IELTS Listening Test Preparation – My Top 5 Tips For Attempting Listening Test

Tips for attempting the listening test. I will give you 5 top tips and techniques which I learned during the practice session of listening test and have implemented in my exam.

Tip 1

The listening test consists of usually 4 tasks. Task 1 is usually the easiest. And task 4 is the most difficult one.

All 4 tasks consist of 10 questions each. In all tasks except task 4, you are given a break to understand next questions / cross verify previous answers.

After voice recording is played 10 mins are given to transfer your answers to the answer sheet.

Tip 2

Be careful when you transfer answers, as on one side the answer sheet is for listening and another side it is for reading.

Make sure you have transferred answers on the listening sheet.

Tip 3

Be careful of trick questions, IELTS listening test is full of trick questions which test our reading and listening skills.

Reading skill to understand the question correctly and listening skill to understand the conversation.

Example 1: there was a question in my exam where the price of the apartment was asked, and in the conversation, the person mentioned: ” Last year the rents were extremely high they were close to $550 but this year we have made a discount on customer recommendations now rent is $440″.  So the correct answer is $440 as the current price is required in question.

Example 2: there was another question which required the name of the customer, and the conversation was like ” my name is Williamson it’s W-i-l-l-i-a-m-t-h-o-n (they will spell alphabets). And suddenly they will say it’s a mistake and will mention it’s actually willliamthan it’s t-h-a-n. So second the last word should be ‘a’ in an answer instead of ‘o’. So the correct answer was Wlliamthan.

So the bottom line is to be careful of trick questions and concentrate on voice recording.

Tip 4

I don’t know if any of you want to follow this tip,  but this is what I had done in the exam.

As I have mentioned earlier in tips 1 to 3. They give you breaks in between to recheck the answers and to look for the upcoming question. The breaks are different and are usually for one and a half min each.

For me, if I am confident that I have successfully answered previous questions. I would move ahead and read the next questions instead of rechecking. This allows me time one and a half min (rechecking time) plus an additional one min and half min (understanding next question) time to understand the upcoming questions.

Note, most of the mistakes in listening tests are due to two reasons:

• People don’t understand or comprehend questions correctly.
• People lose track of the conversation.

Tip 5

If you lose track of the conversation, don’t panic and start to write down as much of the information as possible for the topic.

Because the voice recording will be played only once. So if you have information available on the topic, the answer can be figured out later on.

For example, these are the exact words which I had written on my question paper during the exam.

The question was to select the below mentioned out of options A-I mention the closest information provided for five ships.

1) tugboat _______
2) starfleet ______
3) margate _______
4) sea king ________
5) another ship (I forgot name) _____

Option A – party with friends
Option B – Scuba diving
Option C – help captain steer the ship
Option D – witness sea creatures
Option E – luxury ship
Option F – facility to cook seafood
Option G – witness sea birds
Option H – small boat
Option I – ( I forgot)

During this question, I completely lost track of the conversation.  It was really difficult to understand the conversation and convert the information into answers for nine different options.

So this was the information I have written down in front of all ships on my question paper.

1) tugboat – 5-6 people, small tour near shore, last for few minutes
2) starfleet – big ship, suitable for long tours, traveling one country to another, suitable for big groups, witness dolphins opportunity
3) Margate – big ship, private parties for rich people, facility of children to steer a ship, expensive
4) sea king – objectives to explore depths of oceans, only expert people, license required
5) fifth ship – experience nature, cold breeze, facility to cook fishes and shrimps after catching. bring fishing equipment.

So during the last 10 min during the transfer of answers on the answer sheet from question paper. When I came across these questions I answered the questions.

So my suggestion if you lose track to try to input as much information on the question paper as possible as the voice recording is played only once. So you can understand the answers.

That is my 5 top tips and techniques which I learned during the practice session of listening test and have implemented in my IELTS exam. These 5 tips have helped me passed my IELTS listening test.

Good luck and thanks for your time. Hammad Arshad Qureshi.