IELTS Listening: 1882 or 1892?

Someone recently asked me about test 2, question 27 in Cambridge IELTS 7. The answer to this question is "1882 to 1883", but the student thought he heard "1892 to 1893". Students in my classes have often made the same mistake.

So, why do people hear 1892 when the speaker says 1882?

The reason is that you hear the letter 'n' at the end of '18' e.g. eightee-n-eighty-two. If the speaker is talking quickly, it might sound like the 'n' is the first letter of the number that comes after 18.

However, you should ignore this 'n' because it is simply the last letter in the word "eighteen". Instead, you need to hear the "ei" vowel sound in "eighty" instead of the "ai" sound in "ninety". For me, the difference between 1882 and 1892 is very clear, because I hear a completely different vowel sound.

Comments

[jingjing_F]

I remember that you already posted the this class long time ago.
P.S. is there anything wrong with the website? I mean in recent days when I clicked any links on the page, I have to wait for a while before the contents can show up properly.
thanks

[Pham Kim Thuy Ngan]

Thanks for that, I confused when I did this test, but now I make clear

[Jessica Zhang]

Some of my students also face the problem. They believe they have heard 1892. They would listen to the audio again and again without any stop and firmly believe what they hear. I would advise them to do something else first and listen to the audio later. \

Being obsessed with a problem for too long a time is not advisable.

[Luu]

Yep, it's easy to get wrong answer if we are at intermediate level of listening skills.

[Sarvar]

Dear Simon,
Thanks a lot for your huge efforts. I've been following this wonderful website for over a week and have learned a lot, especially how to be more clear. Hope this time I will get 7 from my writing.

I have some questions:

1. While looking through your previous posts I came across with this paragraph-
On the one hand, video games can be both entertaining and educational. Users, or gamers, are transported into virtual worlds which are often more exciting and engaging than real-life pastimes. From an educational perspective, these games encourage imagination and creativity, as well as concentration, logical thinking and problem solving, all of which are useful skills outside the gaming context. Furthermore, it has been shown that computer simulation games can improve users’ motor skills and help to prepare them for real-world tasks, such as flying a plane.

Here you listed that video games can help children to improve their imagination, creativity...problem solving ability. However, you didn't say "how". That's where I got stuck. Isn't it necessary to explain how video games encourage these skills to get band 7?

2. My second question is this:
When writing 'discuss both views and give opinion" type questions is it enough for EXAMINERS to lower one's score if the writer's position is only given in the conclusion.
By the way i did the same and got 6.5.

Thanks in advance, and I hope you will find time to answers my questions.

[Kali]

@Sarvar

Task achievement for band 7 includes: presents a clear position throughout the response; whereas Band 6 is: presents a relevant position although the conclusions may become unclear or repetitive.
It would seem that only giving your position in the conclusion could limit your TR score to 6, which if the other aspects contain a mix of 7s, and a 6, would be enough to drop your Task 2 result to 6.5. As Task 2 makes up two thirds of the overall writing score, you would then need Band 8 in Task 1 to end up with 7 overall, which is a challenge indeed.

[Sarvar]

Thanks a lot Kali. I agree with you. The next time no matter what I'll try not to surprise examiners in the conclusion.

As our "great teacher" explained millions of time, one's position should be given in thesis, one main paragraph and conclusion.

[ilkin]

I think this question is 9 Band question.