IELTS Listening Tips

These 25 IELTS Listening Tips provide you with essential strategies to help you get the score
you need in the exam.
1. Predict the topic it helps you to listen if you know what kind of conversation is taking
place so you can picture it in your head. So look through each section in the time you are
given and make sure you have an idea of who is speaking to who and what the context is.
2. Predict the questions you should also try and have an idea of what kind of information
you are listening out for. For example, in section one you often have to listen for names,
numbers and addresses. Have a look at the questions in the time you are given and work
out what needs to go in the space. A name? Number? An address? You are more likely to
catch it then when the answer arises.
3. Use a minute to look through each section you are given 30 seconds at the end of each
section to check your answers. You are then told to turn over and look at the next section
for 30 seconds. Although some IELTS listening tips will tell you to check what you have
written, there is little you can check for the previous section as you cant hear the listening
again. So instead, turn straight to the next section. You will then have one minute (instead
of 30 seconds) to look through the next section. This is time better spent.
4. Careful with question order often you have a table to complete, and sometimes a diagram
or chart. The questions will not necessarily go from left to right, so check the progression
carefully otherwise you will get lost and confused.
5. Look at two questions at once there are two reasons for doing this. Firstly, some questions
may have the answers close together in one sentence so you could miss one if you only
look at one question at a time. Also, it is possible that you will miss an answer if you are
just looking at one, you may not know that you missed it. If you are also looking at the
next, youll see that it has moved on.
6. Move on if you miss an answer if you do realise you have missed an answer, quickly
forget about it and concentrate on the next ones. There is nothing you can do, and you can
also guess when you transfer your answers to the answer sheet at the end. The same applies

if you realise you missed two or three answers. Dont panic and just move on as there is
nothing you can do. A few questions missed may not necessarily affect your band score.
7. Watch others if youre completely lost if you completely lose where you are, then watch
when the other candidates turn over their exam papers. Youll know then that you are back
in the right place.
8. Look out for paraphrasing remember that what you hear will most likely not be exactly
the same as is written on the exam paper as that would be too easy. The question and the
question stems use such things as synonyms so you must listen carefully for these.
9. Ignore words you dont know dont worry or panic if you hear a word that you do not
know. It may not be necessary to know it anyway, or you can take a guess.
10. Underline key words when you look through the questions first, particularly in the more
difficult parts 3 and 4, underline key words (such as names, places and dates) in the
question stems to help you hear the answer. Remember though, as explained above,
synonyms are often used.
11. Take care with spelling and grammar your answer will be marked wrong if it is spelt
incorrectly or the grammar does not fit. So when you transfer your answers at the end,
double check these. The sentence on the exam paper may help you with the grammar
does it fit grammatically? Should it be a verb, noun, adjective?
12. Use British or American spelling this is what is says on the official IELTS website:
IELTS recognises both British and American English in terms of spelling, grammar and
choice of words. So you can use either in your answers.
13. Dont worry about what you write on the exam sheet in practice tests, it is common to
see students rubbing or crossing things out on the exam paper. Remember that nobody sees
or marks what you write here. Dont waste time getting the spelling correct or anything
else. If you do this youll get lost you need to be listening. So just write down what you
hear then move on. When you transfer the answers at the end to the answer sheet, you can
make sure you have the correct spelling.
14. Read the instructions an IELTS listening tip that is an important tip for any part of the
test is to always read the instructions carefully. They will tell you how many words to use.
If it asks for no more than two words and you use three, it will be wrong. And you must
only put in the words asked for. For example, if there is a gap of at pm and you

write at 5pm on the answer sheet, it will be wrong. You should only write what is missing
i.e. 5.
15. Use upper or lower case letters a question often asked is whether you can use upper case
letters. This is what it says on the official British Council Website: You may write your
answers in lower case or capital letters. So you can write all your answers in capital letters
if you like. This statement from the British Council suggests, therefore, that you will not
be penalised if you write paris for example, instead of Paris because it says you can
use lower case letters. However, it is recommended that you try and use capitalisation
correctly to be on the safe side. If you are not sure if the first letter needs capitalisation,
then capitalise the whole word.
16. Get used to the British accent a good IELTS listening tip is to be prepared to hear all
accents as you may hear Australian, American, Canadian, New Zealand and a mix of
European countries. However, although there are a mix of accents in the test, the majority
tend to be British (unlike TOEFL which tends to be American). So make sure you are used
to the British accent.
17. Practice the pronunciation of letter and numbers often words are spelt out in the test by a
speaker and numbers are read out, so make sure you can recognise how different letters
sound in different accents, not just words.
18. Careful with what you write down speakers in the test will often give an answer but then
correct themselves. So the first answer that looks right may actually be wrong. You can
check out a lesson on this.
19. Dont leave answers blank you will not get penalised for writing the wrong answer (as
opposed to nothing if you are not sure what it is) so guess if that is possible.
20. Transfer your answers to the answer sheet carefully if you put correct answers in the
wrong place on the answer sheet it will be wrong, so make sure you put the answer in the
correct place. It is easy to do this if you leave an answer blank on the exam sheet. You may
then fill that one in with the wrong answer when you transfer them across. So put in a guess
for any you do not know and leave no blanks.
21. Check your answers - make sure you recheck your spelling and grammar too when you
transfer your answers at the end.

22. Listen very carefully - listen very very carefully throughout the test. Zone in and focus.
Dont be distracted by anything around you, and dont panic if you think you having missed
any answers or that you are getting them wrong. All this will do is distract you from
listening.
23. Practice listening of all the IELTS listening tips, this is one of the most important. Make
sure you practice listening as much as you can! You can practice with sample IELTS
listening tests but you should also expose yourself to as much English as you can. Target
it at the level you are currently at. There is no point in listening to BBC World if you dont
understand any of it. Find resources on the internet that suit your level and gradually
increase difficulty. And dont worry if they are not exams or specifically for IELTS, any
kind of listening helps. Try to make listening fun and listen to things you like. You can
move on to more difficult things as you improve.
24. Listen to lectures remember that the last part is a lecture, so practice listening to lectures
and taking notes. Lectures often follow certain patterns, such as an introduction to tell you
the topic and main points, and they have sign-posts to tell you if they are comparing e.g.
"although", or moving onto a new main points e.g. Now Ill discuss.. So listening to
lectures will help you with this section. You can find lectures online if you do a search.
TED lectures may be useful as they provide a transcription so you can check your notes. .
25. Learn to listen and write together practicing your listening skills is important, but
remember in the test you have to write and listen. So you should practice this too. One way
to do this is with practice tests but you can also try listening to audios and taking notes at
the same time. This will improve your ability to do both skills at the same time.

IELTS Speaking Tips

You should be aware of some IELTS Speaking Tips so that you don't make foolish mistakes in the
test because you do not know what the examiner expects from you.
Here you will find essential tips to help you through the speaking test.
1. Focus On What's Important When You Prepare
Unless you have particularly bad pronunciation, dont spend a lot of time and money on
pronunciation lessons.
You are better to spend this time increasing your range of vocabulary and sentence
structures, and practising speaking as much as you can to increase your fluency.
2. Avoid Nerves
This can be difficult because you are taking a test, but try not to be nervous! If you cant
speak much because you are nervous then you may get a lower score as the examiner needs
to hear you speak as much as possible in order to assess your skills.
If you speak freely and confidently then you may get a score you did not expect!
3. Extend Your Answers
Of all the IELTS speaking tips, this is probably one of the most important! The examiners
job is to assess your speaking, so if you say very little, he/she will not be able to do this.
Dont give one word answers such as yes and no and leave it at that. Your job is to give
the examiner as much language as possible to assess, so speak as much as you can.
4. Stay on Topic
It's important to extend your answers as mentioned above, but make sure you stay on topic
dont talk about anything that comes into your head if it is not answering the question!

5. Don't Rely on the Examiner

The examiner usually wont prompt you to say more if you dont say enough, so its up to
you to give a full answer to each question.
If you dont, then the interview will be over very quickly and you may not be happy with
your score!
6. Understand the Questions
If you do not understand a question, then ask the examiner to repeat it. Dont try to answer
it the first time if you have not understood or heard it properly.
You wont lose marks for asking for a question to be repeated, however if you are unable
to understand a lot of the questions you are probably not ready to take the test!
7. Don't Show Off
You want to do your best to impress the examiner, but try to keep within your
capabilities. If you try to use lots of grammar structures and vocabulary that you are not
confident about, you may simply bring down your score.
8. Keep Eye Contact
Try to have eye contact with the examiner. This does not mean you need to look at him/her
all the time, but it is normal when you have a conversation with someone to spend quite a
lot of time looking at them as that keeps their attention.
If you are speaking with someone and they never look at you this feels quite strange!
9. Listen Carefully
Listen very carefully to the questions so you are answering them correctly. For example,
if you are asked about an event in the past, make sure you answer using the past tense.

10. Be on Time
These IELTS speaking tips will not be much use to you if you are not on time! You are
going to get off to a bad start if you have upset the examiner because you have kept them
waiting so arrive in plenty of time!