The IELTS English test is one of the most popular English proficiency tests worldwide. Global universities in key destinations like the UK and Australia all accept this test as proof of your English ability. Since this is a key part of your application to study abroad, acing it is an important goal!
The best approach for success is to pinpoint the strategies you need to score in each IELTS section. Then, you must focus on mastering these completely to hit and exceed your target scores. Here are our top tips to meet and exceed your target IELTS listening scores for the IELTS Academic!
Understand the Format
Understanding the structure of the IELTS English test is one of the keys to success in your English proficiency assessment. Each of the test’s sections assesses your language ability across different metrics. Understanding these metrics helps you focus your practice and answer strategically to score the most points.
The IELTS Listening section is a 30-minute section comprising four parts. Each of these parts will have ten questions, totaling 40 questions for the whole section. The IELTS Listening section always follows this sequence:
· Recording #1: A conversation or dialogue between two people in a casual and everyday setting. E.g., a customer, in person or over the phone, booking a hotel room
· Recording #2: A monologue in an everyday setting or context. E.g., A teacher breaking down the itinerary for a field trip
· Recording #3: A conversation or dialogue between two or more people in an academic setting. E.g., students discussing a project, experiment, or presentation with their lecturer
· Recording #4: A monologue, often technical, in an academic setting or context. E.g., a lecture about a specific academic topic
Understand the Key Assessment Criteria
Now, you know what to expect from the IELTS Academic Listening section – but what does the section assess? Knowing these criteria helps you understand how best to answer the questions in each of the IELTS sections. The key assessment criteria for the IELTS English test are:
· Task response
· Coherence and cohesion
· Lexical resource
· Grammatical range and accuracy
Make Use of Practice Resources
Working on each of the above skill areas helps you meet your minimum score requirements for your course subject list to study abroad! The official IELTS providers – IDP, British Council, and Cambridge University Press & Assessment – offer a range of free and premium practice resources. These let you practice official test-style questions for the whole exam or polish up specific sections and skills.
Take these tests both to understand your current scoring ability as well as to identify the areas where you will need more work. The more you practice, the better you will understand the best scoring strategies for each section of the test.
Scan the Questions First
For the IELTS Listening test specifically, one of the things that throws students off is the time limit. You have 30 minutes to complete 40 questions and each of the recordings you will hear will play only once. Don’t let this throw you off though – with practice, you will be able to make every second count to score strategically for this section.
First, before the audio starts playing, scan through the questions in each section. Remember, the IELTS Listening test has four parts with ten questions each. These questions will always appear in the same sequence as the corresponding information you will hear in the recordings. Scanning through early for keywords helps you keep an ear out for the details you need to answer these questions.
Answer as the Recording Plays
Scanning the questions ahead of time also lets you fill out your answers as the recording plays. The Listening section will not ask you to fill out or select lengthy answers. The audio will only play once and you will have minimal time between one part and the next. So, the best strategy is to fill out your answers as the recording plays. Again, while this may throw you off the first time, practice will help you get the hang of picking out the right information and answering questions as you go.
Pay Attention to the Conversation Flow
Especially for Parts 1 and 3, which will feature dialogue between two or more people, you must pay attention to how the conversation progresses. As with regular conversations, some people might misspeak or offer contradicting information, and correct themselves or each other. Alongside focusing on the key details, you must also focus on the progression of the conversation to answer questions correctly.
Stay Calm
This applies to the IELTS English test as a whole, since nerves and panic can eat up your time and impact your ability to answer questions you are capable of answering. One of the reasons we strongly recommend a ton of practice is to build up your familiarity with the test, and therefore your confidence. Once you already have a taste of what the test looks, feels, and sounds like, you feel better prepared to focus and succeed.
Rounding Up
The best approach to preparing for the Listening section of the IELTS English test is to practice – as much as you possibly can. Plenty of official resources, including audio recordings from past tests or test-accurate simulations, are available to help you here. The more exposure you have to the types of questions, accents, and audio you might encounter, the better you can prepare for test day.
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