[0:03]Hello, my name's Liz and in this lesson I'm going to give you all the essential information and tips that you need to be successful in your IELTS listening test. We're going to start by reviewing the exam content and then we will move on and I will give you a lot of useful tips. There is only one IELTS listening test. All IELTS students take the same listening test. So if you're taking academic IELTS or general training IELTS, you all take the same test, the same questions, the same format and the same scoring. It is exactly the same for everyone. Having a look at the content of the listening test, there are four sections and there are 40 questions in total. Now, the sections, the first two sections are the easiest and they are social. That means the context, the situation is a social situation, an everyday situation. And the last two sections are more difficult. They are academic in content. Now, section one has two speakers, a social situation. Now, a typical example is a phone conversation where somebody is registering for a course. So, for example, they need to book a course and they need to know what date, they need your name, they need your address, your telephone number. Or perhaps you're booking a table at a restaurant or organizing to meet someone and you need to think of the time that you're going to meet. So it's very specific information and it is quite easy and it's quite easy to improve that section. The next one, number two, is also social, so an everyday situation, but it's only one speaker. A typical example would be a tour guide. So that it would be a tour guide explaining about a resort, so what facilities there are or the history behind the resort. Another example could be, for example, talking about an historic building or talking about a charity, a company or an organization. Section three, the academic, the first academic section, uh, that has three to four speakers. Now, this is challenging because it's a discussion, an academic discussion. Now, when you've got three to four speakers, that means you've got different voices and you have to be able to identify who is speaking and who is saying what. So that could be quite challenging. But the most difficult is section four, that is only one speaker and it is an academic lecture. The listening test takes 40 minutes in total. 30 minutes are for the audio, so that means you have 30 minutes to listen to the recording and answer the questions. At the end of the 30 minutes, you are given another 10 minutes. And that is so that you can transfer your answers from the question paper, which is where you write your answers when you're listening, to the answer sheet. Here is an example of the answer sheet for IELTS listening. Now, you can download this answer sheet, and it's very important, I think, number four for your tip is to practice using it. Before you go into your IELTS test, it's very important that you're comfortable with all parts of the test, and that includes spending 10 minutes transferring your answers from your question paper onto this answer sheet. To write your answers clearly, so that they can be easily read onto the answer sheet. Moving on to tip number five, you will hear the recording only once. It is not played again. So that means that when you have your test, you need to listen to the recording, read the questions and at the same time write down your answers. So that means at one time you are listening, reading and writing. So you really are multitasking during this listening test. It can be quite difficult and it's something that you do need to practice. Number six, many students ask me, can they use a pencil or a pen? The answer is you need to write your answers onto the answer sheet using a pencil. And that's the same as the IELTS reading test. Tip number seven, the scores are calculated by the number of correct answers you have. So there are 40 questions, there are 40 points and each time you get a correct answer, you get a point. And that is how your band scores are calculated. Let's move on to tip number eight. Tip number eight, you can write your answers in capital letters or lower case. You can choose, but whichever one you choose, you must stay with that choice. If you're taking academic IELTS or general training IELTS, you all take the same test, the same questions, the same format and the same scoring.
[5:58]Now, capital letters means every single letter is written as a capital. There is no difference at all. But if you're using lower case, you need to remember that some words start with a capital letter. So, for example, names or places will start with a capital letter. So make sure if you do decide to use lower case, that you remember your capital letters at the start of your answers for names and places. Tip number nine, if you look at your question paper, it will always tell you how many words you need for the answer. It will give you a rule, for example, no more than two words and or a number. These instructions you've got to pay attention. Every time you get a new type of question, that might change. So you must always look how many words can I have for these answers and when I move further down the page, how many words has it changed? Underline it quickly so that you don't forget. Now, many students get confused about what it means, so let me explain. We've got no more than two words, so that means we cannot have three. No more than two words and or a number. So that means we can have two words and a number, or we can have just a number. So let's have a look at the options so that you understand more clearly. You could have one word. You could have two words, but not three. You could have two words and a number. Or you could have just a number. Now, be very careful with the instructions because you can see here it says, a number. Sometimes it says and or numbers. And if that's plural, it means you might have two numbers. So make sure you pay attention to the instructions very closely. Many students ask me about number 10, of which is, should we use prepositions? Should we write hospital or the hospital or at the hospital? What should we write for the answer? Well, it depends on the type of question you have. I will show you later in this video that there are many different types of questions. Form completion, sentence completion, note completion, summary completion and each of them are a little bit different. Now, you can see here, this is an example of a question from a form. They tell you the type of information they want, and you write your answer here. And it can be just one word. So, it would be possible to write just hospital. But if we look at this example, you can see it's a sentence. And that means when we fill in the answer here, the sentence must be grammatically correct because we are completing the sentence. So here we would say the best place to meet is at the hospital, and that would be three words. So you need to look at the type of question, are you just making notes, or are you completing sentences? Number 11, all words are counted even if they are small words. So, for example, a holiday, that is two words. That's the same for reading and writing. And of course, this 1950, that would be considered as one number. Number 12, this is important, spelling. If you spell a word incorrectly, it will be marked wrong. So that means that of course when you're listening, you don't have time to think about spelling. But in listening, you have 10 minutes at the end of your test to transfer your answers to the answer sheet. That is the time for you to pay attention to spelling. Pay attention to your spelling and capital letters, check the grammar. Use the 10 minutes for transferring answers wisely. Number 13, should you write words or letters on your answer sheet? Now, that's very important. You can see here we need to write a word or here we need to complete the sentence with one or more words. But if it's a multiple choice, that's different. The instructions tell you to choose the correct letter. So that means we've got a spring, B summer, or C winter. Now, when we choose our answer, for example, B, we need to write B on the answer sheet. If you write summer on the answer sheet, it is marked wrong. So although you have the correct answer really, you have written the wrong answer on your answer sheet because you needed to write the letter. So make sure you read the instructions, the instructions will tell you if you're going to write a letter or a word. And again, that is the same as IELTS reading. Let's move on to number 14. One of the most important tips to help you prepare for your IELTS listening test is to learn about the types of questions that you will get in IELTS listening. There are quite a lot, as you can see, of different types of questions, and you need to practice each type of question. When you get in your listening test and you go to the question, you have enough time to read the question and answers. But you don't have enough time to try to understand what to do, if you've never seen that type of question before. So knowing and having a strategy, a technique for each type of question is important for your IELTS listening test. Now, one of the most difficult types of questions is the multiple choice. That's often where you have A, B or C to choose from. But multiple choice could also be a very long list, for example, eight options and you need to answer three questions relating to all those eight options. Or the multiple choice might be a choice of people's names. Do you remember in section three, there are three or four speakers. So you might have to match the name of the person with the information. So there are different kinds of multiple choice. There's also map completion, and that's when you're given the map of a town or some streets. It might also be a building plan. So that's when you've got all the rooms in a building that you have to label and complete. It could be diagram labeling. So you've got a diagram and your answers relate to parts of that diagram. You could have a form completion, that's very common in section one, or note completion. That's very common in section four. You could have flow chart completion, sentence completion, that's a very common type of question, summary completion. That's a little bit similar, except this is more like a small paragraph that you need to complete. We also have short answer questions. So these are questions that might need one word answers, two word answers or three word answers. And of course table completion as well. So there's a lot of different types of questions that you need to practice. If you want to have practice with these question types, then you can get a book of practice tests, or you can visit my blog where I have free practice lessons using many of these types of questions.
[14:36]Now let's have a look at number 15. Number 15, don't try to understand everything. The aim in IELTS for listening and reading is to find answers to questions. A correct answer is one point. All you want are answers. You are not aiming to understand everything. So you need to look at your question, try to think of what type of answer you're looking for, listen for that answer. There will be a lot of extra information given in the recordings and you need to just relax and focus on the answers that you're looking for. Number 16, this is an important tip. You need to prepare your answers and questions. Now, before you listen to the recording, you will hear a message and it will say to you, you now have time to prepare questions one to five. That means that you will have time to prepare and read questions one, two, three, four and five. Then you will listen to it, and after you will have a chance to prepare question six, seven, eight and nine. So you're always given time to prepare, but it's not long. So you do need to train yourself to prepare questions quickly. Now, let's have a look at this one. This is a sentence completion. Now, the first thing I would do is I would underline this, the town square. Of course, I'm going to hear those words. That's the main content and those words will help me to find my answer. I will also pay attention that built is a verb that is very easy to paraphrase, for example, construct. So the town the town square was constructed by. So I can see that immediately because I've done lots of practice and it's a word I'm familiar with. Another keyword would be this one, by. When you see a preposition, you often have a good idea what type of answer you need to complete the sentence. For this one, obviously, it's probably going to be a person. The town square was built by someone, but be careful because IELTS is testing your English. And by could be a person, it could also be an organization. It could be a group of people, so for example, the town square was built by local craftsmen. So it might not be the name of a person. But you can see very quickly that I identified three keywords. One, because I know I will hear those words, that's the main content. Two, because that could be paraphrased and three, it tells me what type of answer I need. So that is how you prepare your questions. Tip 17, answers can come quickly. So be prepared for that. The answers do not come at regular intervals. You could get suddenly three answers coming together. That means you need to keep your eye on the next question. So don't just look at the question that you're looking for. Keep your eye on the other questions coming, so you can move quickly to the next question and you don't lose time, you don't get lost. Now, because the answers come quickly, you don't always have time to write long words. If the answer is university bookshop, you might want to just make a note. If it was University Bookshop, I would do this. I would write that on my question paper. And then when I transfer my answers to the answer sheet, I would write the full words, which is University Bookshop. So making notes is very useful. You should also make notes of possible answers because maybe you're going to miss one. You can write all over your question paper, the examiner will never see it. So make notes on your question paper, write down the short version of the word if you need to, and transfer correctly to your answer sheet. Tip number 20, there may be a gap between answers. So here we have answers coming quickly, but also there could be a gap. And this is when students start to panic. They're listening and waiting, and waiting, and there's no answer, and the recording is going and going and they get very nervous. That's the reason it's important to underline your keywords because then you know that you need to wait for these words to come. So don't panic. You need to be calm and keep listening, keep your eye on the next question, make notes while you're listening and be prepared for any gaps between answers. So, let's move on now, tip 21. Common traps. These are ways that IELTS really try to test your understanding and your vocabulary. Now, I'll give an example of a common trap. This is when the answers are given, so for example, shall we meet at 7 o'clock? Yes, definitely.Let's meet at seven. So, we've got the answer 7 o'clock, but then it's changed. And the speaker says, oh, actually, sorry, how about half past? So, suddenly, instead of the answer being seven, it is now 7:30. So, when you listen and you hear your answer, obviously, you can make a note of the answer. But keep listening because that answer might be changed. So, be careful with that. And another type of trap is when you have the same words in the question and the same words in the recording. So, of course, people immediately think, oh, this is my answer. But actually that could be a trap because usually I will use paraphrasing rather than using the exact same words completely. So always be a little bit suspicious when you hear all the same words. If you want to have practice with common traps, then visit my blog. I've got lots of practice exercises with these types of traps and it will help you to practice for that. Number 22, repeated answers. If you look, for example, at section three, this is when we've got three or four people having a discussion. And of course when you are discussing something, people might say, is this what you mean? Do you mean this? And the answer could be repeated again. And that can help you to locate the answer. Number 23, very important. Now, IELTS is a listening test and they know that many foreign language speakers struggle to hear plurals. So you need to pay attention, does that word have an S on the end or not? Now, if you have a sentence completion, sometimes you can see in the grammar that you need a plural answer. So just take a look, but keep your ears open for those plurals. Now, it's time for me to give you a breakdown of the scoring, and I will give you the scores for band score five, six, seven and eight. The scoring. Now, you can see here we've got the band scores. You've got 5.5, 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5. And you can see here these are the number of correct answers that you need to get the band score. So if you're looking for band score seven, you will need to get 30 or 31 answers correct. And to get 7.5, you need 32, 33 or 34 answers correct to get band score 7.5. So what you can see is it is all about the number of correct answers. So tip number 24 is, if you don't know the answer, guess! Write something on your answer sheet. Don't leave an empty space. Because if your answer is wrong, it will not affect your band score. You don't lose a point if your answer's wrong. So always guess if you don't know. I'll give you a link at the end of the lesson so that you can get all the scoring for all the band scores. Now let's move on to tip number 25. Let's look at the final tips. Uh the first one is to listen to the example that is given at the beginning of your listening test. So before section one truly begins, you have a chance to listen to an example and see an example answer. You should use that time to get used to the speaker's voices because that will help you understand what they're going to say. This example is only given at the start of section one, not at the start of section two, three or four. So use the time effectively and listen carefully to the example. Now the accents that come in the IELTS listening test. Of course there will be a lot of British English accent and Australian accent as well. But IELTS is an international English language test. So that means there will be a range of accents. So when you practice for your listening test, make sure you practice listening to different types of accents. Now the next one, this is quite important. You will often find titles on your question paper. And those titles are very useful because it helps you prepare for the topic that's coming. So if you have a diagram completion, map completion, table completion questions, have a look for the title. Read it, underline it. Very useful. The next one, and this is very important, check where all the questions are. Now IELTS will say, you now have time to prepare for questions one to question seven. So that means you know that you're going to get seven questions. Make sure you check where the seven questions are because I have seen students who only prepared six questions because they didn't realize that question seven was on the other side of the paper. So make sure that your questions are on one side or maybe you need to turn over and look at the next page as well. So always check that. The next one, if you miss an answer, move quickly to the next question. That's very important. You don't have a chance to catch up if you lose your place in the IELTS listening test, because you only listen once to the recording. So keeping your place in the recording is very important. So if you miss an answer, don't worry about it, forget it, move directly to the next question. Another one, and this is very useful for section three and section four. And that is that technical and academic language is often not paraphrased. Now, not all words, but often they are not paraphrased. So if you see a very complicated word or a technical word, then that can be useful for you. Don't be scared of that language. And it can be useful because it might not be paraphrased. And that means when you hear it, you know what question you're on and you can keep your place. Let's have a look at some more final tips. This is a very important tip. For your answer, you need to write the words that you hear. Now, here's an example of something you might hear in the recording. Children must be accompanied by an adult at all times. And here is a question, so number 26. No children are allowed without and you need to fill in the gap, you need to complete the sentence. Now, here are two answers. No children are allowed without an accompanying adult or no children are allowed without an adult. Now, if we look here, we have to be accompanied by an adult. So it is true that children must have an accompanying adult. But that is not what the recording actually says word for word. The meaning is correct, but the wording is not. So this answer would be considered wrong. You can't change and reformulate the words, but to write what you hear. So the answer would have to be an adult. So be very careful not to reformulate the words, but to write what you hear. The final tips. This is important. Make sure that your headphones are working properly. Now, you remember I told you at the beginning of section one, there is an example played. And you can use that to also check that your headphones are working properly before the answers start coming. If your test center doesn't use headphones for the listening test and if the recording is played to the whole room, you can check the volume is all right for you. If there is a problem with the headphones or the volume, then you can put your hand up and a test invigilator will come to you and you can get the problem fixed. Now, finally, of course, the biggest problem that people have is concentration. You need to really concentrate for the IELTS listening test. If you lose focus at any time, you can not only miss an answer, but you can lose your place in the IELTS listening test. And then it's very difficult to locate the following answers. So you need to practice building your concentration before you go into your test. Now, if you found this video useful, please press like, and now it's time for me to give you some more useful links for IELTS listening.
