The four parts of the Listening test
The test takes about 30 minutes and has 40 questions across four parts. You hear each recording once only.
- Part 1: a conversation between two people in an everyday situation, such as booking a course or reporting a lost item. Often a form or notes to complete.
- Part 2: one speaker in an everyday context, for example a guide describing a facility. Map and plan questions often appear here.
- Part 3: a discussion between two or three speakers in an academic setting, such as students planning an assignment with a tutor.
- Part 4: a lecture or talk on an academic subject, with no break in the middle.
On the computer-delivered test you get two minutes at the end to check your answers. On paper you get ten minutes to transfer answers to the answer sheet. Band 7 needs roughly 30 correct answers out of 40.
Accents: the challenge most people underestimate
English in Sharjah is spoken with dozens of accents: Emirati, Levantine, Egyptian, South Indian, Pakistani, Filipino and many more. You probably understand all of them easily. IELTS recordings, though, mostly use British, Australian, North American and other native-speaker accents, and British voices are especially common.
Our 88 Listening sets are recorded with British voices, so you get used to features that catch people out: dropped "r" sounds at the end of words, the glottal stop in words like "water", and fast, linked speech where "want to" becomes "wanna". Outside the platform, add British radio, podcasts and documentaries to your week. Twenty minutes a day on the commute makes a real difference over a month.
Spelling and numbers: free marks you cannot afford to lose
A correct answer spelt wrongly is a wrong answer. In Part 1 especially, you will hear names and addresses spelt out letter by letter, and numbers read quickly.
Practise these until they are automatic:
- Letters that sound alike: A, E and I; G and J; B, P and V; M and N.
- Double letters: "double L", "double S".
- Numbers: "fifteen" and "fifty", "thirteen" and "thirty". Listen for the stress: fifTEEN versus FIFty.
- Phone numbers and times: "oh" for zero, and "half past", "quarter to".
- Dates and money: know how British speakers say them.
Commonly misspelt words in Listening include accommodation, environment, government, library, Wednesday and February. Use British spelling where the speaker spells it out, and keep your spelling consistent.
Map and plan questions
Map questions make many students nervous, but they follow a pattern. Before the recording starts, look at the map and identify the starting point, the compass directions and any labelled features. Then follow the speaker's route with your finger or cursor. Learn the language of location: opposite, adjacent to, at the far end, to the left of the entrance, just past the bend.
If you drive in Sharjah, you already think in landmarks and turnings rather than street names. That habit actually helps here: listen for landmarks and directions, and the answers follow.
Answers come in question order
The answers in each part follow the order of the questions. If you miss one, do not panic and do not keep searching for it. Move straight to the next question, otherwise you will lose two or three more. You can guess the missed answer at the end, as there is no penalty for wrong answers.
Our practice sets follow this order exactly, so you learn to track the questions as the recording moves forward.
Practising Listening from home in Sharjah
- Use headphones. Over-ear headphones block out the air conditioning, traffic and household noise common in Sharjah apartment buildings, and computer-delivered test centres normally provide headphones too.
- One part at a time. On weekdays, one part (about seven or eight minutes) fits easily into a lunch break or an evening.
- Full sections at weekends. All four parts, under time, inside a mock test.
- Review every mistake. After marking, go through each wrong answer in your Mistake Notebook. Was it a number, a spelling, a distractor or a lost place?
Common Listening errors and how to fix them
- Writing the first answer you hear. Speakers often change their mind: "Tuesday... no, actually, Thursday is better." Wait for the final answer.
- Ignoring grammar in gap-fills. If the gap needs a noun, an adjective will not fit. Read around the gap first.
- Losing focus in Part 4. The lecture has no pause. Use the preparation time to read all the questions and underline keywords.
When Listening is consistently 7 or above, try the harder Charged sets. Start with a free Listening set on the practice tests page, or create a free account to track your score.