12 Important IELTS Listening Test Strategies

If you are appearing for the IELTS exam soon, you will find this very useful. The
following article contains 12 important tips that will help you ace your Listening
Section of the IELTS exam. The 12 strategies have been divided into two sections,
Preparation and Exam-taking, to help you implement them effectively.

Time Format
The IELTS Listening section duration is about 30 minutes.

You will get approximately 30 minutes to listen to the tape and answer the
questions

10 minutes to transfer the answer to the answer sheet. One will hear the tape only
once.

There are 40 questions in total.

The listening test will become more difficult as you progress through the test. So,
one should work enough on the rules & strategies regarding the stipulated section
of listening so that he/she can get a good score in the listening sub-test

Exam Structure
This test consists of 4 sections:

1) The 1st audio is usually a conversation between two speakers. For example, a
conversation about visiting a new place, or someone inquiring about
accommodation or about travel arrangements.

2) The 2nd audio is usually a monologue (one person talking) about an everyday
situation. This could be one person giving information on something such as a
museum tour, information about news broadcast or tourist sites.
3) The 3rd audio is usually a discussion (between 3-4 people) based on education
and training situations. This may be a discussion between 2 students and a tutor
about an assignment or classwork, or among a group of students talking about
career opportunities.

4) The 4th, which is the final audio, is usually a university style lecture or general
academic interest. It is a monologue on an academic topic.

The 12 Strategies:
Many students struggle with IELTS listening test. During my tenure as an IELTS
instructor, I have seen students not being attentive enough when the audio is being
played. Some of them fail to understand words or get frightened of the unknown
words for which they lose track of the recording and start making mistakes. If the
track of one word is lost, this may lead to several incorrect answers as the audio is
played only once.

I myself missed two or three important words in section 4 for which I couldn’t
answer one question from section 4. Don’t worry! Missing out some of the words
or not being able to answer two or three questions is quite normal.

Those who can keep their calm even after that and provided they listen to the audio
attentively, s/he can easily secure 36/37 points. But there are some strategies
which, if practiced and followed, can help one secure 38/39 points. The following
strategies of IELTS Listening will address the tactics and provide you with the key
strategies you need to improve your Listening scores.

Preparation Stage
1. Improving the listening skills-
To improve your IELTS listening skills you can use practice tests but it will not be
enough! They will help you to become familiar with the test, but won’t much
improve your listening skills. It is much more effective to do various listening
exercises like listening to radio reports, TV-shows, documental programs etc.
I suggest my students to watch the TV show F.R.I.E.N.D.S, HIMYM (How I met our
mother), Luther, Vikings etc. These will not only upgrade your listening skills but
will also improve Reading skills as you read the subtitles and try to understand.

2. Read the instructions carefully-

You always need to 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.

During Exam
3. Utilize the time and predict the topic-
Time will be given to read through the questions before one starts listening. You
will be given 30 seconds at the end of each section to check your answers. You will
be 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 isn’t
much you can check the of previous section as you can’t hear the listening clip
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.

Predicting helps you to understand what you are listening if you know what kind
of conversation is taking place so you can picture it in your head. So, go through
each section during the extra time and make sure you have an idea of the context
and the speakers involved.

4. Notice the order of the question-

The questions will not be set haphazardly. So you will need to check the
progression of the question carefully as you answer them in order otherwise you
will get lost. One question might also be related to another question thus if you
skip a question you might be confused about the next one. You might also end up
losing the track of the audio.

5. Be attentive-
You will only be allowed to hear the audio once. So if you didn’t hear a few words
or missed an answer or two, no need to worry, simply leave them blank and focus
on the actual part. You can review those questions at the end of the section.

6. Locate the Cue words-

When you are going through the more difficult parts 3 and 4, underline or circle
the keywords (such as names, places, and dates) in the question which will catch
your sight when you go through them to look for answers.

7. Be careful about the grammar and spelling-

If the word doesn’t grammatically fit with the sentence or if the spelling of the word
written in the answer sheet is wrong then your answer will be incorrect. So when
you transfer your answers at the end, don’t forget to check the answers again. The
sentence on the exam paper may help you to understand the type of grammar that
needs to be used. So, read and sentences carefully while writing the answers

8. Don’t write answers too quickly-

Some of the students, as soon as hear the needed information, they take it for the
correct answer. But sometimes this information is repeated or corrected further in
the section.

9. Try not to worry about what you write on the exam paper-
Nobody sees or marks what you write in the question paper so don’t waste time
getting the spelling or grammar correct while writing in the question paper. So just
write down what you hear in a way that you can understand while transferring the
answer and then move on. When you transfer the answers at the end of the answer
sheet, you can make sure you have the correct spelling and grammar. Nobody will
judge you or give marks based on what you write or cross out in the listening
question paper.

10. Don’t be afraid of unknown words-

Don’t panic if you hear an unfamiliar word. It may not be necessary to know it
anyway as it can simply be the part of the conversation. If a difficult word is said
(such as names, places, and dates), it is most likely to be dictated.

11. Don’t leave answers blank-

Your marks will not get deducted for writing the wrong answer (as opposed to
nothing if you are not sure what it is). So guess the answer and write it down. If
you are confused read the line or paragraph and write the answer you think would
fit there.

12. Transfer your answers to the answer sheet and check it-
if you put correct answers in the wrong place on the answer sheet then your marks
will be deducted. 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 be careful
while transferring the answer from the question paper. Make sure you check your
spelling and grammar when you transfer your answers at the end. If you have time
remaining, recheck the answers again.

In conclusion, remember that “Listening is a skill” and IELTS listening exam will
judge that skill of yours. It is important that you practice for the IELTS listening part
of the exam as you will have to master the fundamental crafts of IELTS Listening
test to crack it and to get your desired score. Hopefully, these strategies will serve
as the key to that and will help you to get an overall good band score in the IELTS
exam.

Mahir Tajwar
IELTS Instructor
Mentors’, 10 Minute School
[email protected]
10minuteschool.com/blog/author/mahir