IELTS Tips

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IELTS Listening Test – Using the breaks well

1 Comment / IELTS Tips

In the IELTS listening test a neat trick is to use the breaks well.

The test guidelines advise you:

“You will be given time to read through the questions before you listen. You will hear each recording of the Listening test only once. As you listen, write your answers on the question paper. At the end of the test, you will have 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the answer sheet in pencil.” Source IDP British Council 

Tip 1: Use extra time wisely.

When you are familiar with these instructions, you can use the additional time focusing on the the first exercise. 

Tip 2: Understand the main topic and make some guesses

With time given before each section, be sure to get the gist of what the speaker(s) will be talking about.  Here’s some steps you can take before each listening section begins:

  1. Scan and read information to understand the main topic
  2. Make guesses of what kind of answers are expected.  For example, ask yourself if you need to listen for a telephone number, a name of a person, title of a book, a price.
  3. Also determine what grammatical structure the missing information will be, ie. a verb, noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb or prepositional phrase
Tip 3:  If you have extra time at the end of the section, focus on the next section

Having extra time is great. Use it wisely by reading the next section before it starts.

Tip 4:  Be careful! You will only hear each section once.
  
The next skill that needs to be developed is an awareness of the basic rhythm or flow of topic questions and answers.  Sometimes, you might miss out on waiting for an answer when actually the speakers have already provided it and moved on.
 
So what should you do?  If you feel you may have been waiting too long for an answer, turn your eyes quickly to the next question. Has the speaker already started speaking about this next question topic? If so, be sure to “let go”. Stop being fixated on the one you missed. Transfer your concentration onto the next.  Otherwise, you could risk missing out not just on one point but two or three.  
 
Afterwards, when you have time to transfer your answers at the end of the test, the answer to the one you missed might pop in your mind after having heard the whole discussion. This problem is more likely to happen before a page turn. So be on your guard.
 

Tip 5: Check your answers and don’t forget spelling counts.

 You will have 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the answer sheet.  Be sure to use this time to make guesses for answers that you may have left blank.  And check grammar and spelling.
 
When transferring your answers to the answer key, pay attention. Make sure you put your answers in the right spot.  Not answering 1 question may lead you to filling in your answers in the wrong spot.  It’s best to put something in than nothing at all for this reason.  Again – trust your gut and make a guess.
 

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IELTS Listening free exercise medical students

IELTS Listening – online videos are your unlimited listening resource

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In our opinion, online videos are your unlimited listening resource, they are fantastic for any student learning a language or preparing for a test.

They even help the teachers, many of which will admit to using a TED talk video or three in their lessons.

If you want to improve your listening and discover new vocabulary, there’s no end to the practice that you can do. 

The Boston School teachers usually suggest to students to think about:

Choice of video, try to avoid music or gaming tips when you make your choices

We know, we sound like your parents, sorry but we do.

The latest music or gaming video may help you learn a few new words, unfortunately a good number of them will not be part of any English listening test or formal examination yet.

There is nothing wrong with this approach, you do tune your ear to listen to English but it is an informal way of learning.

A better way would be to choose a topic you are interested in, Canadian ice hockey legends, yoga and wellness, the environment and micro plastics as an issue or another topic area that you find interesting.

It extends your vocabulary, you will start writing a few words down on the first videos and then by the 6th or 7th, you will note just the “new words.”

Short videos ( 3 – 5 minutes)

We often use short videos in our lessons, first to run through and then to replay and watch twice or three times.

You can quickly absorb the vocabulary and key learning phrases or words from it. If you want a challenge, try to find a video of less than 2 minutes long, try to watch it and then write the script whilst aiming to understand every word.

This is really good practice for the IELTS listening test, however there are a few you need to apply a quality filter on, like this one which we think would be near impossible.

Longer videos and even movies

A video of 5 to 30 minutes can be found very easily on YouTube and elsewhere, including movies for free.

The benefit of the longer videos or films is that you will not understand every word or phrase, especially if the actors speak with an accent similar to these English ones.

It is good practice in the same way as the short videos to note down only the most useful words or phrases that you hear.

Please take a few minutes to let us know your thoughts or film, or video suggestions, your comment can help other IELTS and English learners.

Why not read about when Rose met the Gabe Polsky, Film Director of Red Army ( it is not a movie we think you have seen)

 

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