Master the IELTS Listening Section and Score Good Band Score

Are you dreaming of studying or working abroad? IELTS is a crucial step in making that dream a reality. It challenges you to master a diverse range of listening skills under timed conditions, navigating through various accents like British, Australian, New Zealand, and American in just 40 minutes. Our comprehensive guide will walk you through the test structure, different question types, and effective strategies to enhance your listening skills, avoid common pitfalls, and maximize your score. Ready to excel? Dive into our blog to uncover all the essential details, tips, and resources you need to ace the IELTS Listening Test with confidence.

What Is the IELTS Listening Section?

The IELTS Listening Test, a crucial section of the IELTS exam, is designed to assess a wide range of listening skills, including understanding main ideas, specific information, opinions, and the purpose of a message. This module is the same for Academic and General IELTS. The test consists of four sections, each with 10 questions, for a total of 40 questions. The recordings feature a range of accents, including British, Australian, New Zealand, and American. 

Moving forward, the listening module takes 40 minutes: 30 minutes for testing and 10 minutes for transferring your answers to the answer sheet.

How much is the score for IELTS Listening? 

Each of the 40 questions is worth 1 point. Based on the number of points you earn, you can achieve a score ranging from 0 to 9 points for the Listening Section. The below conversion table would help you understand the IELTS Listening score.

What are the Different sections of the Listening Part?

The listening part consists of four sections, with one recording for each section and 10 questions in each. Remember that the difficulty increases with each successive section.

• Section 1: This section features a conversation between two speakers discussing everyday situations. They speak quite slowly, with pauses. Key information is typically repeated. For instance, you might listen to a conversation about confirming reservation details or placing a phone order.

Tips: Focus only on given facts

• Section 2: A monologue about everyday situations, where the speaker talks quite slowly but makes fewer pauses than in the previous section. For example: providing information to potential buyers about newly built flats, conducting a radio interview about a lake resort, or advertising the positive effects of a new toothbrush, etc.

Tips: Focus only on given facts

• Section 3: It is a conversation between 2, 3, or 4 speakers about educational or training situations. This section presents a higher level of complexity compared to the other two, as speakers engage in more rapid conversation and occasionally employ advanced vocabulary. Examples include students talking about a class assignment or discussing a professor's scholarly lecture. 

Tips: Focus on given facts and speakers' opinions and attitudes.

• Section 4: This section is the most difficult one. It includes a monologue on an academic subject. During this monologue, there won't be any breaks in the middle. The speaker would be speaking quite quickly and would be using a range of vocabulary. For example: the talk would be about endangered species, global warming, forest reserves, etc.

Tips: Focus on given facts, key ideas, and the speaker's opinions and attitudes. 

What are the Different Types of Questions in the IELTS Listening Part? 

There are 6 types of questions. The below table would help you get a better image of the types of questions, and the skills gained through it.

Multiple-choice questions

Multiple-choice questions or MCQs help in analysing the candidate's considerable skills. Moving forward, MCQs have multiple optional answers to a question. The candidate has to choose one or more solutions to the question. Hence, candidates should carefully read and analyse the question before answering it.

In such types of questions, candidates get to choose answers between 3 options. Alternatively, for some questions, candidates are given the beginning part of a sentence. Then, using the given sentence, the candidate has to complete it.

Additionally, for questions with multiple answers, the number of answer choices will also increase. Thus, you will get a longer list of all possible answers for such types of questions.

For some questions, specific knowledge or understanding of the subject matter is helpful for the candidates. Hence, the candidate must maintain focus while listening to the recordings.

Form, note, flow-chart, table, summary completion

Another type of question the candidates will encounter during the IELTS listening test is to fill the gaps in the given outline. In such questions, candidates get a sheet of paper with mission information. Then, they have to listen to the audio and fill in the required information.

The given outline may be of various types, such as

The answers to such questions must be according to the answer options given in the question sheet. In addition, candidates should also listen to the recording before selecting an answer.

For such types of questions, it is imperative that the candidates carefully read the instructions. Furthermore, the word limits should be strictly adhered to, and candidates should use the exact words mentioned in the recording.

Lastly, answers that exceed the given word limit are marked incorrect. Therefore, carefully check the word limit before submitting the response.

Matching

In Matching questions, the candidates have to listen to the recording and match the questions with their answers.

Matching exercises enable the exam's committee to gauge the candidate's eye for detail. It also allows them to understand whether the candidate can understand and pick information from everyday conversations.

Furthermore, it also tests your ability to follow instructions and connect facts in the English language.

Map, Plan, and Diagram labelling

In this form of questions, candidates have to fill the labels by listening to the recordings. Furthermore, labelling is primarily for building plans, maps, and diagrams. These questions also offer a list of answers to choose from.

The task analyses the candidate's ability to understand directions, place descriptions, etc.

Sentence Completion

For such questions, the candidate has to summarise the complete information by listening to the data.

After going through the information, they have to complete the sentence by filling in the correct information. Sentence completion questions also have word limits. Therefore, keep your answers within the given limit.

Sentence completion questions focus on the candidate's ability to understand and identify preliminary information by listening to recordings.

Short-answer Type Questions

Candidates are presented with a set of questions. They have to answer the questions using the information they listened to during the video. For some questions, candidates also have to list two or three points to support their answers.

The questions help understand the candidate's ability to listen and pick out important information such as time, place, prices, etc.

What are some of the IELTS Listening Tips? 

Comprehend the Structure of the Test

Just like any other exam, learning about the test is the first step towards scoring above 7 in the IELTS exam. Therefore, just after deciding to appear for the exam, you should improve your exam knowledge.

For instance, you can ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the exam's primary motive?
• What are the general type of questions?
• What is the exams format?
• What is the exams duration?
• What kind of accents will be used?
• Will you get extra time to transfer your answers?

The best method to do this is to go through the exams syllabus, format and the preparation materials.

Understand the Instructions Thoroughly

Following and understanding instructions becomes relevant in terms of competitive exams such as IELTS. That said, there are multiple IELTS listening exam questions that require the candidate to follow specific instructions.

For example, in the short answer type questions, candidates should answer questions within the given word limit. Exceeding the word limit will result in the incorrect marking of the question. Thus, signifying the importance of reading instructions carefully.

Similarly, in questions that require one to fill in the blanks, the final sentence must be grammatically accurate. In addition, as it is an English language test, avoid making capitalisation, punctuation and spelling mistakes.

Try to Recall the keywords

Make it clear that you will be allowed to hear a recording only once. Before listening to the recording, you will have some time to read the instructions and questions. Therefore, carefully read the instructions and underline the keywords.

Going through the questions gives you a glimpse of the recording. Try to understand and predict the recordings gist.

Understanding keywords will allow you to pinpoint the answer from the recording. Another important thing is that the exact keyword doesn't need to be present in the recording. Therefore, always try to recall the keywords synonyms and connect them with the recording words.

Avoid Distractions

While going through the recording, don't panic, and mark the answer as soon as you hear a possible solution. At times, speakers say something but then reverse their responses. That said, the best way to avoid such situations is to listen to the recording carefully. Furthermore, try to understand the tones and different meanings of the speakers words.

Beware of distractors that confuse the listener and pay attention to the details.

Focus on the recordings

At times, candidates listen to the entire recording to find the answer to any question. However, they fail to do so until the very end. Well, in such cases, the chances are that you have already missed the answer.

Unlike other exams, IELTS asks questions according to the recording's order. Thus saving the candidates the hassle of going back and forth with the recording.

Therefore, relax, listen to the recording carefully and answer the questions.

Be Careful While Answering

After the pen and paper test, candidates get an extra 10 minutes to write their answers on the official answer sheet. While writing the answers, you should make sure that:

• All the spellings and capitalisations are correct. In addition, you can also write answers in capital letters.
• After writing your answers, make sure that everything is grammatically correct.
• Please make sure that you have followed all the instructions.

Continue Practicing More

Lastly, the best method of improving your English listening skills is by becoming an active listener. Candidates can do this by listening to various forms of audio and audio-visual devices. Furthermore, you can also watch popular films, TV shows or web series in English. You can also listen to other language resources, such as Ted talks, news reports, podcasts, etc.

All these resources will enable you to learn and recognise various accents and, thus, enhance your vocabulary.

Another method of practicing is to make active listening an integral part of your daily life. That said, a quick internet search will help you find hundreds of practice videos in English. So now, you can start listening to the topics that interest you. Then, after a day or two, try to shift your focus to academic materials.

Getting used to multiple accents will help boost your confidence for the IELTS listening test. Thus decreasing stress and increasing your chances of scoring a good band score. Along with all these, you can also seek help from a well known educational consultancy. 

Conclusion

Candidates often ignore the IELTS Listening section, assuming that they will clear it in one go. After all, all they have to do is listen to the recording and write answers. Easy, right? Well, clearing IELTS Listening in one go is not as easy as it sounds. In addition, candidates must learn to recognise words said in different accents, which is not as easy as it sounds.

That said, the only way to clear this exam is to prepare yourself by practicing and becoming a better listener. Therefore, during the exam, the candidate must keep their entire focus on listening to the given recording. In addition, one point in favour of the candidate is that they have to read questions in advance. Thus giving them an edge over the exam.