The IELTS Listening test

The IELTS Listening test checks how well you understand spoken English.

It looks at things like:

1. Grasping main ideas and specific details.
2. Recognizing the speaker’s opinions, attitudes, and purpose.
3. Following the development of an argument.

Test Format:
You’ll hear four recordings of people speaking English, and then you answer questions about what you heard.

1. Recording 1: A chat between two people in a casual setting.
2. Recording 2: Someone talking alone about everyday stuff, like a speech about local facilities.
3. Recording 3: A chat among up to four people, usually in an educational or training setting, like a student and teacher discussing an assignment.
4. Recording 4: A person talking alone on a more academic topic, like a university lecture.

Timing:
The test takes about 30 minutes. Afterward, you get an extra 10 minutes to transfer your answers from the question booklet to your answer sheet.

Number of Questions:
There are 40 questions in total.

Task Types:
You’ll face different kinds of questions, like multiple choice, matching, labeling diagrams, completing summaries, and more.

Scoring:
You get one mark for each correct answer. The scores, out of 40, are then converted to the IELTS 9-band scale, reported in whole and half bands.

Instructions:
Before each section, you’ll hear instructions that tell you about the situation, how many people are speaking, and what you need to do. Pay attention to these because they guide you on how to tackle the questions.

So, it’s not just about understanding English; it’s also about understanding different situations and responding in the right way. Good luck!