:
- Understand both main ideas and detailed information
- Recognise the opinions and attitudes of a speaker
- Follow the development of an idea or argument
Listening Test Structure
- The listening test is the same for IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training and they are scored in the same way.
- You will listen to four different recordings and then answer 10 written questions for each (40 in total)
- You will only hear each recording once.
- You have 40 minutes for all four sections. 30 Minutes to listen to the recordings and write your answers on the question paper. Then 10 minutes to transfer these to the answer sheet.
Some helpful information
– The recordings and questions get more difficult as the test progresses:
– Section 1 is two speakers having an everyday conversation. They might be making plans for the weekend or discussing where to get dinner that evening.
– Section 2 is a monologue (one person talking) about an everyday situation. It may be a speech or a talk about making plans for something.
– Section 3 is an academic conversation between up to 4 people.
– Section 4 is a monologue on an academic topic.
– The recordings include a range of accents, probably British and Australian, so try to get familiar with these. In this recording we can hear an examiner for the speaking section, but with a Scottish accent.
You can find more info about the the Listening Test on the IELTS Website.
Sound overwhelming? Don’t stress. We’re going to breakdown the main skills needed to score well on this section exam and outline some tips for you.
How is the IELTS listening score is calculated?
The IELTS listening exam tests English comprehension skills. The examiner looks to see whether you can listen to a piece of information and successfully answer questions. The listening scores are out of 40 and are calculated based on the number of correct answers. Points are not taken away for incorrect answers.
Once you have completed the listening test you will be graded according to the following bandwidth ranging from a score of 4 to 9:
Can I use capital letters to answer the listening part of IELTS?
Improve Your Listening Skills
How to Understand Native English Speakers:
Native speakers sound like a block of sound!
- Pattern 1: Contractions. Using contractions is the normal method of speech Example: “I am” becomes “I’m,” ”did not” becomes “didn’t” etc.
- Pattern 2: Weak Forms. Structural words in sentences are often pronounced as their “weak form” Example: “to” and “you” on their own are pronounced with a long u: sounds. As a part of sentences though, they are usually pronounced in their weak form with short uh sounds. For more on weak forms and their pronunciation, check out the video below.
- Pattern 3: Phonetic Links. Any word that starts with a vowel gets linked to a previous word which makes it hard to hear each word distinctly. Example: “She is interested in it” all runs together and sounds like one word “shezinterestedinit”
Writing and Listening Simultaneously (a key skill!)
Writing while listening is hard if you aim to capture everything.
What should you do instead?
- Focus on what the speaker is saying not how they say it.
- Don’t take notes in complete sentences – jot down the key points and abbreviate. You only need to write down enough to help your memory later.
- Get the habit of distinguishing between essential and non-essential information. If two people are talking about making plans for a dinner date, the important information is the date/time they finally agree upon. Other dates/times they considered become irrelevant.
- Try to guess what the speaker is going to say. Speakers, will often drop clue words or outline what they will to talk about beforehand. This gives you the ability to start your own outline to then fill in.
- Listen to IELTSPodcast, take notes and improve your note-taking skills.
Five Step Method for Improving your Listening Skills For IELTS
5 Step method to better listening skills:
See how much you can understand the general gist and start to pick out key words.
Step 2: Repeat and repeat again (still no reading!)
Listen to the clip again. Based on what you understood the first time, is there now more that you can pick out?
Continue to listen to the clip several times through to see if you can comprehend a little bit more each time.
Only move to Step 3 when you’re not comprehending anything more from the audio. Your goal should be to understand as much as possible from the audio!
Step 3: Read the text
Check your understanding and identify any new vocabulary. See if you can guess the meaning of any new words based on the context before looking them up.
Step 4: Listen with the text
Listen to the pronunciation of phrases and groups of words.
Step 5: Listen a few more times without the text
At this point, you should be able to understand the majority of the clip. Repetition makes it easier to understand the words and phrases when you hear them again.
As Ben W says: REPETITION IS THE MOTHER OF ALL LEARNING.
These steps were adapted from Benny’s great blog: FluentIn3Months
Below are different resources to help you prepare for the IELTS Listening exam.
- VOA Learning English – A wide variety of news, science, and general interest audio clips and videos, along with written transcripts (perfect for practicing the 5 steps above!). Transcripts include definitions of key vocabulary words. The site also offers one minute lessons on common English idioms. It also groups News Stories by difficulty.
- English Test Store –ETS offers listening comprehension exercises like those in IELTS.
- Exam English – Exam English provides test prep resources including practice tests and exercises. You’ll find IELTS specific exercises. Try the listening exercises for other exams. Start at a lower level and progress as your skills improve.
- Lyrics Gaps – This is a fun one. This site turns music videos into game-like listening exercises. The music video plays side-by-side with a gap fill.
- Audible – I have been addicted to their audiobooks since starting. I find them high quality and informative. Because they are interesting I listen right to the end -unlike practice tests which can send me to sleep! Use this link to get a free 30 day trial.
Sample IELTS Vocabulary Ebook
Download the Podcast about IELTS listening Tips
IELTS Listening tips and exam tricks: You heard, but did you listen?
During your IELTS Listening Exam your examiners need to make sure that you listened and understood to everything that was said. They do that by seeing how appropriate and accurate your responses to their questions are.
But there are specific points during your IELTS Listening Exam where it’s easy to get caught out if you’re not paying attention.
On today’s IELTS Podcast we give out a few IELTS Listening tips on how to perform better on your IELTS Listening Exam. We talk about:
- How to write and listen simultaneously – a vital skill.
- How to predict answers in the IELTS Listening Exam.
- Understanding the proper native use of collocations.
- Recognising the points of your IELTS Listening Exam where should you be paying more attention to your examiner speak.
Listen to the podcast here: Watch on Youtube | Download
IELTS Listening Test Audio and Answer sheet downloads
Now take the IELTS Listening sample test online from the British Council, click here.
Here are some tutorials to help you with your IELTS Listening preparation
- IELTS Listening : Multiple Choice Questions
- Matching Questions in IELTS Listening
- Top IELTS Listening Tips
- Overview of the Computer Based Listening Test
- Section One of the listening test
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Hello dear sir:
I have studied and learn English through reading in a non English language country.Unfortunately, my listening improve terribly from 5 to 6.5.But, is there any fast method to improve it.
-I checked my pronunciation and pass partially from miss pronunciation barrier for listening.
-I transcribed and passed nearly the phonetic links and paraphrase barrier.
-I have watched movies and broadcasting news..
However, it is along procedure,I need a remarkable shorter and easier method.
Please guide me
I am confused if my answer is right or not. For instance, if the correct answer is “Automatically shut down”, and I fill in “shut down” as the answer.
Would it be right or wrong?
Hi I took ielts for first time and got L 7 S 6 R 6 W 6.5. How to improve plz tell.
Hi , good evening I have a question . Is it free?
Its my first time for ielts exam. And i want to paractice my english on skype (I.D naseeb571) pl help me.
I am getting mistake in MCQs(listning) please advice me how can i improve /correct my mistake….please advice me some other tips of listning also
thanks alot !
I getting mistake in MCQs please advice me how can i improve /correct my mistake….please advice me some other tips of listning also
thanks alot !
Ben! Can you check individual writing productions for one’s writing skill development?
I’m going to pass ielts in november and my target band is 7.5 . How can I improve my lostaning?
Multiple choice is more difficult for me. I need a help please.
Listening to audio books is practical and it meets the busy lifestyle of contemporary people. You can tune in to your favorite books anytime anywhere, while you are walking, sh… The popularity of iPod and MP3 players has raised the marketplace of audiobooks in recent years. Some book publishers also believed that audio books could outsell paperback books or e-books one day. Indeed, this pattern is clear if you think about some great benefits of audio books over paperback books. `
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Unfortunately, I got score 5.5 in listening part of IELTS exam one month ago, that result shocked me and caused me disappointment. In my opinion, my big problem that I listen well but when I write the right answer I do mistakes in writing.,
Hi Mohamed,
It’s quite common your situation, but I wouldn’t worry it will just take some time to improve your mark. Your goal needs to be to learn the skill of listening and writing at the same time. I would recommend listening to Audio books, transcribing with a pencil then comparing. Also, I’d use sites like LyricsTraining.com.
Speak soon,
Ben
Thanks a lot for the link!