IELTS TIPS - LISTENING

IELTS TIPS - LISTENING

I appeared for IELTS more than 2 yrs back.

The methods mentioned below are what my various teachers and gurus taught me and that I used to appear for IELTS and various other Tests.

LISTENING

In this section I think there are 3-4 listening episodes. Most probably 1 of these episodes will be tough. This is used by IELTS for research purpose.

Listening to English News that come in BBC/CNN and try to watch a lot of English movies can develop the listening skills – You need to train your ears for these English accents. This comes only by practice.

For example – Watch and Listen to BBC news – and during the re-telecast of this news turn your back to the TV and just listen to the news and write down the names of places/persons or number of dollars invested by a company or other information, these are just few examples and other critical info. After that when the news repeats again – watch and listen to this news and check whether u have noted down the details correctly including the spellings. Initially it will tough but slowly and gradually you will improve in it.
Remember, “Slow and steady wins the race” from the story of the hare and tortoise.

There are no negative marks in this section for wrong answers. So if you have optional answers then if you have missed this answer in the audio just tick most appropriate and immediately move on – if you spend more time on 1 question then your next question answers will move ahead of your listening. Never leave any questions unanswered whether right or wrong. Another important thing is the spelling mistakes > if u have mentioned a correct answer but written the wrong spelling then it’s considered wrong. For example > if the audio says boys and if write boy: it is wrong, another > babies and if you write babys or baby’s : its wrong

How to tick most appropriate?
If there are 4 optional answers for 1 question and you are not sure as to which to mark most appropriate > first discard one by one from the 4 answers the option that can in no way be the answer and then u will be left with the best probably correct answer. Best of Luck.

The questions are arranged in such a way that it is in sequence with the audio. Which means the answer to question 2 will always follow answer to question 1.

And never answer to question 1 will follow answer to question 2. So if you miss an answer to any previous question don’t ponder your time on it. Instead concentrate on the next coming questions.

In between each set of question the audio says to review your answers – please do not do that – u will not remember what they said in the earlier set – instead read the next set of questions and look for target specific words that will tell u to look for those related words in the audio > for example > in the next set questions u may be asked to fill HOME ADDRESS/PERSONS NAME/ NO.OF BOOKS > home address will be alphanumeric, persons name will be alphabetic, no. of books will always be numeric –
Other examples can be directions like > left right, east west north south and many – so if u read the next set of questions u will know what to actually listen in the audio. Many times there will be audio which is of no use and sometimes it’s just used to create a small confusion.

Then after the above > again the audio says before the next set starts to read the question > so this gives us a second chance to read the next set questions and answers to get ready for the actual audio. One another important method can be followed > when u review or do the 2nd read cycle > underline the target word in question > this will help u to know what is asked for and what u have to listen.

This section may have diagrams and sketches to mark or locate.

For listening a separate answer sheet is provided by the examiner and the guidelines to fill it up it mentioned on this answer sheet.

So u can first mark all answers in your question booklet and then when prompted by the audio to fill your answers – copy the answers from your question booklet to answer booklet. Normally people make mistakes here when the copy the answers from question booklet to answer sheet. Be very careful with this.

A good pencil and eraser can be used for all the sections of IELTS – it is in fact a perfect idea as u can erase if u have made mistakes.

All the best for the above section. Best of Luck.

How can you check your score when you practice?
The below method doesn’t give you your correct score but will give u a rough idea about your score level.
Each section’s max score is 9. So suppose u get 23 correct answers out of total 30 questions then u can calculate like this > 23/30 * 9 = 6.9 out of 9.

More will be added shortly – if any.

Keep smiling and practicing.

May God Bless You.

Suju.the.Archer