This lesson will teach you 3 important IELTS listening strategies. They are:
| 1) Question analysis 2) Answer prediction3) Keyword clues |
Taking the time to learn and practice them will make answering Listening questions a lot easier and undoubtedly increase your score.
1) Question Analysis
The listening test contains four recordings. Before listening to each of them you will be given time (around 20-35 seconds) to read the questions they relate to.
Use this time well. It might not sound very long but it’s long enough to do the important preparation work that will enable you to complete the questions successfully.
When analysing the questions, there are 3 key things to note:
| a) Which section of the test are they in? b) What type of questions are they?c) What sort of information do you need to listen for? |
These will all give you valuable clues to understanding the audio recording and identifying the correct answers.
a) Test sections
There are 4 parts or sections to the IELTS Listening test.
Section 1 – A conversation between two people set in an everyday social context (e.g. booking tickets to the theatre).
Section 2 – A monologue set in an everyday social context (e.g. a welcome talk for new college students).
Section 3 – A conversation between up to four people set in an educational or training context (e.g. a group of students discussing a university assignment).
Section 4 – A monologue on an academic subject (e.g. a lecture on wildlife).
If you memorise these, you will know the general context of each audio before it plays and how many people will be talking – one (a monologue), two people in conversation or a group conversation.
This might not seem especially important to know but any clues you have as to what you will be listening to will be helpful. This information will also help you to be better prepared mentally for the test which will reduce your stress level and enable you to think more clearly and listen more effectively.
b) Question types
The next part of this first IELTS listening strategy concerns question types.
You will be asked a variety of different types of questions selected from this list. Most types could appear in any of the four sections of the test.
- Sentence completion
- Summary completion
- Short answer questions
- Map & plan labelling
- Diagram & flowchart completion
You must be able to quickly identify what types of questions you are required to answer. Sometimes the introduction will tell you or it will be obvious, e.g. it’s a plan or map that requires labels. Other times, you will have to look more closely to decide.
As with everything, you will master this with practice.
c) What sort of information do you need to listen for?
Knowing the type of question will help you to predict the sort of information you need to listen out for.
I’ll say more about this in the second of our IELTS listening strategies. I also go into this topic in depth in the lessons on each of the questions types.
Click the links above or at the bottom of the page to see these lessons.
