LISTENING

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• LISTENING

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• 40 Questions
• Approximately 30 minutes(plus 10 minutes transfer
  time)

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• Four sections
• Always in the same order.
• Each section is heard ONCE only.
• Time is given to read the questions , write down
  and check answers.
• Ten minutes is allowed to transfer answers to
  answer sheet.

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Sections 12

• Format
• Concerned with social needs
• There is always a conversation between two
  speakers set in an everyday social context( e.g.
  accommodation agency)
• followed by a monologue set in an everyday
  social context(speech about local facilities) .

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Sections 34

• Concerned with situations related to educational
  or training contexts.
• A conversation between up to four people(a
  university student and a tutor discussing an
  assignment or a group of students planning a
  research project)
• A monologue (on an academic subject a
  university lecture)

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Skills assessed

• Understanding of main ideas
• Specific factual information
• Recognising opinions , attitudes and purpose of a
  speaker
• Development of an argument

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Task Types

• Questions are chosen from the following types
• Multiple choice
• Short answer questions
• Sentence completion
• Note completion
• Form completion
• Summary completion
• Labelling a diagram/map/plan
• Table/flow chart completion
• Classification
• Matching

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Listening test advice

• Time to read through the questions before
  listening.
• Hearing each recording of the Listening test only
  once. Write answers on the question paper.
• 10 minutes to transfer answers to the answer
  sheet in pencil.
• Answers may be written in lower case or capital
  letters.
• Essential to transfer answers to the answer sheet.

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• if you cannot hear the audio clearly, let a
  member of staff know straightaway
• follow the instructions carefully
• listen for the specific information
• try and anticipate what the speaker will say
  this will require concentration
• do not worry if there is a word you do not
  understand you may not need to use it
• if you do not know the answer to a question,
  attempt it but do not waste time move quickly
  onto the next one
• be careful with your spelling and grammar

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• do not panic if you think the topic is too
  difficult or the speaker is too fast relax and
  tune in
• read, write and listen at the same time
• focus precisely on what you are asked to do in
  completion type questions
• pay attention to the word limit for example, if
  you are asked to complete a sentence using no
  more than two words, if the correct answer is
  leather coat, the answer coat made of leather
  would be incorrect

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• if the question asks you to complete the note in
  the and the correct answer is morning, note
  that in the morning would be incorrect the
  correct answer is 'morning'
• attempt all questions there are no penalties for
  incorrect answers
• check your answers

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Purpose of the test

• The IELTS Listening test is designed to assess a
  wide range of
• listening skills, including how well you
  understand main ideas and specific factual
  information
• recognise the opinions, attitudes and purpose of
  a speaker
• follow the development of an argument

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• 3.You listen to a
• conversation between up to four people set in an
  educational or training context, e.g. a
  university tutor and a student discussing an
  assignment, or a group of students planning a
  research project.

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• Questions
• There are 40 questions.
• A variety of question types is used, and you may
  be asked to
• answer multiple choice questions
• label a plan, map or diagram
• fill in a form
• complete a table
• complete a flow-chart
• give short answers

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• For example Question 1 Where are they
  going? Question 10 What time are they coming
  home from the cinema? Obviously, theres a
  good chance that the answer to Question 1 is
  Cinema. However, you still need to listen to
  check. Often though, listening to check your
  predictions is easier than trying to listen for
  the answer on the tape. 

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• Sometimes you are asked to complete a table or a
  chart using information on the tape. Its natural
  to think that answers will be left-to-right and
  the answers on the tape will be one after
  another. However, this might not be the case -
  you may need to write answers horizontally, or in
  some other fashion. Check carefully how you are
  going to answer such questions to avoid putting
  the right answers in the wrong places! 

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•  If you get to the stage where you are totally
  lost, you may have to wait until the other
  candidates turn their pages before you can find
  out where you are in the questions. Of course,
  this is not ideal but if you have to do this,
  dont panic if you panic you will have even
  bigger problems.  

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• There is no grammar part to the IELTS Test, but
  grammar is very important. Look at this
  question "There were countless _______
  involved in the incident." a) People
• b) Person
• c) Children
• d) Computer 

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• If you look at the grammar of the sentence it
  might help you get the answer. 'were' would
  suggest a plural noun. How many plural nouns are
  there in the answers? Only two 'People' and
  'Children'. Now you have a good idea of the
  possible answers, you can use the tape to check
  for which answer is correct. 

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• Try this one as an example"An ___________ sank
  in the English Channel this morning, killing all
  on board." a) Yacht
• b) Car
• c) Oil Tanker
• d) Plane 

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•  If you miss some questions out, you will leave
  gaps in your answer sheet. Take special care to
  write your answers in the right order. When you
  miss questions out, it can be easy to start
  writing questions out of sequence. Check now and
  again just to make sure you are writing answers
  down in the right place. 

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•  Remember that you are probably not going to
  hear the same words in the question and in the
  answer. IELTS questions usually involve
  'paraphrasing'- using a sentence with the same
  meaning but not using the same words. For
  example, on the tape you might hear 

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• "Less than a quarter of university students took
  part." On the answer sheet you might see "Only
  23 of candidates actually sat the
  examination." In the context of what you hear on
  the tape, these two sentences might have the same
  meaning. Your job is to understand the full
  meaning of what you are listening to and to
  choose the right answer!  

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•  You should listen for keywords - that's
  important, but you should also listen for
  'synonyms'. For example, on the tape you might
  hear "He wants to get on but he doesn't have
  enough money to pay for university." On the
  answer sheet you might see "He wants to
  advance." 

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• "Get on" and "advance" are synonymous. When you
  are thinking of what key words to listen for,
  think of synonyms you might hear along with the
  word used in the question. 

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• Only write down what you hear - never abbreviate,
  shortcut or add to answers. For example, you
  might hear "He will start university in July
  next year." You write the following answer "He
  starts university in July, 2014."Although next
  year may be 2014, this is not the right answer.
  On the tape it said next year. 

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•  Do not assume the answer. On the tape you might
  hear "Sydney Harbour is the biggest harbour in
  the southern hemisphere."One answer might
  be "Sydney Harbour is one of the biggest
  harbours in the world." 

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• The southern hemisphere is a good proportion of
  the world. If Sydney Harbour is the biggest
  harbour in the Southern Hemisphere, the chances
  are it is one of the biggest in the world.
  However, the tape did not say this. It's natural
  to try to deduct an answer in this way, but if
  it's not on the tape, it's not the right answer
  simple as that!  

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•  Many IELTS questions involve listening to
  numbers and quantities. However, in natural
  speech the difference between '16' and '60' is
  often difficult to hear if you haven't practiced.
  Get used to listening to numbers - the only way
  you can do this is get some listening material
  and keep practicing! 

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•  Simply looking at question words can help you
  predict the answer to a question. For example,
  think carefully about what this question word
  could be referring to "Who?" You might be
  listening for the name of a person, but it could
  also be referring to a member of your family
  (e.g. 'my mum') or even a profession (e.g. 'the
  doctor', 'my teacher'). Take some time out to
  write down as many question words as you can and
  think of everything they could refer to. You
  might get some surprising answers.  

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• You might get a question similar to the
  following 'What is his name?" You listen to
  the tape and write 'michael smith' This is
  incorrect. A name should have capital letters
  like this 'Michael Smith' However, if you
  wrote this, it would be correct 'MICHAEL
  SMITH'. If you are unsure of punctuation or you
  don't know if something might have a particular
  punctuation, WRITE EVERYTHING IN CAPITALS - THERE
  IS NO PENALTY FOR WRITING ANSWERS IN THE
  LISTENING TEST IN CAPITAL LETTERS. 

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• Good luck