IELTS Listening

Format
- A range of native-speaker accents (North American, Australian, New Zealand and British) is used
in the Listening test.
- 30mins+ 10mins transfer answers to answer sheet
- 4 Sections. 40 questions. Each section is heard once only. The passages that you hear will
increase in difficulty as you go through the test. The IELTS Listening test is broken down into four
sections:

1 a conversation between two people set in an everyday social situation, e.g. a conversation in an
accommodation agency, arranging a trip, organising an event, etc. - specific factual information

2 a monologue set in an everyday social situation, e.g. a speech about local facilities or a talk about
the arrangements for meals during a conference, a public event, a service provided, etc. - specific
factual information.

3 a conversation between up to four people set in an educational or training context, e.g. a

university tutor and a student discussing an assignment, or a group of students planning a research
project, an academic subject in a seminar, etc. - specific factual information, attitudes and speakers’
opinions.

4 a monologue on an academic subject, e.g. a university lecture. - main ideas, specific factual
information, attitude and speakers’ opinions.

- You will begin by listening to a recording of instructions and a sample question. Then you will
read the questions, listen, and answer the questions.

Tips

*** Misheard words, spelling, being too impetuous to write down the word  listen carefully, don’t
think too much, the questions are very straight forward, check spelling

Before listening – Reading

- Don’t listen to the instructions and sample question at the beginning of the Listening test
- Read the next set of questions as soon as each section has finished

Step 1: Guess content/ situation from questions or title of questions

Step 2: Word count?

Step 3: Predict answers to questions

a. Type of word e.g. name, date, place, tel number, occupations, duration (don’t confuse
with time, include e.g. about), quantity, scale, etc.
b. Word class E.g. noun, verb, adj
c. Possible answers
d. Underline keywords
e. Grammar
When listening – note taking

- Listen, focus (most important!!!) CONCENTRATE!!!

- It is common in section 4 for to get three answers in a very short period of time, so get ready
and anticipate
- Dealing with big number e.g. one million four thousand and two  1m400t2 1,400,002
- Listen carefully to plurals
- Distractions  don’t just focus on writing, listen at the same time
o In 2000 almost 175 million (distraction) people, or 2.9% of the world’s population were
living outside the country of birth for more than a year. Of these, about 65 million
(answer) were economically active.
o The classes are run by teachers with volunteers for voluntary support  only teachers
teach
- /m/ vs /n/
- Grace squirrel incorrect  gray squirrel correct
- may not hear the exact word, may be paraphrase e.g. words accompanying music = lyrics, films =
motion pictures
- Ways to trick candidates:
o Logic
 The audio mentions architecture. This means the design of a building – not an
actual building.
 The audio mentions novels and poems. It does not mention ALL books. Novels
and poems are only two types of books – there are some that are not covered
by copyright.
o Understanding of word
 Computer components means “parts of a computer”. The word “software”
relates to programs. They are two different things. Computer components
includes physical parts as well as other parts (all parts of a computer). the
recording only refers to software, not physical parts.
 Nature’s song is from birds, trees etc. The answer E is wrong.
 The recording mentions graphic works but this is not the same as “public source
graphs and charts. The answer G is wrong.

After listening – checking

Step 1: word count

Step 2: Grammar: plural? Tense?

i. e.g. Assembly of the supports took …..a tenth….. to finish

ii. The long tube fireworks are called roman candles
iii. the best place to meet is at the hospital (include preposition)

Step 3: Spelling

i. Date: need to be in full e.g. 15 March 1888

 ii. Careful of compound word
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/grammar/compoundwords/
- Can use lower or upper case
- DO NOT WRTIE ‘C and F’ or ‘C&F’, WRITE “C F” or “C,F”
- MC question: write the letter instead of the answer

Question types

MCQ; label a plan, map or diagram (predict language to describe locations e.g. under, over, above,
underneath, at the side, etc.; fill in a form; table; flow-chart; short answers

1. Names

Sir Paul Mckellen

Mr CJ Billings
 Mr + C instead of Mrs
Dr Davis
Mrs Alice smith
Sean (Shawn) Bean
Robert Powers
Nora Ingalls

2. Address
- Street/Lane/Road/ Way/Avenue/Crescent/ Square
- 94A Notts way; Flat 2, 24 sleet street

3. City names

Birmingham Truro Goole

Carlisle Wolverhampton Ormskirt
Chichester Amersham Painswick
Leicester Framlingham Rochdale
Peterborough Gillingham Sawbridgeworth

4. Time
5 to 9 = 8:55

5. Price
1.80 = one dollar eighty cash  not one dollar
6. Vocabulary

Culinary

Columnist

Outskirt of Paris

Lever

Viewfinder

To dress= to don (formal)

Skillful

Midsummer (one word without hyphen)

Country of origin

Brain drain

Remuneration = payment

State-of-the-art = advanced

elderly people

kumquat

Forecourt

Mausoleum = tomb

Cloakroom

Cloak = coat

steering

footscrews

Parts of an elephants + tusks, trunks, large ears

Huge=colossal= enormous= extremely large

Companionship

Commuter = a person who travels some distance to work on a regular basis.

At the turn of 20th century = late 19th century and early 20th century

Hard listening exercise

http://ieltsliz.com/brain-drain-listening/
http://ieltsliz.com/map-completion-question-ielts-listening/

http://ieltsliz.com/terracotta-army-ielts-listening-practice/

http://ieltsliz.com/ielts-listening-gap-fill-practice-lesson/