Three things you must get right in IELTS Listening

The IELTS is one of the most popular testing systems for students and professionals alike. The reason is solid – it gives the educational institutions and employers a good grasp of their recruits’ level of English. As a test taker, you will be taking the listening, reading, writing and speaking tests in IELTS.

If you are a student then you take the Academic test and if you are a professional you take the General training test. Imagine yourself sitting in a classroom lecture or listening to your employer’s instructions – you need to be at the top of your game in listening and following the instructions given.

In those scenarios, you will definitely need to show how strong your listening comprehension is. You can only prove your listening strength by taking the IELTS listening test. So, to get a good score, you have to do a few things.

Here, in this article we will discuss three things you must get right in the IELTS listening test. First, we will talk about how you can improve your listening, then we will talk about those three things.

Improve your listening skill

To improve your listening skills the best thing you can do in the middle of your busy hour is have a look at the headlines of your favorite online or off-line newspaper. You need to choose one topic. Bring your pen and paper, or open a word processor.

Now, write down the topic. This will be here even at the end of the day even if you forget about it. When you have some time, read about the topic. Search online about the news. Read in depth about it. Try to read as much as you can from various sources. Keep track of new words that you come across.

Take notes about the topic, so that you can use them later. Search videos on the news topic. Watch and listen carefully. Write down important new information and new words. This way you will learn a lot of new words and also get used to the accent, pronunciation, and intonation of words in a sentence.

Three things You must get right

During a listening exam, there are not just three but many things that you need to get right. Although this is not something universal, most people would agree to these points.

1. Never hesitate to leave a question if you are confused. You may miss several questions if you cannot let go of one.
2. Always take notes on various nouns, adjectives, verbs and tenses, adverbs, etc., as clues. These are key to your answers. Just write down shortcuts so that you understand later when you have to transfer your answers to the answer sheet.
3. When you write the answers, keep an eye to the overall grammar of the sentence after you insert the answer. You may need to change the form of the word to fit the grammar of the sentence in the question. For example, there is a sentence like this:
   1. ……… can hurt your body. The answer in the recording may be like this ‘if you work too much you can hurt your body’. What will you insert as an answer? ‘Overworking’ can be an option. This way you need to write answers in correct form and spelling to fit the sentence. Please, always remember that.

Apart from this you need to learn to read ahead of time, read and listen at the same time, write while keeping listening to recording. Whenever there is a time pause for 30 seconds, read a few questions and answers ahead of the recording.

This way you will be reading twice during the recording running time and the probability of getting the answer correct will go up. Manage your time well. Anyway, these are the three things you must get right in IELTS listening.