IELTS Listening could be really challenging even for native speakers! There are different accents, tough tasks and academic words to spell. To get a high score you should get used to the format, questions and use effective listening strategies.
When preparing for IELTS, write everything with a pen! This will help you to pay attention to the correct spelling of words, which is extremely important in IELTS Listening as incorrect spelling of words is a mistake in this section.
It is not necessary to understand the entire text. It is important to answer the questions. And questions are always about certain parts of the text.
Your goal is not to understand every word, but to hear and correctly write the answer to the question (or guess).
It is very important to carefully read the tasks. The task says what questions you should answer: questions 1-5 (not the 6th yet).
Carefully read and remember how many words you need to write in each gap.
30 minutes of super concentration! Do not get distracted for any second. Can you do that?
Missed one answer? Stay calm! Immediately concentrate on the next question. If you start thinking about the missed one for too long, there is a chance to miss the next answer. So, stay calm and focus on the next question.
It's okay if you haven’t heard something, there are 40 questions and you can catch the other answers.
To get 7 for Listening, you can make about 10 mistakes. So you should have 30 correct answers out of 40. To get an 8.0 - 35 correct answers.
Be prepared that the answers may be very close to each other, especially if this is a table with gaps.
The IELTS Listening test is tricky and it may happen that while you are writing down one answer here come the next one. Stay Alert!
Attention to synonyms!
Most words are paraphrased: the speaker says: Young people but in the task you have: young population; Past events - earlier life, etc.
Listen to different accents.
Be ready to understand different accents: British, Australian, New Zealand, North American, Canadian - you can hear them in the test.
Guess the Answers.
Do not leave empty spaces in the answer form. If you do not know make a wild guess.
Concentrate on each question one at a time (not 2 at once). Answer one and immediately read the next question.
Check the Spelling!
At the end of each part there are about 30 seconds to check your answers. You can use this time to read the next part of the Listening. Check spelling while transfering the answers to the Answer Sheet.
There are a lot of questions in Listening Part 4, and there is not enough time to read them thoroughly. Use 30 seconds after the 3rd part to read the 4th task and questions.
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