The four parts of IELTS Listening
The Listening test takes about 30 minutes and has 40 questions in four parts. Each recording is played once only.
- Part 1: a conversation between two people about an everyday situation, such as booking a room or registering for a course. You usually complete a form or notes.
- Part 2: one speaker talking about a local facility or event, such as a tour of a museum or the layout of a park. Map and plan questions often appear here.
- Part 3: a discussion between two or three speakers in an educational setting, such as students planning a project with a tutor.
- Part 4: a lecture on an academic topic, with no break in the middle. Usually note or summary completion.
In the computer-delivered test you get two minutes at the end to check your answers. In the paper test you get ten minutes to transfer them to the answer sheet.
Accents: training your ear beyond Indian English
Most of the English you hear in Amritsar is spoken by Punjabi and Hindi speakers, on television, at college or in shops. IELTS recordings use a range of native-speaker accents, mainly British, and some students find the speed and dropped sounds difficult at first.
- British speakers often link words together: "a cup of tea" can sound like "a cuppa tea".
- They may drop the "r" after vowels: "car park" sounds like "cah pahk".
- Numbers like "thirteen" and "thirty" differ mainly in stress: thir-TEEN versus THIR-ty.
The fix is regular IELTS Listening practice with those accents. All IELTS Learning Listening sets are recorded with British voices, so your ear gets steady practice with the kind of speech you will hear in the test.
Spelling and numbers: the easy marks students lose
Many wrong answers in Listening are not misunderstanding at all; they are spelling.
- Names spelled out letter by letter. Practise the alphabet in English, especially letters that sound alike: A/E/I, G/J, B/V, M/N.
- Double letters are often said as "double L" or "double S".
- Plurals. If the speaker says "tickets", writing "ticket" is wrong.
- Common words such as "accommodation", "environment", "necessary" and "Wednesday" are misspelled surprisingly often.
- Numbers and dates. Listen for "oh" meaning zero in phone numbers, and be clear on formats such as 15th March.
Check the word limit every time. "NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER" means three words is wrong, even if the meaning is right.
Map and plan questions
Map questions in Part 2 worry many students. The key is to orient yourself before the audio starts.
- Find the starting point marked on the map, usually "You are here" or an entrance.
- Note compass directions if shown, and phrases such as "on your left as you enter".
- Follow the speaker as they move. Answers come in order, so if you miss one, move to the next instead of searching.
It may help to think of a route you know in Amritsar, such as walking from the Town Hall through Heritage Street. Describe it to yourself in English: "go straight past the statue, turn left at the end". That language is exactly what the speaker uses.
Answers follow the question order
In IELTS Listening, the answers come in the same order as the questions. This is your greatest help.
- Read ahead during the pauses to know what the next question needs.
- If you miss an answer, leave it and move on. You can guess later.
- Watch out for distractors: speakers often correct themselves, as in "the meeting is on Tuesday... actually, no, we moved it to Thursday".
Our practice sets keep the same order as the real test, so you build this habit naturally.
Practising with headphones at home
Amritsar homes are busy and rarely quiet. Use headphones for every Listening session, as you will in a computer-delivered test.
- Use comfortable over-ear or in-ear headphones with clear sound.
- Do not replay any part during timed practice.
- After each set, replay only the parts you missed and read along with the questions to hear what you misunderstood.
IELTS Listening practice on IELTS Learning
You will find 88 Listening sets covering Parts 1 to 4: forms, maps and plans, multiple choice, two- and three-speaker discussions and lectures. Scores are instant, and every wrong answer goes into your Mistake Notebook so you can see whether your problems are spelling, numbers or distractors.
As a rough guide, band 7 needs about 30 correct answers out of 40. Once you are near that level, the harder Charged sets use faster speech and more tricky distractors to push you further.
Try the free sample Listening sets on the practice tests page, or create an account to track your scores.