What the Listening test involves
The test has four parts, 40 questions and lasts about 30 minutes. You hear each recording once only.
- Part 1: a conversation between two people in an everyday situation, such as booking a hotel or joining a gym. Often a form or note completion.
- Part 2: one speaker on an everyday topic, such as a guided tour or a talk about local facilities. Map and plan labelling often appears here.
- Part 3: a discussion between two or three speakers in an education setting, such as students and a tutor talking about an assignment.
- Part 4: a lecture on an academic subject, with no break in the middle.
On the computer-delivered test you get 2 minutes at the end to check your answers. On the paper test you get 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the answer sheet. As a rough guide, band 7 needs about 30 correct answers out of 40.
Accents beyond what you hear every day
Most Indore students are used to Indian English on the news and in college, and American English in films and web series. IELTS recordings use a range of accents, with British voices very common, and you may also hear Australian, New Zealand, Canadian and other speakers.
Our 88 practice sets are recorded with British voices, which helps you get used to features you may find unfamiliar: dropped "r" sounds at the end of words ("car", "water"), short vowels in words like "bath" in some accents, and fast, linked speech. If British accents feel hard at first, listen to a few minutes of British radio or podcasts every day for a fortnight. The improvement is noticeable.
Spelling, numbers and the small marks that add up
A correct answer spelt wrongly scores zero. These are the slips that cost Indore students the most:
- Double letters: "accommodation", "address", "committee", "necessary".
- Silent letters and tricky endings: "Wednesday", "February", "environment", "government".
- British spelling: "centre", "colour", "programme" are expected. American spellings are generally accepted, but be consistent.
- Numbers: "fifteen" and "fifty", "thirteen" and "thirty". Listen for the stress: "fifTEEN" against "FIFty".
- Dates, times and prices: practise writing them quickly and correctly, for example "15 March" or "£7.50".
- Letters spelt aloud: names and postcodes are spelt letter by letter in Part 1. Practise the English alphabet, especially "a", "e" and "i", and "g" and "j".
- Word limits: "ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER" means exactly that.
Map and plan questions
Map labelling worries many students. Before the recording starts, use your preparation time to find the starting point ("You are here", the entrance), note the compass directions, and look at what is already labelled. Then follow the speaker's route with your finger or cursor. Learn the language of direction: "opposite", "next to", "at the far end", "to the left of", "just past", "in the corner". Our map sets use plans of campuses, parks, museums and town centres, as in the real test.
Answers come in question order
In almost every Listening section, the answers come in the same order as the questions. This is your safety net. If you miss question 14, do not keep waiting for it; move your attention to question 15. Getting stuck on one missed answer is how students lose three or four in a row. Our practice sets follow the question order exactly like the real test, so you build this habit.
Watch for distractors as well. Speakers often give one answer and then correct it: "We'll meet on Tuesday... actually, no, Thursday is better." The final answer is the one that counts.
Practising with headphones in Indore
Practise in the conditions you will face. The test centre will give you headphones for the computer-delivered test, so practise with headphones too.
- Find a quiet slot. Indore traffic noise, a pressure cooker or a construction site next door can drown out a single key word. Early morning or late evening is often best.
- Do not practise full sets on a crowded bus or in a shared auto. It trains you to miss words. Use commuting time for vocabulary instead.
- Play each recording once only in a test-style set. Afterwards, listen again with the transcript to find exactly where you lost the answer.
Five errors to avoid on test day
- Writing more words than allowed
- Changing a correct answer at the last moment without good reason
- Losing your place after a missed question
- Singular and plural errors ("ticket" versus "tickets")
- Not reading ahead during the pauses
Start practising
Try the free Listening sets on the practice tests page and check your raw score with the Band Score Calculator. Register free to save every wrong answer automatically.