My IELTS Classroom Podcast

IELTS 101: Introduction to the IELTS Listening Test

May 03, 2020 Shelly Cornick and Nick Lone Episode 3
My IELTS Classroom Podcast
IELTS 101: Introduction to the IELTS Listening Test
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Today, Nick and I introduce you to all aspects of the IELTS listening test. This is the third episode in our IELTS 101 series and you can find the full episode notes and a transcript of the conversation at http://podcast.myieltsclassroom.com/

Episode Notes

Many students find that listening is the easiest of the four tests, but it can still definitely be very tricky if you don't prepare well. As usual in our 101 series, Nick and I start the episode by giving you some basic facts about the IELTS listening test, including the types of conversation that you will hear in each part and the types of question you will have to tackle.

Then, we will go on to chat about some more complex aspects of listening such as the importance of being able to understand different accents (with Nick doing some fantastic impressions) and how you can follow conversations with more than two speakers.

In this episode, you will learn:

  1. the basic facts about the IELTS listening tests (number of parts, reading time, etc)
  2. the types of questions that you will have to tackle in the test
  3. which listening skills IELTS tests during the exam
  4. which accents you can expect to hear in the test (there are a lot!)
  5. why spelling is important
  6. how many questions you will need to get correct to get each band score
  7. how parts 1 and 2 specifically test General Training students, and parts 3 and 4 specifically target Academic students 
  8. which types of text and questions you get in listening Part 1
  9. why IELTS removed the example from the start of the test
  10. which types of text and questions you get in listening Part 2
  11. which types of text and questions you get in listening Part 3
  12. which types of text and questions you get in listening Part 4
  13. our advice for how to get a high score in IELTS listening

If you are just starting your IELTS journey, then you can find out EVERYTHING you need to know about listening in this episode (plus you can practice your listening at the the same time!!!)

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spk_1:   0:03
Welcome to my Isles classroom. The podcast where two ex examiners talk all things Eilts today Listening 101 What exactly happens in the listening test? What type of questions will you be asked on? What?

spk_0:   0:18
Our top tips for scoring. Well,

spk_1:   0:24
hello and welcome to the third episode in our isles 101 Siri's! Hey, Nick, how you doing today?

spk_0:   0:31
I'm not too bad today. Unfortunately, the son that we had over the past couple of weeks has disappeared, and now it's very rainy outside.

spk_1:   0:40
That sounds very British, doesn't it? Talking about the weather. You're lucky you've got rain here. We've got snow again. Wow. Yeah. And this morning, because I always like to have a cup of tea When we record these episodes and I'd run out of milk, I thought I'd go to the shop and quickly get some on. I wore my trainers instead of my like big snow boots on. I fell over like, properly slipped on this massive pile of eyes and I went down like not just like a slip. I look, we're properly down on my legs flew in the air and the old woman who was quite Namie went, which is a sign that something is pretty bad If an old woman gives a

spk_0:   1:19
grasp on how are you know when you're not feeling any pain?

spk_1:   1:22
Honestly, I'm a little bit bruised, but I've got my cup of tea ready to go on. I'm excited about today because today we're gonna be talking about the listening test. Um, now, how difficult do you think listening is compared to the other parts of the test?

spk_0:   1:38
Oh, it's tough. It's tough to say really on. But actually, I think listening is one of the easier parts off the aisles test. Especially if we compare Teo writing and speaking because you are. What's the word that I'm looking for here? What skills are we use and we're not using productive skills were using,

spk_1:   1:58
I would say like passive receptive. Receptive? Yes. Yeah, exactly. I personally this could be controversial. I think listening is the easiest part of the test. I I say that because I think if we got our parents or, like, you know, my dad and your mum together on we gave them every part of the aisles test. I think listening would be the part. They found the easiest without any practise.

spk_0:   2:25
Probably a right, actually,

spk_1:   2:27
because I think that if you understand like they're gonna understand everything that's being said on DH, you don't have to show any real academic skills like productive skills. So as long as you can follow its generally easy, it's not always easy for everybody. Andi. I also think it's maybe easier, Which is why we spoke in our first episode about students who were going to Canada who need like C L B nine that really high score for bonus points on DH. The schools they need is 8777 and the eight is for listening.

spk_0:   3:04
That doesn't surprise me, actually, yeah, because it does. It does seem that people often do you get the highest score in listening

spk_1:   3:11
exactly. So look, if you find listening difficult, don't feel bad. If you can understand our speaking, you probably are actually quite a good listener, to be honest. But that's just my intuition is that for most people, listening is going to be easier than the productive part of the test, as you said, like reading and writing. So I guess we should start with some basic information about the test once again before Nick does that. Just remember, if you are an old ill students, no age experience. If you've been studying isles for a long time, maybe this episode is gonna be a bit simple for you because we're just going to cover what happens in the listening test. The types of questions. You probably already know that information. So you might want to skip ahead and start listening from Episode six. But if you are new, if you've listened to our 1st 2 episodes and you understand speaking and you want to know about listening, you're in the right place on DH. Now, Nick is going to give you some basic Eilts listening facts.

spk_0:   4:19
So the listening test this test is the same for both general training students on academic students. On is the first test that you take on the exam day. So a nice way to ease yourself into the aisles exam. The test lasts between 30 and 40 minutes and is divided into four parts, with each part having 10 questions. So you hear the tape script on ly one time on DH. You need to answer the questions while you listen. So at the beginning of each of the four parts. You will have 30 seconds to read the questions, and then you'll have 30 seconds at the end to cheque the answers that you have written down in the 1st 3 parts. You also have a 32nd break in the middle of each part to read the questions by in part, for you don't have this break in the paper based test. You will have 10 minutes at the end of the test. Teo. Transfer your answers from the question booklets to the answer. She and you must use a pencil to do this, but in the computer test, you only have two minutes to cheque your answers.

spk_1:   5:40
OK, thank you very much. Nic. Again, There was a lot of information there, but I think it's important to have all of the facts in one place. Remember, there's a transcript off this episode on our website, which is podcast dot my eyelids classroom dot com. So if you want to read those facts carefully, you can just go there and find everything. But why don't we go through all of the information more slowly to really understand what's going to happen in the listening test. So first of all, Nick, you said that the students have to answer 40 questions. So the first question is what type of questions are there in

spk_0:   6:23
the test? So there's quite a wide variety of questions in the listening test on. We can kind of arrange them into five categories. So the 1st 1 is where you need to complete a sentence. For example, you'll have a short sentence on there will be a word missing our information missing, and all you need to do is listen and write down the correct information on DH. Then we have multiple choice questions. Which, Shelly, Maybe you want to explain this a little bit more?

spk_1:   6:54
Yeah, students sometimes struggle with multiple choice questions, and in aisles there's actually two types. So the first type is where you're given three alternative answers. So one is correct on to what we call distracters, so they stop you finding the correct answer. If you've got three possible answers, only one is correct. But in some questions, they're not as common. To be honest, I else may give you five or six possible answers, and you will be asked to find two or three. I have to say that is actually one of part of the test that students find the most difficult, I think right? And so after multiple choice, we often have what the other things matching, which is where you might be asked. I don't know. They may be talking about four different types of jobs, and you have to match the correct information about each job so you'll be like a see. This piece of information is for job one and you match. Or it might be like a person who's speaking. What's their opinion? You have to match them together

spk_0:   8:01
on the next. One we have is short answer questions, and these are questions that I ask you, where or when or why. And then finally, we have a diagram or a map, and you need to put the relevant labels in the correct place. Or maybe they'll you'll have a big graph or or a map of a city or town, and you'll be asked to sort of locate where is the library or, you know, follow directions and things like that.

spk_1:   8:26
Yeah, it's usually a it's very often like a park or a museum or something like that. We have to say like where different parts are or it can also be part for city. So I think those are the main types of questions. I really think the best way that you can understand what happens in the listening test is toe have a look and even practise one, whereas for speaking and writing, I think you should prepare before you start to practise. I do think with listening if you can get hold of a Cambridge test book again. I describe this in my block post how to start preparing for the aisles test. But the Cambridge books are basically rial past papers. These were exams that students took in the past, and now they are available for you to practise. So they are exactly the same as the real test there. At the moment, there are 14 Cambridge books. Personally, I don't think you should practise with books 1 to 5. They are now almost 10 years old. Well, maybe longer, because I can. I've been teaching for almost 20 years on dive because that makes me feel really sick E teaching for 20 years, and I've been using those books for most of them. Thie exam changed a little bit after about Book five. So I usually say to students just practise from book 6 to 14. Get a copy of those books either by one. Or maybe just Google it. You might be to find one online. Maybe you could definitely find the listening scripts on YouTube and just have a go at a test so you can just get a feeling of what the questions are, what they look like. I think just to get that first attempt in the first score is a really good idea. Um, I think the thing that students focus on there, they focus on the types of questions. So everyone sort of says, Are we hate maps or I hate multiple choice questions. But they saw, forget what the questions are actually testing. We're gonna talk about this a lot when we talk about raising in the next episode. I really think you know, if you're a student and you do the practise test and you think, well, multiple choice was easy, but completing a sentence was difficult. What you should think about is what does that tell me about my listening skills. So, for example, if you find labelling a map or a diagram easy, that means that you're good at following a description. But if you find completing a sentence difficult, it probably means that you're good at understanding the general idea of a sentence. But no the specific details that somebody has given. So it's really important that you try and understand not just the types of questions you find difficult, but what those questions test. So, for example, you know, if you look in the Cambridge books, they say at the beginning, in the listening test, we are going to test that you can listen in a number of ways, and then they give you some examples. So they say, We're going to see if you can understand the main idea of what people say. So what type of question do you think would test if somebody understands the main idea?

spk_0:   11:48
I think the most common question where you would be asked to understand if you understand the main idea would definitely be multiple choice. Usually, I would say this discussion is about and then you'll have, like, five choices. Yeah, and you choose the two or three of which are, you know, the main themes of that discussion

spk_1:   12:06
is actually on in the same way. It says, You know, see if you can listen for specific information. Specific information is completing a sentence or short answer questions or also matching. There's lots of ways that we can cheque that you, Khun, understand specific information. Also, if you can understand opinions and the attitudes of the speakers, that's more difficult understanding what somebody thinks. That's all from what we test for in Part three. Actually, Andi will discuss that in a minute. They also test if you can follow an argument so that could be completing some notes or summary of a conversation. Um, and also they test if you can understand sentence stress to find key information. If you can understand how a speaker uses their voice to stress keywords, so that's something most students don't even understand is happening. I sometimes get my students in class to listen to a listening text with no questions on, then to guess. The answer is based on the words that the speaker's really stressed because sometimes when you start listening for the stress, you really realise that the answers are quite clear because they really speak them really clearly. So I'm just telling you this because I want you to start thinking. Don't always think about the questions that you find difficult. Try and think about what is under those questions. What is the skill that you're missing? And then you can practise that skill to improve. So in the test, there are different types of questions which are testing different types of listening skills. The other thing you have to think about is that there is going to be a range of different accents, which can actually, it may sound silly, but if you're used to listening to just American television on, then suddenly you've got somebody from Scotland who's speaking to you. That can make a big difference to your ability to find answers. I think so. So look, I remember Nick and I. We worked in the past for a university, where with Teo on record listening scripts for their internal exams on I remember that in every it didn't matter what situation it wass. I just was always myself, right. I always use my voice, but you were really good accents.

spk_0:   14:32
I don't know if the people who come from these countries would say, I'm really good

spk_1:   14:37
way. I think, Let's just have a bit of fun. I think right so well to begin with, I don't know if you say English accent, that is. I mean, what is an English accent?

spk_0:   14:48
There is no English accent. There's there's no probably about 40 or 50 different varieties.

spk_1:   14:54
Exactly. I mean, we're very good example yet, so I'm very I was grew up in the southwest of England. I have a very kind of neutral Southern accent, but you're a northern lad,

spk_0:   15:05
Northern boy. Yes, I've actually lost Max and, you know, since I left the UK about six or seven years ago, Max enters slowly disappeared and meaning people do make fun of me when I go home and say, Oh, really, you sound different. I think I think that's no within two meaning. That's good, because I like my accent. So

spk_1:   15:25
I think English is You're gonna have different varieties of English Scottish. I cannot do a Scottish accent at all, but you can

spk_0:   15:34
Well, my parent, my mom, is Scottish, and my grand parents were born in Scotland, so I've spent a lot of time in Scotland. All

spk_1:   15:41
right, so give. So give listeners. If you're in the aisles test and there's a Scottish speaker, this is what they're gonna they're gonna sound like.

spk_0:   15:48
But we should make a little note here that usually if you're in the aisles test and you hear a sky shacks and it's probably gonna be someone from Edinburgh, so it's gonna be quite so off, Josh. So it's like, Hello, Children. Welcome to today's discussion. Discussion will be about cats and dogs and having them as pets. So it's like kind of safe. Kind of

spk_1:   16:09
neutral is that's exactly what it is. But that was a very, very good Scottish accent. I will not do mine. Sometimes you have speakers from Wales. I remember there's a lady that they use a lot in the aisles. Test this one one in one says she talks a lot about different birds. Can you do well, shacks in?

spk_0:   16:31
I could try the Welsh. Try it, try it because it it turns into different. I have to start off by saying I was born in the valleys of wears on. Then after that, I always lose it because everyone's heard the violence and the years and date from Cardiff. And it just disappears if I try and say more. Yeah,

spk_1:   16:49
Welsh Jackson is like somebody singing a very nice song, isn't it? I remember the wooden for where she talks about birds. She talks about birds. Yeah, I can't say that's not bad. One I can do is Australian because I did live in Australia for cities and when I returned, everybody hated me because I sounded Australian, which just means you go up at the end of every sentence. So rather than just saying like, Hey, how was your day? Today you go. Hey, how was your day today? So you go up. So in today's lesson, we're gonna look att. It's almost New Zealand in today's lesson. We're gonna look at the native birds of Australia. There were many birds in Australia, says very singing on the last one is American. I cannot do American. No, no, I don't know why. It should be easy, but no condom it.

spk_0:   17:40
There's a lot of varieties of American, though, because we've got the California is like, Oh my God, that was so disturbing.

spk_1:   17:46
Yeah, that's not really an island.

spk_0:   17:48
You sometimes have like California. But then you've also got like I'm from the Deep south of Texas. What you say is what you do

spk_1:   17:57
that is more like what you get. Yeah, I think I think there's definitely a bit more South. I mean, maybe it's just more like my English is more like a standard American accent. For me, American is like one what, like chewing your voices? But it is really important that you have practise. You expose yourself to all of thes accents before the test. I've got a really good poke, a really good blawg that recommends other podcast, which are no islets podcast. They're just really good podcast that help you your listening skills. They're about topics which are common in the aisles exam, and one of them is hosted by an Australian girl because I think Australian is actually one of the most common one that students don't have much exposure to

spk_0:   18:43
that shrew. Like almost every listening tests that I've done from books, they've always got some Australian in there always

spk_1:   18:51
because who runs isles, the British Council and Australian I deep. So they're a big part of who runs the test, which is why I think that there so often in the interestingly, when I was a teacher in Australia, almost every student usedto ask to be in my class, and I thought it was because I was an amazing teacher and I was funny and lovely. It wasn't it was just because they didn't understand any of the other teachers. Why don't they just be like, Can we have the English girl, please, because they just found it much easier to understand me. I was really disappointed when I worked out the other thing, which I think is quite funny is that in some exams, particularly Part three, we'll talk about this in a minute. Part three is a discussion, usually between students and a teacher. Sometimes they have students who are foreign students, like from other countries on DH. I really don't understand why I was does this, but I'm thinking of one particular test. I think it's in booked him where there's a student from Greece on a student from Japan. But the people who are speaking it's like you were may putting on really bad Greek and Japanese accents, which is really I think it just feels really off putting. If I was Japanese and I was listening to that exam, I'd be a bit offended, to be honest.

spk_0:   20:13
Yeah, I think that's a bit stupid. I think the I think the idea of having sort off non native speakers It's a very good idea because I mean, we interact with them quite often, don't we?

spk_1:   20:22
I think that there's a statistic that most English conversations or conversations in English happened between, nor native speakers like So I think, Yeah, I think it's a great idea tto have I. I just think you should probably get a real job for a real Japanese person rather than like Steve from Norwich. So there were different questions. There were different accents. The other important thing to discuss now is spelling. Unfortunately, in the arts in the arts listening exam, you must spell your answers correctly to get the point on DH for some students that can actually like they can hear the word, but they just don't know how to spell. The word on that can cause them problems. So part of spelling. So number one you need to be able to spell correctly number two. You also need to be able to use capital letters correctly. But the problem is that in English there was dozens of different rules. For when we use a capital letter in a words and when we don't use a capital letter. So what can you think off the top of your head and it? When do we use capitals?

spk_0:   21:31
Well, proper loans would be the first main one. Yes. Oh, names, names, names of companies as well. Yeah, and things like that. Countries, countries, of course. Street names, street names, town names, monuments.

spk_1:   21:50
Yeah. I mean, is an endless list. So you've got two choices. You can either learn all of the rules for capital letters, or you can choose to write every word off your answers, all in capitals. So every letter is a capital letter, which is 100% what I recommend you do.

spk_0:   22:14
I didn't even know it was possible to do that. That's very well. Well,

spk_1:   22:18
I thing is, I actually spoke to some administrators and they told me, to be honest, that I don't think capitals make any difference. I think you could write everything in small letters, but because that's not written anywhere in the official IRS documents. I do say to my shootings, just write everything in capital letters unless you know the capital rules. If you and I took the test, we don't need to worry about that. But that is probably the only isles hack. I think for any of the tests is just use capital letters. If if you're not a great speller, um, you don't need to worry about that in the reading test, cause you can copy from the reading passage through the capital s. Oh, listening is the only time you really need to worry about that. Great. So then I guess the final thing is, you know, we spoke a lot about scores in our 1st 101 Siri's. So we know that most of you probably need a six or seven. There are 40 questions. So how many questions do you need to get correct to get those scores? Well, you know, I'm sending you back to that park to that block post. I've got about how to start preparing for aisles where I've got a table that shows you this, But in general, to get a six, you're going to need between 23 25 to get a 6.5 is between 26 29 to get seven is about 32 31. So I think 30 is the critical number. Really? If you're less than 30 you're in the 66.5. If you're over 30 you're in the set. Seven zone. If you're a student who's going to Canada, who needs 8777? You're going to need about 36 or 37. So that's only three or four mistakes in the whole test. That's quite high.

spk_0:   24:15
I have a question for, you know, Shelley. Yes, I don't get the answer to Okay, so as as I understand that this sort of you said 66 points areas 23 to 25. How do they calculate for each test? What are 6.0 is today, like taken average of everybody scar and then decide? Well, this is the car for a six. This is for a seven.

spk_1:   24:38
That's a really good question.

spk_0:   24:40
So it's more of an administrative question. I

spk_1:   24:44
Well, no, I So I mentioned a moment ago we used to work at the university recording listening tanks. Actually, my job at the university of writing the exams on what happens when you write a test. Is that you? You you create a question and you think using your internal kind of experience and understanding of language. What level that question is so like you might think, Well, this is a really difficult words, so only advanced students will get that answer. Or this is like in the middle of a really difficult sentence. So only, you know, really, high level students will get that question right. Essentially, you don't know until that question has been tested. So every time we write test, we send those questions to be pre tested now for our you know, for our little university, we had 150 students we used to pre test, so we'd send them on DH. Sometimes it would come back, and it would be like yet, like, 30% of students got this question correct. So that is a really difficult question, which is what we need. Whereas sometimes it comes back and it's like 97% of students got this correct is easier is too easy and we need to change it on. There are these mathematical equations which are so complicated. You mean Luckily, I never had to do that. Somebody would do this really difficult maths. And if we needed the number to be close to one,

spk_0:   26:16
okay, for it to be appropriate

spk_1:   26:18
to be appropriate. And if it was like 1.10 they'd say no. Yeah, and so, essentially, is. It's a mix off. Just master. I mean, I have No, I mean, they must pre test these exams with thousands of students to make sure, because a lot of the test that we wrote in the university, we're just testing one level. So I just had to make sure every question wass Intermediate will be won or be to where in Iowa's, they need a range of questions. So that's why some of the questions are easy, because that's for the students who need a four or five. And some of the questions a super difficult. Was there the one or two different? But the question is, which is the difference between an eight and an 8.59?

spk_0:   27:03
So the difficulty kind of fluctuate very slightly then,

spk_1:   27:07
and it can, and actually I you know, I aunt says between 23 25. But what we have, I know what we do at the university. Sometimes we know that's an easier test. So we might say, actually, for this test a six, you need 25. But on a slightly more difficult test, we need a 23 on. And I guess if you imagine you've got on a Saturday 200,000 people sitting the test

spk_0:   27:37
across the world

spk_1:   27:38
across the world, you probably know that, like 5% are going to get an eight on DH. I know 40% are going to get six. So if you sat a test and, like nobody got a nine on DH, 10% got sick, You would know that. I mean, I don't think this would ever happen without because they pre test so much. But you would know that something went wrong with that test and you would need to adjust the schools. And that's interesting only ever. Once a student six or seven months after their tests got a letter that said we discovered there was a problem with your reading test and they increased her school by 0.5. So that probably did happen on that day. They probably looked at the results and thought, Everyone scores are so low here that there's some problem with the test. Yeah, but you are gonna also find I think what's interesting when you start practising you might find some exams easier than others. Is quite is quite common for students to go between. I don't know on it, you could say on a good day, 32 on a bad day. 27. Why? Well, maybe it could just be. There's one type of question that you don't like. So there's one skill that you're not as good at. And there were lots of questions it could be. Maybe there were lots of Australian people speaking, you know, I mean, so you know, I think it's common to have a small range, I'd say, like three or four, maybe. Ah, but if you take the test again and again and again and you keep getting 27 27 27 guess why. That's your level. So you know so many students alike. I finished all the listening test in the Cambridge book on my listening is still 27 12. Of course it is because doing that, you can improve your score a little bit By practise, you can definitely. But just practising isles test will is no. Improving your listening really is not. You need to be working on those skills we discuss. You need to be working on, like finding main ideas, your vocabulary, your grandma, your level of English. I'm sorry. I just get a bit mad when students are like I finished all the Cambridge books is like, Well, when I was a teacher, I used to use maybe in a 12 week course, four tests or six tests, and the rest of the time we're really I'm asking Lily Addison skills learning. Exactly. Hi, I'm nor from Pakistan. I study with my eyes Classroom because of the immense support surely offers. She is one of the most committed

spk_0:   30:27
teachers out there. I stood with my child's classroom because men explain everything so running and my maid so sporting. Thanks a lot for being here, something I study with Miles left room because it's informative and liberalizations.

spk_1:   30:46
I started in my collateral because I like it, okay? And I think that's kind of all of the admin. You know, the scores everything else. So I think now, why don't we have a quick look at the four parts off the test? So if you're listening, I think it's a really good idea to step back and remember why people are taking the aisles test. So if we if we remember from the first episode, there were two groups of students sitting the

spk_0:   31:20
test. So yeah, there are two groups of students who are taking the test we've got as we know our general students who want to migrate to live in an English speaking country. And we've got our very bright academic students who want to study in the English language.

spk_1:   31:36
Exactly. So we got people who want to live in another country and people who want to study in another country. And you can really see that division in the listening exam because in parts one and two, they are both aimed Well, they both test If you could live in another country, could you open a bank account? Could you join a gym and past three and four are testing? Could you study in another country? Could you be part of a tutor group? Could you listen to a lecture all of those things. Now, we said at the beginning the exam is the same for general and academic students. So if your academic you still need to show you could live in the country on, unfortunately, if your general you're gonna have to show that you could study in the country. But I would just remember that as you go through the test, I think it helps you to understand what's happening.

spk_0:   32:31
Well, let's have a look. Part one. Then let's tackle Part one. First of all, So Part one is always a conversation between two people, and this conversation is always what we call transactional, which means one speaker is usually asking for some kind of information from the other speaker on. The conversations usually involved people doing everyday activities, things like booking a holiday or joining the child care facilities. So, in other words, conversations that you would probably have to have if you were living in another country. So what are the good examples of these conversations? Can we think off?

spk_1:   33:18
What if I think you're the test? I think you said, like booking a holiday is quite common. Making a reservation at a restaurant definitely opening a bank you can.

spk_0:   33:27
It's a classic one.

spk_1:   33:28
I think there's a least one or two tests in the Cambridge books. What does that? What else?

spk_0:   33:34
Joining the gym? Yes, very popular these days. Yeah, joining classes,

spk_1:   33:42
I think. Joining classes. Yeah, like cookery classes. There's class for kids that's quite common. And also finding out information about an event like a musical festival or sports event. I mean, when I think about it, these, I mean, I think he's. I think Part one is quite easy for many students. But remember, we're testing all levels of students here, And I know, for example, you know, as it as a language teacher, I'm quite lucky. We've both quite lucky. We've lived in lots of different countries. I have, and so these are the types of things like when I left Spain. These are the types of things I could do. I couldn't sit and have a conversation. I mean, even now in Russian, I couldn't have a conversation in Russian about politics or anything, but I can go to the supermarket or, like telephone the Jim asked how much it costs, what time does it open? That's what a transit. You know, these are the most basic types of conversations than we have in foreign languages. Yeah,

spk_0:   34:45
things you need to live and survive in a country

spk_1:   34:47
exactly is like survival English. Exactly. And I also think because this is all about exchanging information, most of the answers here are just one

spk_0:   34:59
word. Yeah, on almost always, the questions involve completing a form or some notes. So, for example, you'll have what looks like a gym membership on the exam paper. And you just have to basically fill in the information often not always, but often

spk_1:   35:17
most of the time. So it's things. Is basic information like names, phone number? I don't know. Like the type of class you're interested into. The answer might be boxing or judo or something like that. Yeah, so simple. One word answers all, I think, Although this part of the text the conversations are basic and they are actually a little bit slower, then later parts of the test. It's sometimes isn't always the easiest part, even for good students, if particularly if you've got a problem with spelling. Sometimes the words the answers are clear to here, but they might be words that you're not familiar with. Yeah, they know what to say. Like, you know, test I did with the student this week. One of the answers was bed sit. Well, bed set. People put. We don't know what bed sit is right. Like I don't I don't think I've ever taught the type of accommodation. Bed set.

spk_0:   36:14
Yeah. Be a space. Would there not be a space?

spk_1:   36:17
Yeah, exactly. So bed sit is like an apartment where everything is inside one room so you don't have a separate kitchen. It's just like one room. It is just a pure listening test. Like you should be able to spell the words bed and sit so you should be able to spell beds. It also, in this part, there are always one or two questions where they spell a word for you. So you are going to have to listen on DH. Just write down what you hear. So, for example, if they say somebody lives on Cornick Street, they will say Cornick Street. How do you spell that? Then they will say C o. R and I C k. Well, that sounds pretty simple, but I've worked with students who are advanced but really struggle with certain letters like in Russian shouldn't struggle with eye. They always write e s o. You know. So I know that different languages have got different letters, which were a problem. So, you know, that is something I encourage you to practise. Just cheque that You know, your vowels. A e i o u um, But in general part one is the easiest part of the test. I think it's really there to give the lower level students a chance to

spk_0:   37:39
get some points on the body. So,

spk_1:   37:41
you know, if you're aiming for a seven or even a 6.5, you really want in part one to get nine or 10? Yeah, I think at least eight now, just before we leave Part one, I think, is really important to say that there was a big change in January 2020 in the listening test. None of the questions or types of questions change. Everything's exactly the same. But at the beginning of part one, they used to be an example. So it would say Before you start, you'll hear an example, and then they would play the beginning of part one and they would stop after the example had been given. Now, to be honest, the example on the one hand was completely pointless. But it did give students more time to read ahead and look at future questions. True, and I think that's really important when you do, the listening is on when you're given the 30 seconds at the beginning. You should take that time to look at the questions underlying keywords. And in the past you had the extra time for the example. But that's now gone. I'm telling you this because if you go and find a Cambridge book, the examples are still there s So you need to just remember, like to maybe Ford. Those examples just don't have that extra time because it could be a bit of a shock. When you get to the exam and you're missing 45 seconds. That's actually quite a lot of reading time. That's true. So, yes, there was no longer an example in either test. And I'll tell you why, because they took it out with the off the computer based test first and tested it, and I think it makes the test a little bit more difficult, actually, that's why I think they've done it. Possibly right. That's part one. In Part two, we're still testing your ability to live in an English speaking country. But now, instead of hearing to people having a conversation, you're going to listen to a one person giving a monologue. I think for exam writer's like May, this is a more difficult section to write, because in sexual one, there's lots of situations where two people have a conversation. But they're not so many real life situations where one person just gives a monologue for four or five minutes. So what type of situations or words do you think students can expect to hear in Part two?

spk_0:   40:14
Well, I think I mean, there are, especially in everyday life. It's true that you really don't really give monologues like speak to ourselves. Yeah, but there are a certain number of situations. For example, the most obvious one I can think of is a tour guide given information, you know, when you when you go on a trip to another city on your book, a tour guide and you go in a group around, there's one person who is speaking about the history about the buildings and it could go on for a few minutes at a time. So that's that's That's

spk_1:   40:47
a great example. And I think a lot of them are tour guides. Yeah, good.

spk_0:   40:52
Also, For example, when you start a new job, you know the person who is so if you arriving in your country, you start working, What's gonna happen when you arrive, you get job and the person the boss will show you around and explain everything to you. And that's a kind of model or go guess, isn't it?

spk_1:   41:11
Yeah, definitely. And I think like in a similar way, sometimes you get a person who's welcoming you to a club who is giving, like a public meeting. Similar types of things, always kind of like somebody giving information to you. Really? Thie only other ones I can think off our Sometimes you might get very simple news report on into you. Um, anything else?

spk_0:   41:38
Maybe, For example, if you think about so off political meetings or something like that, where you know, the local council might be describing his plans or things that have changed in a town under his leadership or her leadership, You know.

spk_1:   41:53
Yeah, that's that is definitely I felt their did stuff like that. And then there's other. Some sometimes are ones where people are giving instructions. There's a couple where someone's telling you what to do when you arrive at a holiday home or like an apartment that you've rented two in general. Think about one person is kind of giving you three or four minutes of solid information. Definitely a tour guide would be a great example of that which leads us to the type of questions that you're going to get in this section. As we said in section one, very, very likely. You're just gonna have a form that you're going to fill out with just one with one missing words. This is the section in section two. This is the section where you're most likely to get the dreaded map. I would say any time you hear you're going to hear a tour guide, you know you're going to look at the paper and there's gonna be a map to complete. Now. I don't know why do you think people hate the map? He's got such a bad reputation. I personally think the maps easy.

spk_0:   42:53
I don't know why people hate maps because a CZ, a bachelor of geography is definitely It's definitely one of my favourite things.

spk_1:   43:01
I mean, I think a lot of this is just understanding. You know, I understand. Even people find reading a map in their own language. Confusing. Yeah, like left right, north, south, east west As long as you understand a lot off the propositions next to opposite go past. Actually with practise the man is no so bad, but that if if you finish section two and there's no map, you're probably a lucky student, and you're not gonna have one. I also think in this section you often get multiple choice questions or also some sentence completion. But this time, if you ask to complete a sentence, it might be two words. It's not one, so it's a bit more difficult then part one. But I still think it's relatively easy still compared to parts three and four. So again, if you're looking for a high score, you should try to be still getting seven or eight correct in this part. Um, and then we leave the world of everyday English natural conversations, and we enter the world of academic English on for part three. That means listening to two or three people having a conversation in an academic context

spk_0:   44:24
on that usually, I guess, consists off students talking to each other, maybe about a class project or something that working on together. Or it could be a student or a couple of students speaking with a tutor or a teacher about an academic topic. That's

spk_1:   44:44
right. So I mean these these conversations are also they should be natural. They're trying to sort of, like, simulate the type of conversations people have in a university on. I think the fact that this is the only part of the test where you can have more than two speakers is something that some students struggle with, particularly you might notice in Part one. I don't know if you've noted this, Nick, I notice, because I write exams thie people having conversations in part one is always a man and a woman because it makes it easy for the students to understand who's speaking.

spk_0:   45:21
Yeah, separate people. That's

spk_1:   45:23
right, which is why it's great that we do this podcast because our voices it completely different. But in Part three, if you got three people. You've always got either two men or two women on that. Students can sometimes that you know the question sometimes asked what does Alice thing, and you've got to remember who Alice is. If there were two women which could make it quite tricky, the other problem or the other difficult. The difficulty, in part free, is that this is the section where they ask questions about people's opinions. So we're not listening for facts. Like what? Three capital of the town we're looking for. Like, what does John feel about the project? He thinks it's a good idea. He's disappointed. So you've got to recognise what students are thinking feeling, which is already difficult because sometimes you know that's like a second layer of understanding. The other problem is that a lot of the conversations are about people trying to make a decision or reach an agreement. And that means that people's opinions and views change quickly. So, you know, a classic part three conversation. Let's imagine, it's a multiple choice question on the question says which animal do the group decide to do their presentation on? So there's a dolphin, a lion and a monkey. So you need to choose. Which one do they decide? Well, I promise you, you're going to hear the words Dolphin, lion, a monkey, all of them in the conversation. Don't just sit there listening like I'm gonna hear one animal. You're going? Yes. Dolphin. Easy finished. No. Plus, they are going toe start by saying, choosing the dolphin, and then they're going to disagree, and they're going to choose something else. So it's following the conversation to the final decision. So you may get something like you've got jam it. Who says I think we should do our presentation on dolphins. I love them. So you choose dolphin. But then John says no dolphins of fish and we have to choose a mammal. I think it would better to talk about lions. So you changed the lions, and then Janet says, Well, monkeys are my favourite animal. Okay, on then. You're like all monkeys are my favourite animal, but Okay. Is the butt okay that tells you she agrees with John? Who wants to do the lion? I'm tired saying all of this, but that's what happens in listening Part three. You can't just listen forward. You got to listen to, like, the whole

spk_0:   48:05
can be really tricky. Sometimes you

spk_1:   48:09
really can. And to be honest, dolphin, Lina monkey is a simple example. It they're going to be talking about an academic topic. So don't just listen for key words really follow and listen for the small parts of the text that show agreement like I'm not sure, but OK, things like that, that's really important. Um, for May, Part three might be the most difficult part of the test. Okay, so I'm always forgiving off students who struggle with part three because I understand that in a strange way, part for well, e I don't know. I mean, part for is a lecture. So you're gonna have a law. It is. Electra's a lot of information coming at you, also in part for there's no break in the middle. So But in the 30 seconds before the section starts, you're going to have to read 10 questions very quickly on the problem, in part for is often the questions are quite long. Multiple choice questions. That is a lot of reading in 30 seconds. Um, I don't know. What do you think about part for Nick?

spk_0:   49:26
I think the vocabularies generally harder because it's an academic topic. You know, we're not talking about going to the bank of the post office. We're talking about the the history of the Han Dynasty in China, or something

spk_1:   49:38
is usually some, like archaeological Deke, where they found some bones of the monkey was something. Yes.

spk_0:   49:46
Oh, the vocabulary. Definitely. He's harder here, Um, sometimes as well. We have, like, long, multiple choice summary questions. So the speaker will speak for, you know, up to a minute on a topic on DH. Then you've got to try, and some choose the correct answers for the summary of his swell speech. You know what are the main features and highlights of it?

spk_1:   50:14
That's that's hard. That is who, however, that said today there are lots of YouTube videos and podcast by people like Ted talks. So I think students is easy to practise part for

spk_0:   50:32
it really is. I

spk_1:   50:33
feel I really do think like something like if you listen to a Ted talk every day for a month, no, only going to learn a lot of interesting things will help you and speaking of writing, but I think you're going to get used to listening to a lecture. And also, when people give a lecture, they help you. They want you to understand. So they use sign posting words like firstly, then next. Following this, which should help you sort of be able to follow

spk_0:   51:00
to keep up with it. Basically, yeah, to follow the ideas here.

spk_1:   51:03
So on the one hand, the topics are much, much more difficult here. It's usually the questions involve a lot of reading. If it's a gap, fill its. This is where we're really testing the more difficult words that you know to listen for. But you can definitely practise for part for much more easily than you can borrow. Three. Um, however, that's just my opinion. If you've already been preparing for a little while and you know and you find Part two more difficult, amazing. Email me and tell me why I love finding out what's happening in students heads, because then I can, you know, help you mohr. So you could just email us at hello at my eyelids classroom dot com or leave a comment on the blogger podcast dot my i's Carson dot com. Tell us what you think is the most difficult after you. D'oh

spk_0:   52:01
d'oh! Lessons are structure, and just so I watched many times to improve my writing excuse, and they're professional. Marking supports are second to none. Has there been much comprehensively? Also, not to forget the support I've received from them? Immense. My speaking skills. So no doubt, if I n cues from my eyes classroom, I won't improve my English. Never a quick thank you weigh

spk_1:   52:38
right, So this podcast is really just an introduction to the listening test. So we've spoken a lot about the types of questions and the types of conversations we haven't really given much advice about. House shouldn't should prepare or how should they get a good score? So why don't we just now, at the end, just give a little bit of advice of, you know, when students are starting to prepare for listening? What are some things that they should do to help them?

spk_0:   53:06
The main tip, In my opinion, the most important thing that any student should do, no matter what their level is if it's a high level or if it's the lower level is definitely used. The reading time to underline and highlight key words in the questions because this can really help you find the correct answer. And I've been doing this a lot with my I'll screw. But the minute I'm teaching and Isles group ah, nde, You know, we're really focusing on every listening on every listening test to really solve. Look through and we're discussing it together. You know, I'm not just giving them 30 seconds and saying Do it and then then we'll listen. It's like we're discussing why people choose keywords, whether they're now owns verbs, adjectives, you know, another thing there as well is that you know, the words that I'm missing. You can guess what that type of word is. I

spk_1:   53:54
was just going to say that I think I think it's underlining the keywords to help you follow the tags on, then pretty addicting. What you think the answer should be?

spk_0:   54:02
Yeah. So you can see if it's gonna be a noun or if it's gonna be a number or if he's gonna be a day of the week or an adjective. Yeah, yeah.

spk_1:   54:10
I mean, some of the answers. I mean, one test I did last week. It said it was in part one and she said she's allergic and there was a space. And then after the space it had read in brackets. Well, my husband student, Well, she's going to be a food she's allergic to. It's a red food. What could it be? My student said Tomato. Teo. Good guess. I mean, but, you know, like that prediction. Can you guess what? The answer. Wass

spk_0:   54:40
allergic. Something red? Yeah. So it's wrote a red food. Yeah. Read me.

spk_1:   54:46
Yes, May I would like to see the red meat or red wine. It was

spk_0:   54:50
read Y eso, but

spk_1:   54:53
getting your brain to actively predict the answers. And I'm thinking, What type of word is that means that when you listen, you're going to be actively listening.

spk_0:   55:04
Yeah, I think that's the key thing, and it's really possible to predict just by looking at the questions, you really can predict some answers. It's just so obvious. Sometimes

spk_1:   55:13
I think the other Maya, the top tip is once the text starts, is always listen for two questions. So if you've underlined the key word, so if you know that question one is, you're gonna listen for a number I don't know, like the size of a country. And if number two you're going to listen for, I know the most popular animals. You listening for an animal? If you hear the animal, you know that you've missed the question about the number.

spk_0:   55:48
True. Yes, everything is incorrect. Order isn't

spk_1:   55:51
everything is in the same order on although you've missed one answer because sometimes if it's a numbers, maybe they may say 1/4. So you're waiting to hear 10,000 and you miss 1/4 if you hear the name. If you hear Tiger and you understand that's the next question, you can then start listening again. The worst thing you can do is to be sitting waiting for Question number one, and then the tape stops on. I've seen this happen in many exam rooms where the tape stops and the students just I didn't know I was listening for number one, and it's finished, so that's the worst thing that can happen to you. But if you listen always, if you always know what the next question is gonna be, yeah, that's a great way to make sure that never happens to you. Co. Anything else might spelling. Yeah,

spk_0:   56:43
Spelling is absolutely critical, and luckily, you do have time to transfer your answers onto the onto the answer. She on DH. That's the time that I mean, when you're writing the answers down and you're listening, don't worry about your spelling massively, because you will have time at the end to transfer and to cheque. Very importantly, cheque Your spelling.

spk_1:   57:04
I totally agree, I would say, apart from the questions where they spell something for you and

spk_0:   57:09
you need to

spk_1:   57:09
write it down. Definitely worry about spelling in the transfer time. Also in the transfer time is really, really important that you only use the correct number of words. For most questions, it will say Use one word on DH or a number or used up to three words on DH or a number If it says use one word and you write two words. So if if you write big car instead of car and that's what I think, it's the wrong answer. So So in the time you have to cheque in the 10 minute transfer time cheque again that you're only written the number of words because sometimes they repeat words which are already written on the paper, so it might say on the paper Big space. So if you write big car it now, says Big, big Car, that's a trick how they confuse you. So use that time in. If you take the computer test, you only have two minutes now to cheque. That sounds like a big difference, but actually 80% of the aisles questions are just multiple choice or click, so you don't need to write or cheque the spelling of that. There's usually only seven or eight answers which require you to write, don't you? Yes, you can cheque those relatively quickly. Okay, that is the end of our listening 11 There's a lot of information here, but guess what? You could listen again. More practise. You're listening. Theme. The next episode we are going to be moving forward. Toa Isles reading on. They just totally forget to read the list, and they just spend 10 minutes doing like a grammar logic puzzle, trying to read the beginnings and the ends of the senses. Don't do that. It's a reading question. So that's what we'll be discussing in the next episode to make sure you don't miss it. Remember to subscribe to us on iTunes, stitcher, Google play or any podcast provider on We'll see you next week.

spk_0:   59:34
My own classroom podcast is production of my I R Classroom Limited. Nick and I do not represent eyelets on everything you heard in this episode is our own personal. You can find the show notes and transcript for this episode on our block. That's blogged dot my classroom dot com. And if you're looking for our video courses speaking lessons on marking service, you can find that at www dot my i's classroom doctor. If you have a question or query or just want to chat, you can t. Melnick and I at hello at my iob dot com. Our fee music is by heartbeat on. Our artwork is produced by David. Have a great week. Study hard and remember, thiss is my Isles classroom. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.

Introduction
Basic facts about the IELTS listening test
What types of questions will I have to answer in the IELTS listening exam?  
Which skills are being tested in the IELTS listening exam?
What accents can I expect to hear in the IELTS listening exam?
How many points do I need to get a 6.0 or a 7.0?
What happens in IELTS listening Part One?
Why was the example removed from the test?
What happens in IELTS listening Part Two?
What happens in IELTS listening Part Three? 
What happens in IELTS listening Part Four?
Final advice for the listening exam