IELTS Listening Tips & Essential Information

Hello, my name is Liz and in this lesson I will give you all the

essential

information

and

tips

you need to succeed in your

listening

test. We will start by reviewing the content of the exam and then continue. and I will give you a lot of useful

tips

, there is only one IELTS

listening

test, all IELT students take the same listening test, so whether you are taking the academic IELTS or the general training IELTS, they all take the same test , the same questions, the same format and the same scoring is exactly the same for everyone who takes a look at the content of the listening test there are four sections and there are 40 questions in total now the sections the first two sections are the most easy and are social, that is, the context The situation is a social situation, an everyday situation and the last two sections are more difficult, they have academic content.

Now section one has two speakers. A social situation. A typical example is a telephone conversation where someone is registering for a course, so for example they need to book a course and they need to know what date they need your name they need your address your phone number or maybe you are booking a table at a restaurant or setting up a meeting with someone and you need to think about what time you're meeting, so it's very specific

information

and it's pretty easy and it's pretty easy to improve that section. The next number two is also social, so it's an everyday situation, but it's just a speaker.

A typical example would be a tour guide. be a tour guide explaining about a resort, so what facilities there are or the history behind the resort. Another example could be, for example, talking about the historic building or talking about a charity, a company or organization, section three, the academic, the first academic section, uh, that. now you have three or four speakers, this is a challenge because it is a discussion, an academic discussion, now when you have three or four speakers, that means you have different voices and you have to be able to identify who is speaking and who is saying.

That could be quite a challenge, but the most difficult is section four, where there is only one speaker and it is an academic conference. The listening test lasts 40 minutes in total, 30 minutes are for the audio, which means you have 30 minutes to listen to the recording and answering the questions at the end of the 30 minutes, you are given another 10 minutes and that is for that you can transfer your answers from the quiz, which is where you write your answers when you listen to the answer sheet here is an example of the answer sheet for I listening now you can download this answer sheet and it is very important.

I think tip number four is to practice using it before taking the iot exam. It is very important that you feel comfortable with all parties. of the test and that includes spending 10 minutes transferring your answers from your quiz to this answer sheet to write them down clearly so they can be easily read on the answer sheet, moving on to tip number five, you will listen to the recording only once. It does not play again, which means that when you take the exam you will have to listen to the recording, read the questions and at the same time write your answers, which means that at the same time you are listening, reading and writing, so you are really performing multiple tasks.

During this listening comprehension test it can be quite difficult and it is something you need to practice. Number six. Many students ask me if they can use a pencil or pen. The answer is: you must write, write your answers on the answer sheet using a pencil and that is the same as tip number seven of the reading test, the scores are calculated according to the number of correct answers you have, so there are 40 questions, there are 40 points and every time you get a correct answer you get a point and that's how your band scores are calculated let's move on to tip number eight tip number eight you can write your answers in uppercase or lowercase letters you can choose But whichever one you choose you should stick with that choice if you decide to use capital letters all your answers must be written in capital letters it cannot suddenly change on your answer sheet or if you choose lower case you must make sure that all your answers are written in lower case on your answer sheet.

Now capital letters mean that each letter is written in capital letters, there is no difference, but if you use lower case you have to remember that some words start with a capital letter, so for example names or places will start with a uppercase letter, so if you decide to use lowercase, be sure to remember the uppercase letters. At the beginning of your answers for names and places, tip number nine, if you look at your questionnaire, it will always tell you how many words you need for the answer and give you a rule, for example, no more than two words or a number.

You should pay attention to these instructions every time you receive a new type of question that may change, so you should always look at how many words I can have for these answers and when I move down the page, how many words have changed, underlined. quick so you don't forget now many students get confused about what it means so let me explain to you that we don't have more than two words, that means we can't have three no more than two words and/or a number, that means we can have two words and one number or we can have just one number so let's take a look at the options so you understand more clearly you could have one word you could have two words but not three you could have two words and one number or you could have just one number now be very careful with the instructions because you can see here it says a number sometimes it says and or numbers and if that is plural it means it can have two numbers so make sure you pay attention to the instructions very closely many students ask me about the number 10, should we use prepositions?

Should we write hospital or the hospital or in the hospital? What should we write for the answer? Well, it depends on the type of question you have. I'll show you later in this video that there are many different types of questions for completing sentences, completing notes, completing summaries and each one of them is a little bit different. Now you can see here. This is an example of a form question. They tell you the type of information they want and you write. your answer here and it may just be one word so it would be possible to just write hospital, but if we look at this example you can see that it is a sentence and that means that when we complete the answer here, the sentence must be grammatically correct because they are completing the sentence, so here we would say the best place to meet is at the hospital and it would be three words, so you need to look at the type of question.

Are you just taking notes or are you completing sentence number 11? All the words are counted. even if they are small words, for example a holiday, which are two same words to read and write and of course this year 1950 would be considered as a number, the number 12, this is an important spelling, if you write a word incorrectly, it will be marked wrong, that means of course when you are listening you don't have time to think about spelling, but when listening you have 10 minutes at the end of your test to transfer your answers to the answer sheet, that is your time . to pay attention to spelling, pay attention to your spelling and capital letters, check grammar, use the 10 minutes to transfer answers wisely, number 13, if you write words or letters on your answer sheet, now that is very important , you can see here, we need to write a word. or here we need to complete the sentence with one or more words, but if it is a multiple choice which is different, the instructions tell you to choose the correct letter, which means we have a spring B, summer or C, winter now when we choose our answer, for example, B, we need to write B on the answer sheet, if you write summer on the answer sheet, it is marked as incorrect, so even though you have the correct answer, you have actually written the wrong answer on your sheet of answers because I needed to write the lyrics. so make sure you read the instructions, the instructions will tell you if you're going to write a letter or a word and again, that's the same thing I'm reading, let's move on to number 14, one of the most important tips to help you prepare.

Your IELT listening test is to learn about the types of questions you will get. I listen, there are quite a few, as you can see, of different types of questions and you need to practice each type of question when you get to your listening test and you go to the question, you have enough time to read the question and the answers, but you don't have time enough to try to understand what to do if you have never seen that type of question before, so knowing and having a strategy, a technique for each type of question is important for your Arts listening test.

Now one of the most difficult types of questions is multiple choice, which is often where you have a b or c to choose from, but multiple choice could also be a very long list, for example eight options and you need to answer three questions related to those eight options or the multiple choice could be a choice of people's names. Remember in section three there are three or four speakers, so you may need to match the person's name to the information? There are different types of multiple choice, there is also the option to complete the map and that is when they give you the map of a city or some streets, it can also be a building plan, that is when you have all the rooms of a building that you have label it and complete it, it could be a diagram label so you have a diagram and your answers relate to parts of that diagram, it could fill out a form, which is very common in section one, or complete a note, which is very common In section four, you could complete a flow chart.

Sentence Completion is a very common type of summary question completion and is a bit similar, except it is more like a small paragraph that you need to complete. We also have short answer questions, so these are questions that may need a new answer, two Word answers, or three. word answers and of course also completing tables, so there are many different types of questions that you need to practice. If you want to practice with these question types you can get a practice test book or you can visit my blog where I have free practice lessons using many of these question types now let's take a look at number 15 number 15 don't try to understand the whole objective in I The to listen and read is to find answers to questions a correct answer is a point all you want are answers, you do not pretend to understand everything, so you must analyze your question.

Try to think about what kind of answer you are looking for. Listen to that answer. There will be a lot of additional information in the recordings and you just need to relax and concentrate on the answers you are looking for number 16, this is an important tip, you should prepare your answers and questions now, before listening to the recording, you will hear a message and it will tell you now If you have time to prepare questions 1 to 5, that means you will have time to prepare and read questions 1, 2, 3, 4 and five, then listen to them, and then have the opportunity to prepare questions 6, 7, 8 and nine so you can We always have time to prepare, but it is not much, so you must train yourself to prepare the questions quickly.

Now let's take a look at this one. This is to complete a sentence. The first thing I would do is highlight this: the town square. Of course, I will listen to those words and those words will help me find my answer. I will also pay attention that build is a verb that is very easy to paraphrase, for example, build so that the town where the town square was built so that it can I see that right away because I have practiced a lot and it is a word that I am familiar with. acquainted. Another key word would be this.

When you see a preposition, you often have a good idea of ​​what kind of response you need to complete the sentence. this will obviously probably be a person, the town square was built by someone, but be careful because IELTS is testing your English and it could be a person, it could also be an organisation, it could be a group of people, for example the town . Square was built by local craftsmen, so it may not be a person's name, but you can see very quickly that I identified three key words, one because I know I will hear those words, that is the main content, two because it could be paraphrased and three.

It tells me what kind of answer I need, that's how you prepare your questions. tip: 17 answers can come quickly, so be prepared that the answers won't come at regular intervals, you could suddenly get three answers together, which means you need to keep your eye on the next question, so don't just stare the question you are looking for. StayPay attention to the other questions that come so you can quickly move on to the next question and don't waste time. Do not miss. now because answers come quickly you don't always have time to write long words, if the answer is University Bookshop you might want to just make a note, if it was University Bookshop I would do this, write that on my questionnaire and then when I transfer my answers to the answer sheet, I write the complete words, which is the university bookstore, so taking notes is very useful.

You should also make notes of the possible answers because you may miss one that you can write on the entire questionnaire. The examiner will never see it, so make notes on your question paper, write the short version of the word if necessary and transfer it correctly to your answer sheet. Tip number 20, there may be a gap between the answers, so here we have answers that will come quickly, but there could also be a gap and this is when the students start to panic, they are listening and waiting and waiting and there is no answer and the recording goes on and on and they get very nervous, that is the reason why it is important to underline the key words because then you know that you have to wait for these words to come, so don't panic, you have to be attentive. calm down and keep listening keep your attention on the next question take notes as you listen and be prepared for any gaps between the answers so let's move on tip 21 common pitfalls these are the ways IELTS really tries to test your understanding and vocabulary now I'll give you an example of a common trap: when answers are given, for example, shall we meet at 7:00?

Yes, definitely, see you at 7, so we have the answer at 7:00, but then it changed and the speaker says, "Oh, actually I'm sorry, how about half past so suddenly, instead After the answer is 7, it's now 7:30? So when you listen and listen to your answer, you can obviously take note of the answer, but keep listening because that answer could change. So be careful with that and another type of trap is when you have the same words in the question and the same words in the recording, so of course people immediately think, "This is my answer," but actually they might be a trap because normally I will.

Use paraphrases rather than using the exact same words entirely, so always be a little suspicious when you hear the same words. If you want to practice with common traps, visit my blog. I have a lot of practice exercises with these types of traps and it will help you practice for that number 22 repeated answers if you look at, for example, section three, this is when we have three or four people arguing and of course when you are discussing something that people might say is this. What do you mean? Do you mean this? The answer could be repeated again and that can help you locate the answer.

Number 23. Very important now the IELTS is a listening comprehension test and you know that many foreign language speakers have difficulty hearing plurals, so you need to pay attention, does that word have an s at the end or not? If you have a complete sentence, sometimes you can see in the grammar that you need a plural answer, so just take a look, but keep your ears open for those plurals, now is the time. So I'll give you a breakdown of the score and I'll give you the scores for B score five 6 7 and 8 the score now you can see here we have the scores for the band that got 5.56 6.57 7.5 and you can see here these are the number of correct answers you need to get the band score, so if you are looking for a band seven score you will need to get 30 or 31 correct answers and to get 7.5 you will need 32, 33 or 34 answers correct to get the score B. 7.5 so what you can see is that it is about the number of correct answers, so tip number 24 is that if you don't know the answer, guess, write something on your answer sheet, don't leave an empty space because if your answer is wrong it won't affect your linked score, you don't lose a point if you're wrong so always guess, if you don't know I'll give you a link at the end of the lesson so you can get all the scores of all the band scores now let's move on to tip number 25, let's see the final tips.

The first is to listen to the example that is provided at the beginning of the listening test, so that before section one actually begins, you have a chance to hear an example and see an example answer, you should use that time to get used to the speaker's voices because that will help you understand what they are going to say. This example is only given at the beginning of section one, not at the beginning of section 2 3. or four, so use the time effectively and listen carefully to the example. Now, the accents that come in the Listening Test I, of course, there will be a lot of British English accent and Australian accent as well, but IELTS is an international English language test, so that means.

There will be a variety of accents, so when you practice for your listening test, make sure you practice listening to different types of accents. Next one, this is very important. You will often find headings in your quiz and those headings are very useful because it helps you prepare for the topic that is coming, so if you have a diagram, fill in a map, fill in a table, fill in questions, look at the heading, read it, underline it, The next one is very useful and this is very important, check where all the questions are now. Now you have time to prepare for questions 1 to questions s, that means you know you will receive seven questions.

Make sure you mark where the seven questions are because I have seen students who only prepared six questions because they didn't. Notice that question seven was on the other side of the paper, so make sure your questions are on one side or you may need to turn and look at the next page too, so always check the next one if you miss an answer. quickly to the next question, which is very important, you don't have a chance to catch up if you lose your place in listening test I because you only listen to the recording once, so keeping your place in the recording is very important, so that if you miss an answer, don't worry, forget it, go straight to the next question, another and this is very useful for sections three and four and that is that technical and academic language is often not paraphrased now, not all words but often they are not paraphrased so if you see a very complicated word or a technical word then it may be useful to you, don't be afraid of that language and it may be useful because it may not be paraphrased and that means that when you listen you know what question you are on and you can keep your place let's take a look at some more final tips this is a very important tip for your answer you need to write down the words you hear now here is an example of something you might hear in children who record they should be accompanied by an adult at all times and here is question number 26, children are not allowed without and you must fill in the space, you must complete the sentence now here are two answers, children are not allowed without an accompanying adult or children are not allowed without an adult now if we look here we have to be accompanied by an adult so it is true that children must have an accompanying adult but that is not what the recording really says word for word the meaning is correct but the wording is not like that, this answer would be considered incorrect, you cannot change and rephrase the words, you need to listen and write the words you hear, so the answer would have to be an adult, so be very careful not to rephrase the words, but to write what you hear , the final tips, this is important, make sure your headphones work properly.

Now remember I told you that at the beginning of section one there is an example reproduced and you can use that to also check that your headphones are okay. working properly before responses start coming in, if your test center does not use headphones for the listening test and if the recording is played throughout the room, you can check that the volume is appropriate for you if there is a problem with headphones or volume, then you can raise your hand and a test supervisor will come to you and you can fix the problem now. Finally, of course, the biggest problem people have is concentration.

You need to really concentrate for the listening test I if you lose concentration at any time, you can not only miss an answer, but you can also lose your place in the recording and then it is very difficult to locate the next answers, so you need to practice to develop your concentration before starting the exam. If you found this video helpful, please. Hit like and now it's time to give you some more useful links to listen to.