Exam Prep — IELTS & TCF Canada

In this guide, you'll take a free IELTS listening test and get a full IELTS listening score analysis. You'll prepare with over 125 IELTS listening practice tests, lessons, tips, and video answer explanations. Following our personalized study plan, you'll achieve your target IELTS listening band score. Get a free IELTS listening score analyses and personalized study plan after completing a free IELTS listening practice test. play_circle_outline Start IELTS Listening Practice TestThe remainder of this guide will teach you everything about the IELTS listening test. You'll learn about how the listening score is calculated, learn how to answer each listening question type successfully to improve your IELTS listening band score, and learn our tested 3-step process to help you study IELTS listening tests online. The IELTS Listening Test is divided into 4 sections. In each section, you will listen to one or more native English speakers then answer around 10 questions related to what you just heard. The entire IELTS listening section contains 40 questions in total. In general, the listening recordings start off easier and get harder as you progress through the exam. Each recording is heard only once and includes a range of accents, including British, Australian, New Zealand, American, and Canadian. The IELTS Listening Test takes around 40 minutes. You will spend 30 minutes on listening to recordings and answering questions. You will be given a Question Booklet and an Answer Sheet. The Question Booklet is where you will see all the questions you need to answer. The Answer Sheet is where you will write your final answers for grading. You can check out the IELTS official listening answer sheet pdf here or just look at the image below :) At the end of the listening section, you are given 10 minutes to transfer answers from your Question Booklet to your Answer Sheet. IMPORTANT! Misspellings and incorrect grammar are marked INCORRECT, so use the 10 minutes to double check your spelling and Grammar. On the Listening section, each question is worth 1 point, so you can achieve a "raw" score of up to 40 points. Then, your raw score will be converted into your band score. Remember! You do not lose points for incorrect answers. The table below can give you a general idea about how raw scores are converted to band scores. Because each version of the IELTS is slightly different, the raw score required to achieve a certain band score differs depending on how everyone who took the test performed that day. Thus, the number of correct answers needed to get a band score will vary slightly from test to test, but in general you should be aiming to get around 30 out of 40 if you want to get a band score of 7. As noted above, the sections get tougher and tougher as you progress through the IELTS listening test. However, every question is worth the same number of points. Therefore, make sure you're not losing out on easier points because you get stuck on hard questions. Here are some free IELTS listening samples in PDF format with answers from the British Council (the makers of the IELTS exam). Try to answer the questions and see how you do! How did you do answering the IELTS listening sample questions above? Did you find any of the questions difficult? If you did, it could benefit you to take a closer look at all 6 IELTS listening task types. The better you understand a task type, the less effort you'll need figuring out what you need to do and the more time you'll have to figure out the answer. There are 6 different types of questions on the IELTS listening test. It is important you practice each task type to learn the best way to tackle each one for a high IELTS listening score. In the following sections, you'll learn about all 6 IELTS listening task types and try a sample question for each one. Before we talk about each task type in detail, let's look at a 2017 trend for IELTS listening question types. The pie charts below illustrate the proportion of each listening task type that appeared in official IELTS listening tests in 2017. Overall, the "Form/Note/Table/Flow-Chart/Summary Completion" type of question remain the most popular question type in section 1, whereas 4 question types ("Matching", "Multiple choice", "Plan/Map/Diagram labelling", and "Form/Note/Table/Flow-Chart/Summary Completion") appeared relatively equally in section 2. In section 3, "Multiple Choice" question type was the most common at 36%, with "Form / Note / Summary / Sentence Completion" question type a close second with 34%. Finally, "Matching" question type accounted for 22% and other question types accounted for 8%. In section 4, "Form / Note / Summary / Sentence Completion" question type predominates with 66%, and other question types combined for 34% in total. Although each listening question type looks different, the basic approach to each one is the same. Later on in this post, we'll show you the basic strategy to tackle all 6 question types. Now let's look at each task type in detail. This task type requires you to complete a sentence with a short answer. The sentence will almost always be a paraphrase of something you'll hear in the passage. In other words, don't expect to hear a speaker say the exact sentence as it's written in the question. You must read the instructions very carefully. For example, if the instruction says NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS, you will be penalised for writing more than TWO words. The answer can be one word, but will never be more than two. In a matching task, you are required to match a numbered list of items from the listening text to a set of options on the question paper. This task requires you to listen for detailed information and recognise relationships and connections between facts in the listening text. For example, you need to identify the different types of hotels or guest house accommodations. It is important to analyze these questions before listening to the passage so that you understand the category of the lettered answer choices. In this task type, you are required to complete labels on a plan (eg of a building), map (eg of part of a town) or diagram (e.g. of a piece of equipment). The answers are usually selected from a list on the question paper. This task type appears in all sections, but mostly in section 2. In section 2, you will listen to one speaker talking about common daily situation. For example, You might have to listen to the speaker giving a tour or describing a proposed site to investors. In this task type, you will be given a form, a set of notes, a table, a summary, or a flow-chart and you will need to fill in the missing information based on the listening passage. You may have to select their answers from a list on the question paper or identify the missing words from the recording, making sure to keep to the word limit stated in the instructions. You must read the instructions very carefully. For example, if the instruction says ‘NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS', you will be penalised for writing more than two words. In a multiple choice task, there is a question followed by three possible answers, or the beginning of a sentence followed by three possible ways to complete the sentence. You must answer with LETTERS (A, B, or C) on your Answer Sheet. Don't write the answer choice word(s! Sometimes you are given a longer list of possible answers and told to choose more than one. In this case, you should read the question carefully and check how many answers are required. Short answer questions require you to read a question and then write a short answer using information from the listening text. You will probably be given a limit, for example, 'No more than two words'. If you write more words than the instructions tell you to, your answer will be marked as incorrect. Very often, you will have to find detailed information related to some category. For example, you might get a question like this: What TWO factors can make social contact in a foreign country difficult? Although each IELTS listening question (task) type is different, the basic approach to each one is the same. You can tackle all task types by using one simple, step-by-step strategy. Here are the three steps that we recommend you use to approach Listening question types: On the IELTS Listening section, you'll be given a brief preparation time (30-40 seconds) before the recording starts. This is your opportunity to take a look at the questions you'll need to answer, which is exactly what the first step in this strategy is all about. Rather than use this time to take a break, or to check your answers, you will focus on learning as much as you possibly can about the questions ahead. Taking this step is important to avoid the mistake of multitasking while listening to the speaker and trying to read the questions for the first time. When your preparation time begins, first make the best possible use of this time by examining the questions to find out more about them. These are some of the pieces of information you should be looking for when examining each of the IELTS Listening questions: One example could be a Note Completion question type, like this: First, you can underline some of the keywords in the question. Two reasons for the new approach to pricing are changes in (27) ______ and (28) _________ programs. In this example, listening for the key phrase "two reasons" that you had already underlined allows you to begin paying close attention at the right moment. Here is the part of the audio script that reveals the answer: After having examined the questions, you would know that "the law" and "computer" were the correct response here based on some keywords and knowing the question type. The second step in this strategy to succeed on the IELTS Listening section is very closely related to the first. In fact, you should attempt to complete both of these steps within the same 20 second preparation time before the recording starts. While this may seem like a difficult task to do in such a short amount of time, remember that these steps are actually linked to one another. To predict potential answers to the Listening questions, you will first need to have completed step one by examining the questions closely. At this point, you should know what kind of question you are looking at, what potential answers will look like, as well as which keywords will be of assistance in locating the answers quickly. To predict answers, you will combine all of this information and make a guess about what kind of answer you expect to hear. Let's revisit the same Note Completion example question from above. Two reasons for the new approach to pricing are changes in (27) and (28) programs. Just by looking at the grammar of this sentence allows you to identify what part of speech the answer will be. In this case, the preposition "in" precedes both of the potential answers. Grammatically, only nouns or noun phrases can be used this way in prepositional phrases. Not only can you predict, correctly, that the answer will be a noun or noun phrase, but it would also be possible to predict that the answer could be something related to policy or government (law), and a word that can appear with programs (computer) based on context. Although it's impossible to guess the exact correct answer based on predictions alone, by making an attempt to imagine what the answer might be, you are more likely to listen for relevant information while ignoring irrelevant information. Predicting potential answers before the recording begins will prepare your ear, getting you one step closer to the correct answer. Now, try putting Step 1 (examine questions) and Step 2 (predict potential answers) together in a more difficult multiple choice example question. Although there isn't a way to know the answers to these questions for sure, you can still use the information found in these questions to predict potential answers and target your listening. For example, question 24 concerns the reason why theatre ticket prices will be the lowest, so you will want to listen closely for any of those reasons mentioned. Bear in mind, it's possible that more than one will be mentioned. Take a look at the script below to see how prediction can help you eliminate wrong answers. Notice how three of the potential answers are mentioned, "booked for groups", "are for weekend shows" and "are non-refundable." However, the correct answer is C "are non-refundable" because it is mentioned as cheaper separately from the other two, which are simply listed together. Once the recording starts and the actual listening part of the test begins, you should follow along to complete step three of this IELTS Listening section strategy. Following along requires you to focus closely on what you are hearing, while at the same time keeping track of which question the content may be addressing. The questions on the IELTS Listening exam section will usually appear in order of where their answers can be found in the content of the recording. This gives you an advantage in the test, because it means that once you have heard the answer to one question, you will immediately turn your attention to the next one in order. If you are able to follow along successfully by matching the context from the questions to what you are hearing in the recording, you will stay on track and avoid missing key information necessary to answer each of the questions. Doing this is easier said than done, however. You will need to multitask by listening while simultaneously keeping your eye on the next question. If you do, in fact, miss the answer to a question, you will know when you hear the answer to a later one. Even though this can be confusing and even frustrating, missing one answer and being aware of it is still preferable to getting completely lost in the content and missing even more of the answers. In the scenario of missing a question, you should simply leave it, and continue onto the next one. At the end, you will have to make your best guess about the question you missed. However, on the bright side, it's possible that listening to the recording in its entirety may provide you with other contextual clues and allow you to answer any questions you missed more accurately. You'll need strong listening skills to get a high band IELTS listening score. Because of this, it's important you train consistently every day until test day. Below are some resources you can use to train and maintain your listening skills daily.

IELTS® Listening Practice Test - Free IELTS Listening Samples | BestMyTest