IELTS Simon

IELTS Listening Advice: just practise!

In my reading lessons I tend to give lots of advice about exam technique. By contrast, my main advice for the listening test is simple: just practise more!

For example, if you find listening section 4 difficult, I doubt that this is because of an 'exam technique' problem. It's probably because the speaker gives a lot of information quite quickly, and your brain isn't quick enough (yet) to keep up with what you hear. There's no technique that will help this "ear to brain" relationship. It's just a matter of practice and exposure to the language.

IELTS Listening: multiple choice exercise

Listen to the recording about study skills, and answer the questions below.

Click here to listen

What are the TWO main reasons why students have trouble remembering information for tests?

A) stress
B) nerves
C) lack of time in the test
D) lack of planning
E) lack of preparation

Which TWO relaxation techniques are NOT recommended by the speaker?

A) breathing deeply
B) counting backwards
C) closing your eyes
D) visualising a relaxing image
E) counting slowly

Which TWO habits can parents help their children with?

A) eating properly and getting enough sleep
B) organising their study schedules
C) buying the right study guide
D) breaking the exam down
E) cramming

IELTS Listening: note the good vocabulary

When you listen to English, remember that it's a good opportunity to improve your vocabulary knowledge. For example, did you note down the following vocabulary from last week's exercise?

• apply for a PhD
  (apply for a course, apply to a university)
• curiosity, stamina and dedication
• academic credentials
• a passion for study
• independent work
• have expertise in something (= be an expert in)
• area of interest
• chosen field
• related to your field
• make contact with
• be involved in

IELTS Listening: gap-fill about PhD applications

Listen to the following short recording about PhD applications.

Click here to listen

(Source: University of Kent on YouTube)

Fill each gap in the summary below with one word only.

If you’re thinking of applying for a PhD, you’ll need curiosity, ______ and dedication. You also need good academic ______, such as a first class or 2.1 honours degree. You need a ______ for study and for ______ work, and you need to be motivated.

It’s important that you find a ______ who has expertise in your area of interest, and so you should look at some of the key ______ in your chosen field. Find someone who is doing research related to your field, and make ______ with them. They will be involved in your ______ as it develops.

IELTS Listening: how much listening do you do?

How much time did you spend listening to English speakers today? What about yesterday, and the day before?

Maybe, starting tomorrow, you could increase the amount of time that you spend listening to English. Any type of listening practice will help, so I'm not suggesting that you do more IELTS tests. Just watch something interesting on YouTube or listen to a news broadcast - anything to increase your daily listening time.

IELTS Listening: listen for similar keywords

When listening to the recording, you won't always hear the exact words that you see in the questions. You'll need to listen for similar keywords.

For example, here's a table showing keywords for a multiple choice exercise (Cambridge IELTS 13, test 4, questions 11 to 16):

IELTS Listening: multiple choice 'tricks'

Here are two questions that confused some of my students (taken from Official IELTS Practice Materials 2). What are the answers? Can you see why some of my students were 'tricked' into putting the wrong answers?

1. Why does Marco's tutor advise him avoid the Team Management course?

A) It will repeat work that Marco has already done.
B) It is intended for students at a lower level than Marco.
C) It may take too much time to do well.

2. Why does Marco want to do a dissertation?

A) He thinks it will help his future career.
B) He would like to do a detailed study.
C) He has already done some work for it

This is what you hear on the recording:

Tutor: The trouble is that because of changes in the content of various courses, Team Management overlaps with the Introduction to Management course you took in your first year. So what you'd learn from it would be too little for the amount of time you'd have to spend on it.

Marco: I'll drop that idea then. Have you had a chance to look at the outline of my finance dissertation?

Tutor: Yes. Why exactly do you want to write a dissertation?

Marco: Well, I'm quite prepared to do the extra work, because I'm keen to investigate something in depth, instead of just skating across the surface. I realise that a broader knowledge base may be more useful to my career, but I'm really keen to do this.

IELTS Listening: gap-fill practice

Listen to the following introduction to a series of lectures about food.

Click here to listen

Fill the gaps below with no more than TWO words.

IELTS Listening: difficult vocabulary

My students found the following two questions difficult, mainly because of some of the vocabulary used by the speaker.

1. Joanna concentrated on women performers because

A) women are more influenced by fashion.
B) women's dress has led to more controversy.
C) women's code of dress is less strict than men's.

2. Frost's article suggests that in popular music, women's dress is affected by

A) their wish to be taken seriously.
B) their tendency to copy each other.
C) their reaction to the masculine nature of the music.

Here's a transcript of the recording:

You only had women performers in your study. Was that because male musicians are less worried about fashion?

I think a lot of the men are very much influenced by fashion, but in social terms the choices they have are more limited... they'd really upset audiences if they strayed away from quite narrow boundaries.

Frost points out that a lot of female singers and musicians in popular music tend to dress down in performances, and wear less feminine clothes, like jeans instead of skirts, and he suggests this is because otherwise they'd just be discounted as trivial.

Tasks:
Which answer would you choose for each question? Can you explain the meaning of the words that I've underlined above?

IELTS Listening Advice: podcasts and audiobooks

Just a quick question today on the topic of study habits: Do you listen to podcasts and/or audiobooks in English? (I'm not asking about IELTS-specific materials)

Think about how much listening you do in your own language each day. Maybe podcasts, audiobooks and other online resources can help you to get closer to this amount of English listening practice.

IELTS Listening: gap-fill

Listen to the recording and fill the gaps in the summary below.

Click here to listen

How to listen to people effectively

We can use the word listen to remind ourselves of the key skills of ______ listening.

‘L’ stands for ‘look’. Look at the person as they are speaking to you, and ______ them with good eye contact. ‘I’ stands for ‘inquire’. Use open, ______ questions to show interest in the person and what they are saying. ‘S’ reminds you to ‘______’ your understanding of what the other person is saying.

T’ means ‘take notes’, and ‘E’ means ‘encourage’: smile, ______ and use ______ to encourage them to say more. ‘N’ means ‘neutralise your feelings’: stay ______, avoid ______, and think about the content that the person is trying to ______ ______ to you.

IELTS Listening: example using audioscripts

How often do you use the 'audioscripts' at the back of the Cambridge IELTS books to analyse listening test answers in more detail?

Here's an example question from Cambridge IELTS 13:

Which TWO things surprised the students about the traffic-light system for nutritional labels?

A  its widespread use
B  the fact that it is voluntary for supermarkets
C  how little research was done before its introduction
D  its unpopularity with food manufacturers
E  the way that certain colours are used

Here's the relevant section of the audioscript:

What do you think of the traffic-light system?

I think supermarkets like the idea of having a colour-coded system - red, orange or green - for levels of fat, sugar and salt in a product.

But it's not been adopted universally. And not on all products. Why do you suppose that is?

Pressure from the food manufacturers. Hardly surprising that some of them are opposed to flagging up how unhealthy their products are.

I'd have thought it would have been compulsory. It seems ridiculous it isn't.

I know. And what I couldn't get over is the fact that it was brought in without enough consultation - a lot of experts had deep reservations about it.

Tasks:
- Which two answers do you think are correct, and why?
- Which phrases show that the speakers are surprised?

IELTS Listening: the 'once only' problem

The most difficult thing about the IELTS listening test, in my opinion, is the fact that you only hear the recording once. With this problem in mind, here are some practice tips:

1. Start by ignoring the "once only" problem: when doing practice tests, listen to the recordings twice, three times, or as many times as you need. Just focus on trying to get the right answers.
2. The next step is to listen once only, but give yourself extra time in the breaks: take as much time as you want to read the questions carefully and underline keywords before you play the recording.
3. Finally, try doing tests under the normal time constraints. But check your mistakes carefully (using the answers and the transcript) and listen to the recording again to make sure that you can hear the correct answers.

IELTS Listening: how to use the breaks

In the listening test it's important to use the breaks well. There are breaks between the four sections of the test, and there are breaks in the middle of sections 1, 2 and 3 (there is no break in the middle of section 4). You will hear instructions like this:

1. First you have some time to read questions 1 to 5.
2. That is the end of section 1. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

1. 'Some time' means about 20 seconds, or up to 40 seconds before section 4. It's important to use this time to read the questions, make sure you understand them, underline key words, and think about what kind of answer is needed (e.g. number, name, noun, verb, singular, plural).

2. Ignore this instruction - don't check a section that you have just finished. It's much more important to be ready for the next section. If you're not ready when the recording starts, you will find it very difficult to read the questions and listen to the answers at the same time. So use this time to read ahead.

IELTS Listening and Writing: spelling tips

Spelling mistakes can affect your score in the listening and writing tests. If you have a problem with spelling, here are some tips:

1. Type your essays: your computer will find your spelling mistakes.
2. When writing by hand, use a dictionary to check difficult words.
3. Keep a list: write down any mistakes your computer/teacher finds.
4. Memorise: learn difficult words by heart.
5. Test yourself on words you previously spelt wrongly.
6. Never give your teacher an essay that you haven't checked.

If you find that spelling is a big problem, you should work on it every day. Keep a notebook or put posters on your walls. If you do nothing, you will not improve; there is no secret rule that will suddenly solve the problem!

IELTS Listening: how to use practice tests

Yesterday I suggested 9 different ways to use IELTS reading tests.

But what about the listening test? Can we do something similar? How many different ways of using listening tests can you think of?

IELTS Listening: language learning secrets!

A student recommended that I share the following video.

Can you summarise the speaker's advice?

What do you think of her ideas? Could you become a polyglot?

IELTS Listening: how to do multiple choice questions

Multiple choice questions are difficult because there is more to read, and the speaker often mentions more than one of the choices.

Here are a few tips:

1. Try to read the questions and choices before the recording starts.
2. Don't check your answers to the previous section; use the breaks to read ahead.
3. Underline key words in each choice. The key words are those that make the difference in meaning between choices.
4. When listening, only look at the words you underlined. Don't read everything again.
5. Expect the trick! They often mention more than one choice, so be careful.
6. If you're not sure, make a good guess, then move on to the next question.
7. If you don't have time to read everything (tip 1), don't worry. Prepare as many questions as you can, then do your best on the others.

Remember that the best tip is this: do lots of practice!

IELTS Listening: how to test your spelling

Try this exercise to test your spelling for IELTS listening:

1. Go to the back pages of one of the official Cambridge IELTS books, and find the answers to one of the listening tests.
2. Record yourself (on your phone) reading the answers. Do this quickly, without trying to memorise any spellings.
3. The next day, listen to the recording and write each word down.
4. Check your spelling of each word.
5. Pay attention to any spelling mistakes, and keep a list of words that caused you problems.

IELTS Listening: more multiple choice!

Listen to a swimming coach giving advice about how to breathe when swimming.

Click here to listen

Which TWO of the following are menitoned as common mistakes?

A) Swimmers often roll their bodies too much when breathing.
B) Many beginners don't lift their heads high enough.
C) They look backwards when breathing.
D) They don't exhale sufficiently.
E) They need to be told when to inhale.

(Source: this video from U.S. Masters Swimming)

IELTS Listening: singular or plural?

Sometimes an answer in the listening test must be given as a plural, whereas on other occasions the answer can be given as a singular or plural. Let's have a look at two examples from Cambridge IELTS 13.

1) The underlined answer in the sentence below must be a plural

includes recipes to strengthen your bones (the singular 'bone' is not accepted)

2) The underlined answer below can be given as a singular or plural

Catarina Miranda focused on the behaviour of urban and rural blackbirds. ('behaviours' is also accepted)

Task:
Can you explain why the first answer must be a plural, whereas the second answer could be singular or plural?

IELTS Listening: use the 'audioscripts'

If you're practising with the Cambridge IELTS books, you'll find audioscripts (written versions) of the recordings at the back of the books. I recommend that you read and analyse these in order to gain a better understanding of what the speakers said.

Let's look at two example questions from Cambridge IELTS 12:

21. What will be the main topic of Trudie and Stewart's paper?

A) how public library services are organised in different countries
B) how changes in society are reflected in public libraries
C) how the funding of public libraries has changed

22. They agree that one disadvantage of free digitalised books is that

A) they may take a long time to read
B) they can be difficult to read
C) they are generally old

Here's the part of the audioscript that contains the answers:

(Trudie) Maybe we should concentrate on this country, and try to relate the changes in libraries to external developments, like the fact that more people can read than a century ago..... We're only supposed to write a short paper, so it's probably best if we don't go into funding in any detail.

(Stewart) But the digitalised books that are available online for free are mostly out of copyright, aren't they? And copyright in this country lasts for 70 years after the author dies. So you won't find the latest best-seller or up-to-date information..... (Trudie) That's an important point.

Task:
What are the correct answers to the two questions, and which 'keywords' gave you those answers?

IELTS Listening: gap-fill about money

Watch the following video or listen to the audio recording below it.

If you can't see the video, listen to the recording below.

Click here to listen

Fill the gaps in the following summary of the first 4 minutes of the video:

1. Does the amount of ______ you have affect the kind of person you are?
2. In a recent study, drivers of luxury cars were three to four times more ______ to break the law than drivers of less expensive, low ______ cars.
3. The academic paper that resulted ______ ______ everywhere.
4. It is very clear that this study of social class touched a ______.
5. The results were ______ across thirty studies which were run on thousands of people all over the United States.

IELTS Listening: spelling, capitals and plurals

People often ask me about spelling, capital letters and plurals. Here's my advice:

1. Correct spelling is very important. I know students who have lost up to 10 points in their IELTS listening tests because of spelling mistakes.
2. Capital letters, on the other hand, are not important. You can write all of your answers in capitals or in lower case - it won't affect your score.
3. Plurals are very important. e.g. If the question asks you to fill the gap "There are many ______", the answer could be "reasons" but not "reason".

Note: I don't recommend learning spelling rules. It's better to keep a list of your mistakes, and learn correct spellings by heart.

IELTS Listening: improve your luck this year!

Here's another interesting TED talk. The speaker gives us three tips on increasing our luck. What are they, and do you think we can apply them to our IELTS preparation?

Happy New Year!

IELTS Listening: multiple choice with transcript

For the questions below, I'm attaching the transcript instead of the audio recording. I think this type of multiple choice exercise is quite difficult, so see what you think!

What do the students decide about each topic for the presentation?

A) They will definitely include this topic.
B) They might include this topic.
C) They will not include this topic.

Choose A, B or C for the following questions.

1. Geographical Location
2. Economy
3. Overview of Education System
4. Role of English Language

Click here to see the script of the recording

What do you think the answers are? Do you find this type of question difficult?

IELTS Listening: improve your 'ear'

A good way to improve your 'ear' is to give yourself quick transcription tasks.

transcription (noun) = a written version of an audio recording
transcribe (verb) = create a written version e.g. of an audio recording

Try transcribing the first minute of the recording in last Tuesday's lesson.

Tip: The real learning happens when you find a difficult part. Perhaps the speaker suddenly goes too quickly, or seems to join a group of words together. You might need to listen several times; you might even need help to hear what the speaker is saying. This is the kind of hard work that you should be looking for!

IELTS Listening: gap-fill about PhD applications

Listen to the following advice about PhD applications (you'll hear several speakers), and fill the gaps in the summary below.

Click here to listen

mm
Two types of PhD:

1. Develop a _____ _____ and look for a _____ .
2. Apply for a project that you have seen _____ .

Finding an academic to supervise your research proposal:

- Do a _____ _____ on the proposed topic.
- Or visit the university _____ and look at the research interests of staff members.

mm
(Source: University of Bath)

IELTS Listening: quick checklist

If you've watched my free video lessons for listening (here and here), you should be able to answer the following checklist of questions.

1. How many questions and sections are there in the listening test?
2. What are the three main types of question? Have you practised them?
3. When are the breaks in the recording?
4. What two things should you do during the breaks?
5. Which section has no break in the middle?
6. Are you working on your spelling?
7. Should you spend more time practising section 1 or section 4?
8. What similarities are there between IELTS listening and reading?
9. What should you do if you find one question really difficult?

IELTS Listening: multiple choice and short answers

Listen to the recording and answer the questions below.

Click here to listen

1. Which three things are affected by population growth?

A) environment, housing and architecture
B) jobs, housing and infrastructure
C) jobs, transport and culture

2. What happens every 3 minutes in Australia?

A) one person dies
B) one person is born
C) one person leaves the country

3. What proportion of Australians were born abroad?

4. From which two countries do most immigrants come?

IELTS Listening: 'multiple choice' advice

Most people find multiple choice sections difficult. If you want to improve your scores on these sections, here's the key skill that I think you should work on:

Identifying differences

If you can't see a clear difference in meaning between each of the choices (e.g. answers A, B and C), you'll be lost before the recording even starts.

Try this exercise:

1. Take a multiple choice section from one of the listening tests in the official Cambridge IELTS books.
2. Spend some time reading the answer choices for each question.
3. Try to identify a clear difference between each choice.
4. Underline one or two key words in each choice. Choose words that highlight the differences that you identified.
5. Make sure that you have found and underlined clear differences, so that you know exactly what to listen for.

Note: The exercise above involves no listening practice. Identifying differences is about reading and understanding.