Listening at a glance

The Listening test consists of 4 sections. There are about 38-40 questions in total. You need to answer all the questions as you listen to the tape. Tape is not paused at any time and you hear it only once. The questions get more difficult as you progress through the test

Remember, it is important that you spell correctly all of your Listening answers, not just the words they spell for you on the tape. Also, make sure that your answers are readable and understandable, when you copy them to the Answering Sheet. You may write in pencil only.

How to prepare for IELTS

Isn’t it nice to learn from mistakes of someone else :)? Well, another mistake I made in my preparation for IELTS was concentrating on just one sub-test out of four. I started to study for Writing and neglected all the other ones - Listening, Reading and Speaking.

There are reasons why a person would do what I did. Usually, people like doing things they are good at and avoid doing things they are not so good at. I was good at writing, so it was very natural for me to write essays and letters and set aside all the other difficult and “scary” subjects. Or the opposite might happen - people assume they are good in Writing and concentrate on something else that needs improvement.
There are many reasons not to do what I did. First, in many cases you are required to get nice band score in every sub-test, or at least in two sub-tests. That means you can not be satisfied with a good average, because you need a Band Score 7 in two sub-tests no matter what.
Second, when you hope for a good average while concentrating on one or two sub-tests, your chances don’t look good. All the sub-tests in IELTS have the same weight, so if you score 8 in Reading, 4 in Listening, 8 in Writing and 4 in Speaking, the average score will be 6 (simple math). If you think about it, it is quite difficult to score 8 in Reading or Writing, no matter how hard you try. That’s why studying a little bit harder for all four sub-tests makes much more sense and eventually pays off.
Finally, some real advice - divide your time to four equal (or almost equal) parts and practice in IELTS Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking without making exceptions.You can mix 2 subjects in one day, for example, practice in Reading for one hour and then in Writing for one hour. This way of studying helped me and my friends - I hope it will help you too.

Listening - a skill, not a gift!

Listening is very often your biggest problem. I know it because almost all my IELTS-taking friends had trouble there. Your Listening ability in many cases is not developed enough. But the good news is that Listening is a skill, not a gift, which means anyone can learn how to listen and understand (almost :)) every word. My friends and I came up with this technique that worked for us.

What usually happens:
You listen and hear “Blablablablabla”, which you can’t to break into words, and for that reason it makes no sense to you. There is a big difference between seeing a word printed on paper when you read and hearing it. If you saw a word, it doesn’t mean you will recognize it when you hear it. Every word you have read, you need to hear at least once.
What can be done about it:
You need to teach yourself the words
How do you do it:
When training, take a recording of the news, lecture, television program movie or an actual IELTS Listening test and work with it.
Listening Tip # 1 - use transcript.
Use an IELTS Listening test - just choose from all the links in the right sidebar. You need a test that has transcript, so I suggest Listening test # 1 (be patient, their site is slow).First try just listening, to get used to the accent. Then start working with a recording and a transcript: go over the recording, stop it every sentence and use transcript to make sure that you understand every word.
Listening Tip # 2 - repeat phrases
You can use any recording. First, listen, remember what you heard and stop the recording after each phrase. Even if you didn’t understand the phrase, play it in your head a couple of times, like a broken record “Tonight we have a special guest”, “Tonight we have a special guest”, “Tonight we have a special guest”.Then say it out loud. If you understood that phrase at first, this exercise will improve your pronunciation. If you didn’t understand the phrase for the first time, this repetition will give you more time to hear it better, break it into words and make sense out of them. And if it is still difficult, you can always rewind and hear the phrase again.

Listening: distractions

Continuing the previous post, here comes

Listening Tip # 3 - don’t let them distract you(oh boy, they are good at that! )

In Listening section of IELTS the recording “speaks” several different voices - of younger and older people, men and women. You may also hear different accents - Australian, British, American, Japanese, etc. The background noise is also different. It can be of airport, cafe-shop, street, University lecture hall, you name it. Be ready for it and don’t let it distract you - because that is exactly what they want. Ignore the noises and listen for the answers.

Of course, the accent you hear the most is British. Suggestion: when you are studying for IELTS, listen to as much British accent as you can. Where can you get it? I liked what BBC have - visit BBC site by clicking here. You can listen there to news (and read the transcript), learn the news vocabulary, learn the pronunciation, etc. Try it, you might like it.
A very good site to use for listening exercises in American English is VOA News - click here to visit it. This is how they recommend using their site:“The short sentences, limited vocabulary and slow pace of speaking make it easy to understand. It succeeds in helping people learn English in a non-traditional way. People around the world practice their listening and speaking skills by recording the programs and playing them repeatedly. Internet users can also listen to programs on the Special English Web site while reading the text.”

What you need to know about Answer Sheet

Answer Sheet is a very important piece of paper.

First of all, your score for Reading and Listening tests is calculated based on what you have written on it - only! It means that if you’ve got all the Reading/Listening test answers right but didn’t copy them from the booklet to the Answer Sheet, you score ZERO for the whole Reading/Listening test. I have read in IELTS official site that you can request later that they check your booklet for answers, but honestly - who needs the head ache?


Second, it is best that you look at it before you go to take IELTS because it has this certain structure you need to be familiar with. There are 2 sides you must fill, one for Listening and the other one for Reading answers and they look very much alike. It is very easy to mix them and start writing answers on the wrong side, so check and see what’s printed above the table with answer numbers 1-40, “IELTS Listening Answer Sheet” or “IELTS Reading Answer Sheet”.
Third, when you are training (with clock) for IELTS, you should include in your practice copying your answers to the Answer Sheet. This way you imitate the whole IELTS process better and get used to dividing your time correctly.
So here use this link to PDF file from IELTS official site, open it, go to page 8 and see for yourself what IELTS Answer Sheet looks like - click here.

Listening: The right way to answer

Continuing the previous post, here comes
Listening Tip # 4 - Answer as you listen

What I mean here is that you need to listen and write the answer at the same time.Make no mistake - it is not a very natural thing for you, so you have to practice a lot in it.The reason you have to “answer as you listen” is that you immediately forget the sentences after you have heard them. This is what stress, foreign language, constant flow of information does - it makes you forget. After hearing the third sentence you won’t be able to repeat the first. It means that when any part of Listening is over - you won’t be able to remember any of answers. So write them as you hear them, leave nothing for later.

IELTS Band Score Calculator

IELTS Band Score calculator
This nice addition is something I always wanted but never had. It converts number of correct answers in Listening or Reading sections of IELTS test to approximate Band Score. You will find it very helpful when practicing in solving IELTS exam papers; it saves you some time of calculating the exam result yourself.
But enough said - one picture is worth a million words, check it out right here.
Enjoy and tell your friends!
And now after you had the chance to check your score, here is a way to improve it:
1. Read texts from this list of sources (the passages are of Academic IELTS difficulty)
2. Practice using these Academic Reading tasks.
3. Practice using these General Training Reading texts.
4. Another bunch of Academic and General Training Reading and Listening tasks here

Lately I was thinking a lot of IELTS-Blog and what I should add to it. So far, I’ve decided to continue posting Listening tips, but if you, guys, have better ideas - please let me know.

Know your clues

The answer is usually pronounced louder and clearer, it is easier to hear and understand. If you can’t hear something clearly (because the speaker swallows words or whispers), then probably the answer is not there. Practice and you’ll learn to tell the difference
A good clue to answer is when you hear a repetition of a word, a word being spelled out (G A R F U N K E L) or a number dictated.
The following conversation is a classic example of repetition:
Mary-Joe: “These days there are many changes in our company policy”
Kathy:”Oh, what kind of changes?”
It is clear that the word “changes” is a clue of answer

Get your free IELTS samples

We can’t have too many free tasks samples, can we ? IELTS official site recently released some more free practice material.
They have added some Academic and General training reading passage and tasks, Academic and General Training writing tasks and one Speaking card for the 2-minute monologue. Too bad there are no correct answers given for the reading questions (and some listening samples would be nice to have too)!

How to get ideas for IELTS essay

You guys often ask me this question in the emails: “How do I get ideas for IELTS essay, when I don’t understand the topic?”. And you’re right, it is extremely hard to write about something you don’t understand.
So here’s what you can do to solve this problem:
Work on your vocabulary and learn new words, to make sure you will be able to understand the topic or at least take a very good guess.
Read as many IELTS essays as you can. You can find many sample essays here. Reading other people’s essays helps with the ideas, if you don’t have any of your own - “borrow” from others.
Read as much IELTS essay topics, as possible. You can find essay topics in every post in Recent exams category. Why do it? Simply because sometimes the topics repeat in future exams
Important! Don’t try to memorize essays. IELTS examiners are trained to look for memorized essays and they will disqualify your work on the spot.

IELTS in India - online registration and free books available

British Council in Pakistan has impressed me very much, I think that Pakistan IELTS candidates are very lucky. If you haven’t heard already, here is how they help people in their IELTS exam preparation:
First, you can register for the exam online and reserve a seat for the date you need. Click here for online registration.
Second, you get two free books with your registration, IELTS 6 (a set of 4 test papers from Cambridge ESOL) and Action plan for IELTS ( exam preparation advice and one full test paper). They are posted to your home and this page here explains about exam preparation.
Third, after you’ve sat for the exam, you can get your results also online, all you need to do is to choose your exam date, the city and your passport number. Click here to check your score online.

IELTS Listening tips that Phuong used to get Band 7

Doan Hung Phuong, the winner of shares his tips for success in IELTS Listening:
To succeed in the IELTS test, the key is practice. Never dream you will gain anything without any efforts. The fact is I had to do a great number of practice tests in a month before taking the real test. I did approximately one test a day, including reading and listening. Sometimes I practiced Writing and Speaking Tests at home.
Remember, you MUST do Listening, Reading and Writing Tests continually. In the real test, there will be no time for you to have a break. They officially say that you will have 5 minutes between each part, the fact this is not always so. Therefore, you must practice to cope with extremely high tension and pressure in the real test.
Practicing writing and speaking at home is not actually a good way. You need someone to check your writing and give advices in your speaking. However, I myself don’t have that advantageous condition as well, so I just simply do the test at home. Regardless of disadvantages, practicing at home will certainly help you deal will limited time and improve your organization in both writing and speaking in short times. Moreover, it also helps you get familiar with difficult questions and be well prepared for the up-coming exam.

I spent 3 months preparing for the IELTS test, 2 months to gain back basic English knowledge in English centers and 1 month to constantly do practice tests. It is the best if you have long-term plan for your exam , including improving vocabulary, revising grammar, learning and applying strategies for each type of question in IELTS test as well as improving 4 skills.
Now I will go into details about my way of studying and I think it will help your English improve:
Listening tips
This is considered to be the hardest skill to improve for most people. In reality, it is one of my weaknesses. To improve listening, you have no choice but to practice every day, practice as much as you can.
There are a lot of English channels where you can listen and try to understand what they are talking about. If you’ve got difficulty in understanding these universal channels, perhaps you need to learn more daily vocabulary and try to practice some easy listening books. The key here is just main idea. As long as you still understand what they are talking about, you will be fine. The purpose of this way is that you can familiarize with English and correct your pronunciation in basic words (the words you have known). Therefore, this is also an excellent way to prepare for speaking.
However, you MUST avoid BBC. There is absolutely nothing you can learn from BBC. If your level of English is good enough to understand BBC, you don’t need to come here and seek for advices; just do practice tests, it will save your time.
When doing Listening Practice Tests, you also have to catch the main ideas as well. However, this time you must practice listening to details too. The main ideas will help to you determine what the key words are and focus on important section. Stress and intonation are also helpful. Sometimes, a lot of unnecessary details make you confused and then you can’t catch the key words.
To sum up, the key for listening is Listen to English as much as you can.

Free IELTS Listening tests for your exam preparation

Today I have more free Listening resources for you. I’ve had several requests this week to find and publish links to some Listening practice tests. This is the list I’ve compiled, feel free to let me know if you’ve found additional resources - every little bit helps.
1. Here you will find a short listening sample (mp3) with 5 questions, the correct answers are provided too. Click here to proceed to the test.
2. This test is prepared by the British Council, and I think it’s great. On that page you will find 15 short recordings and questions, five for each recording. The beauty of the thing is that you can set the speed of the recording to fast, medium and slow, depending on your listening skills. I think that this speed-tuning option is very useful.
The answers are of multiple choice style, you have three options and need to select the correct one. To find out whether or not your answer is correct, look at the bottom of the window, it will say �Correct� or �Incorrect�. The topics are about a magazine, a camping trip, a house explosion, a robbery, a train station, banking, difficulties of having a car, helpline, post office, a language school, making a hat, making a pizza, student interview, weather report, work problems
Click here for the practice exercises.
3. Another useful piece of software is the IELTS Listening Conqueror 2.0.
It’s a program that you need to download and install on your computer (some will see this as a downside). It allows you to run 4 full listening tests for free (there are many more in the full version but it costs some money), and the transcript is displayed as you listen, sentence by sentence.
You also have the option of typing as you listen (they call it the method of dictation). The speed is adjustable and you can set the software to repeat every phrase as many times as you like. I have tried it, the quality of the recordings is not bad and the software is pretty easy to use.
The file size is 7 Mbytes, not an issue for any broadband users, people with dial-up will have to take a coffee break while the file is downloading.

Listening

IELTS Listening

Here you will find a collection of tips for IELTS Listening test

Free IELTS Listening tests for your exam preparation
IELTS Listening tips that Phuong used to get Band 7
IELTS in India - online registration and free books available
How to get ideas for IELTS essay
Get your free IELTS samples
Listening tip # 5
IELTS Band Score Calculator
Listening: The right way to answer
What you need to know about Answer Sheet
Listening: distractions
Listening - a skill, not a gift!
How to prepare for IELTS
Listening at a glance

What is IELTS exam

IELTS is International English Language Testing System. It is an exam intended for non-native English speakers. Its purpose is to find out what is your level of English (your result is a band score from 0 to 9). Usually you need to take IELTS if you are applying for a job/studies in a college or university in English-speaking country or if you are migrating to such country. There are 2 types of IELTS test - Academic and General. Academic is for future students and General is for immigrants.
The IELTS Routine
The IELTS test consists of four parts in the following order
Listening test
Reading test
Writing test
Speaking test
Listening test takes about 30 minutes - 20 minutes to listen to a tape and to answer questions on what you hear, and 10 minutes to transfer your answers to Answer Sheet.
Reading test takes 1 hour and your task is to read passages of text and answer questions according to what you have read. There are also other types of assignments which I will cover later on in following posts.
Writing test takes also 1 hour and is divided into 2 sub-parts: 20 minutes to write a letter/report and 40 minutes to write an essay.
Speaking test takes up to 15 minutes and consists of 3 parts: Personal Interview, Little Speech and a Discussion.
All the parts continue one after another, and only before the Speaking test you get a break.