The four parts
The Listening test has 4 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 course or reporting a lost item. Usually form or note completion.
- Part 2: one speaker in an everyday context, for example a tour guide or a talk about local facilities. Often includes a map or plan.
- Part 3: a discussion between two or three speakers in an academic or training context, such as students planning an assignment with a tutor.
- Part 4: a single speaker giving 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 paper you get 10 minutes to transfer them to the answer sheet.
Accents you will hear
IELTS uses a range of English accents, including British, Australian, North American and others. Many Surat learners are used to Indian English on television, in college and in business calls, so a fast British or Australian speaker can feel difficult at first.
Our 88 practice sets are recorded with British voices and cover all four parts. Listen widely as well: podcasts, radio news and interviews in different accents for twenty minutes a day will train your ear far more than subtitled films.
Spelling and numbers: free marks you can lose
A correct answer spelled wrongly is marked wrong. Common problem areas:
- Numbers: fifteen vs fifty, thirteen vs thirty. Listen for the stress: fifTEEN, FIFty.
- Letters: speakers spell names letter by letter. In British English, Z is "zed", and "double S" means SS. Practise writing letters as you hear them.
- Dates and money: write them in a format that is clear and follows the instructions.
- Plurals: if the speaker says "tickets", "ticket" is wrong.
- Word limits: "NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS" means three words scores zero, even if the meaning is right.
If you spell English words the way they sound in Gujarati, keep a list of everyday words you often misspell, such as accommodation, environment, necessary and Wednesday, and test yourself weekly.
Map and plan questions
Maps unsettle many candidates. Before the recording starts:
- Find the starting point and which way you are facing.
- Note fixed landmarks: entrance, car park, main road, river.
- Learn direction language: opposite, next to, at the far end, on your left as you go in, beyond, clockwise.
Then follow the speaker's route with your finger or cursor. If you lose your place, look for the next landmark and rejoin.
Answers come in question order
In almost every Listening section, the answers come in the same order as the questions. That gives you a strategy: if you miss question 14 and hear the answer to question 15, let 14 go, guess later, and stay with the recording. Panicking over one missed answer often costs two or three more.
Practising at home in Surat
Good IELTS Listening practice in Surat begins with a quiet setup. Traffic on the main road, a pressure cooker in the kitchen, wedding bands passing in season and festival music during Navratri all compete with a recording.
- Use proper headphones every time, ideally the over-ear kind similar to those used in test centres.
- Do full sections in one go without pausing or replaying, at least once you are past the learning stage.
- Review with the audio and script: listen again to every question you missed and find the exact words that gave the answer.
- Watch for distractors: speakers often say one answer, then correct themselves ("Tuesday... no, actually Thursday").
- Check your saved errors in the Mistake Notebook once a week.
Business calls with buyers and suppliers, which many Surat candidates handle daily, build confidence, but in IELTS you cannot ask the speaker to repeat. That is why timed, one-play practice matters.
A quick self-check after every section
- Did I read ahead before each part began?
- Did I write within the word limit?
- Did I check plurals and spelling in the final two minutes?
- Did I let a missed answer go and stay with the recording?
When you are ready for more
Band 7 in Listening needs roughly 30 out of 40 correct. Once you reach that range consistently, move to our Charged Listening sets, which use faster speech and more tempting distractors.
Start with the free sample Listening sets after you register, then try a full section on the practice tests page. Full Access is ₹999 for 2 months.