IELTS Listening Resources

Posted by Venture English on June 19, 2018

IELTS Listening Overview:

The IELTS Listening Exam is the very first part of the exam you will take. The IELTS listening test is divided into four sections and each section gets increasingly more difficult.
The total time for the test is 40 minutes.
The listening portion takes 30 minutes and you then will have 10 minutes to transfer your answers to an answer sheet.

Note: You only hear each section one time, you cannot pause or rewind the audio recording.

The first two sections of the exam are concerned with social needs.
The final two sections are concerned with situations related more closely to educational or training contexts.
The breakup of the exam looks like this:

Important Tips

The IELTS listening is pretty straight forward and the best way to improve your listening comprehension is to submerse yourself in English. But, for the exam there are some things you need to be aware of that can help you improve your score.

1. Spelling Matters! If you have the right answer but misspell it on the answer sheet is will be marked wrong.
2. Watch your Capitols! Do not capitalize the words on your answer sheet UNLESS it needs to be capitalized. Words such as street or building names, countries and cities and proper names have to be capitalized.
3. Pay Attention to Word Limit! The instructions in the exam are important and will tell you how many words you can use to answer a question. If your word limit is two words and your answer uses three it is wrong.
4. Grammar Matters! For fill in the blank questions your answer MUST grammatically complete the idea or sentence. For instance if the question reads "the man wanted to ______ a ______ car" then your answer will need to use first a verb (buy) and then an adjective (sports).
5. Watch your Synonyms! Just like in every other portion of the IELTS – synonyms are important. Often the question will use a synonym of the word that is actually used in the audio. Be aware of these.
6. Wait for the Full Answer! Don't get tricked. IELTS will frequently present an answer only to change it a few seconds later. The speaker might say something like, "My phone number is 55-555-55555 oh wait, that was my old number, my new number is 55-666-5566." If you started writing the first number then you might miss the second.
7. Don't leave any spaces blank! An empty answer and the wrong answer are penalized the same so you should at least guess.
8. Use the time between listening sections to preview the questions – instead of checking your answers.

Check out our Listening Resources below to help you improve your listening skill:

IELTS Listening Lessons:

IELTS Listening Practice - "Before I Die"

An IELTS Listening Practice Task based on the TED talk, "Before I Die." Listen and watch the talk and then answer questions based on what you hear and see.

IELTS Listening Practice - "How Books Can Open Your Mind"

Practice your listening comprehension by watching and listening to this short 6 minute video on the power of books from Ted.com

IELTS Listening Practice - "Traffic Jams" with the BBC

More practice for the IELTS listening portion of the exam. Join us and the BBC Learn English 6 Minute Audio Series to develop your listening comprehension and learn some new vocabulary

IELTS Listening Practice - "Voyager, Soft drinks and a Ball" with BBC

Listen to this "Words in the News" audio listening practice and take the quiz to evaluate your listening comprehension. Three short audio segments brought to you by the BBC.

IELTS Listening Practice - Transportation Museum

An IELTS Listening Practice Exercise based off McMillan's Mobile App. Listeners have to listen to a conversation to identify relevant information and answer questions.

IELTS Listening Practice - 5 Ways To Kill Your Dreams

A listening comprehension task based on the TED.com video "5 Ways to Kill Your Dreams" by Bel Pesce. This is a great lesson to increase your accent tolerance and includes the transcript and IELTS styled listening comprehension questions with answers.

IELTS Listening Practice - Download Your New Clothes

Improve your listening comprehension with this Ted Talks Video with IELTS styled multiple choice questions. Learn about the future of fashion with 3D printed garments.

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