Content

This is the first section of the IELTS you will have to deal with. Well, the listening part is divided into four sections, each consisting of 10 questions and each with a higher degree of difficulty. The first two sections are concerned with social needs. There is a conversion between two speakers and then a monologue. The final two sections are concerned with situations related to educational or training contexts. There is a conversation between up to four people and then a monologue.

A variety of question types is used, including: multiple choice, short - questions, sentence completion, notes/chart/table completion, labeling a diagram, classification, matching.

The main problem that you have got to deal with is that you will be allowed to listen to the cassette just once. In most cases, you have to write down something you hear (could be a phone number, an address, a name, etc.).



Number of questions

In the 30-minutes test, you will have to answer a total number of 40 questions, some of which are multiple-choice. According to us, if you get anything more than 30 answers right, it would means a good score, but at times, you may get good enough marks even with 27 or 28 right answers. Ten minutes are allowed at the end to transfer answers to the answer sheet.



Tips to crack the Listening Section

One of the best tips you can get is to keep jotting down the answers as you hear the questions on the cassette. If you wait to jot down the correct answer, it is quite likely that you won't remember the answer, as you won't get the chance to listen to the same question again. Instead, use the time between reading each question as you will be able to concentrate on the part you are interested in. As a matter of fact, you do not have to understand everything if you want a good score.

Remember, you need to understand just what answers you have to give. Also, don't waste time trying to understand everything. You will get some time to check your answers. Use this time productively by trying to write down something in all the 40 places, even if you are not sure of the correct answer. For, there is no such thing as a wrong answer.