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  How to Reach the 9.0 in IELTS Listening

  Table of Contents

  Listening Exam Criteria

  What do you have to do during the listening test?

  How long does the listening test last and how many questions must be answered?

  What are the different scenarios for each section of the listening test?

  What are the different types of question formats which can occur in any section of the Listening Test?

  Listening Test Challenges

  What obstacles may you face during the listening test and how can you overcome these?

  Listening Test Strategies

  What should you do before the exam to prepare yourself and develop your skills in advance?

  Listening Test Reminders

  What do you have to remember before taking the Listening Test?

  Listening Test Tactics

  What should you remember to do during the listening exam?

  Listening Test Band Scores

  Which IELTS Band Score corresponds to the number of correct marks you receive in the listening  

  Listening Exam Criteria

  What do you have to do during the Listening Test?

  Candidates must listen to a live audio CD playing a recorded tapescript via a stereo system and write down information required in response to the questions displayed on the question paper in the exam booklet. The listening test will take 30 minutes in total: approximately 20 minutes to answer the questions and you will then be given an additional 10 minutes afterwards to transfer your answers to the answer sheet provided with the question paper.

  How long does the Listening Test last and how many questions must be answered?

  The whole test consists of 4 separate sections which will each become progressively more difficult. You will hear the entire tapescript only once. No section will be repeated. There are 40 questions in total. Each section contains 10 questions.

  What are the different scenarios for each section of the Listening Test?

  Section 1: This is usually a conversation between two speakers about everyday life situations such as making travel arrangements, enquiries for public information or discussing plans for social engagements.

  Section 2: This is normally a monologue where only one individual is speaking, providing relevant factual information for public interest like a radio news broadcast, a student induction service or a guided tour around a special site for educational or travel purposes.

  Section 3: This is normally a conversation between two to four speakers in the environment of an education and/or training process. It could be a group of students discussing how they are going to undertake an academic project or it could be a tutorial meeting between a teacher or student exploring career options, deciding course choices or reviewing the submission of academic assignments.

  Section 4: This will be an extended monologue providing detailed and complex academic information in the form of a university lecture, a seminar presentation or a museum talk for visitors.

  What are the different types of question formats which can occur in any section of the Listening Test?

  Note Completion: Provide words to fill in information missing from notes.

  Form Filling: Write missing details in the gaps for an application form.

  Table Completion: Include necessary information missing from a table.

  Flow-Chart Completion: Fill in missing information from the sequence.

  Map/Plan Labelling: Identify places shown on a map or plan.

  Diagram Labelling: Transfer the information heard to label a picture.

  Sentence/ Text Completion: Fill the gaps in sentences or text summaries.

  Short Answer Questions: Write the answers to the questions asked.

  Multiple Choice Questions: Select the correct letter from 3 options: A, B, C.

  Multiple Matching: Match words from a list of options to words in a box.

  Category Classification: Decide which categories some words belong to.

  List Picking: Choose the correct answers from a list of different options. 

  Listening Test Challenges:

  What obstacles may you face during the Listening Test and how can you overcome these?

  i) Audio-lingual Inexperience:

  Many students do not watch television or listen to the radio which may mean that they don’t practice the process of absorbing information transmitted via audio-lingual media technology.

  It is critical that students make time to access the multiplicity of audio-visual learning options which are nowadays available via the Internet as well as on TV and the radio.

  ii) Inability to Concentrate:

  Many students admit that it is very difficult for them to be able to continue to concentrate whilst following a 30 minute audio recording in English. It is often all too easy to lose focus or miss crucial details because of a lack of attention at critical stages.

  Concentration capacity can be built up through regular practice at home and in class. It is important to set aside time to watch, listen and learn from audio-visual media and this will be more attractive if you are listening to something you enjoy related to your own individual interests.

  iii) Unfamiliar Regional/National Accents:

  It is very common for students to complain that they are unable to understand the speakers on audio recordings due to their distinctive accents derived from their locality or nationality. Students should be prepared for the possibility that they may hear Australian, American or Irish accents as well as British English voices.

  The more you listen to news media and watch different TV programmes the more familiar you can become with the wide variety of English speech from different parts of the world. Watching films and TV series with subtitles can help you understand initially unfamiliar regional/national accents.

  iv) Spelling Difficulties:

  Unfortunately, English is not a phonetic language and there are many English words whose sound does not reflect their spelling. Some students may also be affected by dyslexia in their own native language. Nowadays many people are excessively dependent on automatic spellchecking when writing via computer.

  English spelling does not always follow logical patterns and often can only learnt by constant repetition. If you are consistently making spelling mistakes, it is worth recording words that are proving problematic to remember and ensuring that you write these down repeatedly. It is helpful to check your spelling via Microsoft Word or Smartphone but you should not rely on technology aids to replace your human memory, especially when you cannot use these applications during an exam.

  v). Handwriting Legibility:

  The listening exam is no longer marked by human beings willing to attempt to decipher handwriting which is not easily legible to the naked eye. It is now scanned electronically which means that the letters used must correspond to a standard format. Therefore unclear and confusing handwriting script could potentially cost candidates crucial marks. IELTS is a global exam taken by students from all over the world many of whom do not use the Latin alphabet in their native language but will use Cyrillic, Arabic or Oriental characters etc.

  Students should seek to write their answers as clearly and comprehensibly as possible and this is achievable, because you are given ten minutes extra transfer time after the tapescript recording has finished. It is both reasonable and advisable to write your answers on the question paper as quickly as possible which may mean that your handwriting is only readable by you in draft form. But you should make sure that your final answers are composed as legibly and as obviously as possible to leave no room for doubt. Students may write their answers in UPPER CASE rather than lower case if they prefer so long as they do so consistently throughout the test.

/>   vi) Speaking Speed:

  It can be very difficult to keep up with the pace of the speakers on the audio recording especially when this is an apparently authentic social conversation. In normal speech native speakers will use contractions e.g. I’m, he’s or elisions e.g. gotta, gonna and weak forms e.g. diff’rence, gen’rally etc.

  In the IELTS listening exam candidates just need to focus on picking up crucial factual details in Part 1(an information exchange between two speakers) but would have to work out more abstract academic points in Part 3 (an education-related discussion). However, on the whole, it is most important to “get the gist” of what the speakers are saying to each other rather than assume that you have to follow what they are talking about word for word.

  vii) Obscure Academic Topics:

  Candidates must recognise that an unavoidable element of the IELTS exam is the likelihood that they may have to engage with elusive and unusual subjects which may well be remote from healthcare or medicine. This can be intimidating and alienating for many students and unfortunately this is quite deliberate because the examiners are seeking to replicate the reality of academic communication especially in Listening Part 4 (an extended lecture about a particular educational subject).

  Students should not expect to be previously familiar with the kind of academic topics that may be covered during the exam and are not actually required to comprehend the content of an educational monologue in complete detail. They have to be able to follow the main theme of the lecture and distinguish different ideas or arguments at a more theoretical level than before. That doesn’t mean that they have