IELTS Listening

IELTS Listening

Test

What is the format of the IELTS Listening Test?

You must first listen to four recordings (conversations and monologues) before responding to the questions. The recordings feature native English speakers with a range of accents. Remember that you can only listen to each recording once.

  • Recording 1: You will hear a conversation set in a real-life setting.
  • Recording 2: You'll hear a speech on everyday life or a social situation. For example, a discussion on the state of the streets in a given area.
  • Recording 3: You'll hear a discussion between more than two persons in a training or instructional setting. A teacher, for example, may be discussing an assignment with students.
  • Recording 4: You'll hear a monologue about any academic topic. Take, for example, a college lecture.

What should you be aware of before taking the IELTS Listening Test?

The following is the time permitted for the IELTS Listening section: The IELTS Listening test takes 30 minutes to complete. You will be granted an additional 10 minutes to transfer your responses to an answer sheet if you are taking a paper-based test. You will have two minutes to review your answers on a computer-delivered test. The IELTS Listening test is divided into four components, with each section increasing in complexity. There are ten questions in each part, for a total of 40 questions. Each question is worth one point.

The examiner gives you time to think about the questions before starting to listen to the audio, and then you'll have time to go over the answers you've written. Both academic and general training categories will have the same type of listening examinations. Because the words in the audio and the questions may not be precisely the same, you may need to have a thorough comprehension of the monologues and discussions to interpret and compose the answers.

Keep in mind the word count limit and the guidelines. As some of these instructions state, your response should be a single word, two words, a number, or a series of numbers.

What factors go into determining the listening band?

The table below shows the formula for calculating IELTS Listening scores. Note that the Academic and General IELTS Listening sections are identical. As a result, IELTS Academic and General applicants can expect similar results.

Chart for IELTS Listening Band Score Calculation

Correct Answers Band Scores
39-40 9
37-38 8.5
35-36 8
32-34 7.5
30-31 7
26-29 6.5
23-25 6
18-22 5.5
16-17 5
13-15 4.5
11-12 4

Listening Tips and Tricks

1. Before starting the recording, read the questions for that portion attentively at the beginning of each session. This will make it easier for you to follow along with the audio and figure out the answers.

2. Instead of worrying about the final portion after completing a section, look forward and study the questions for the following section.

3. As answers, you may be given a choice of possibilities to choose from. The possible answers are listed alphabetically rather than in the order in which you will hear them.

4. Pay attention to word restrictions. If the instruction is to write no more than two words, writing more than two words will result in your answer receiving no marks, even if some of the words are valid.

5. Listen for key words or synonyms (words that have the same or almost the same meaning as another word) in the question to aid in determining the correct response.

6. Pay attention for words like 'firstly,"my next point,' and 'to sum up' that indicate which part of the audio you're listening to. These words can assist you figure out which question you've gotten to.

7. Cross out alternatives that don't fit when you listen to the recording. It will be easy for you to find the correct solution as a result of this.

8. When writing dates as an answer to a question, keep in mind that there are multiple valid ways to do it (e.g., April 24th, April 24th, and April 24th are all correct).

You have ten minutes after the last recording to transfer your answers from the Listening booklet to your response sheet. If you copy these answers to their answer sheet in between portions, you may miss critical information about the next component of the test. Before uploading your answers, wait until the end of Section 4.

FAQs

In general, the Listening section contains six types of questions: form, note, table, flow-chart, and summary completion, Labeling of plans, maps, and diagrams, Matching, Multiple choices, Completion of the sentence, Question with a short answer.

There are a total of four sections in the IELTS Listening module. Social situations will be the focus of sections 1 and 2. On the other hand, sections 3 and section 4 will be academic. You will get a total of 40 questions in this module, with 10 in each section.

Because the recording will only be played once, you must concentrate the entire time. Because you won't be able to listen to the tape again, make sure you plan ahead and pay attention

Our Courses
  • IELTS
  • PTE
  • OET
  • SAT
  • TOEFL IBT
  • GERMAN
  • FRENCH
  • DUOLINGO
  • GRE

Get intouch

Have a question or just want to say hi? We'd love to hear from you.