So you’re starting to practice for the International English Language Test System. Listening is the first exam that you’ll be taking in the actual test, and to give you a bit of helping out, here is a mini-discussion about IELTS Listening Exam secrets.
The IELTS Listening Exam is a 4-part test that would evaluate your ability to comprehend spoken English and derive information from it. The exam is pretty straightforward: there are four recordings and you answer questions about it. However, there are some things we’re dishing out for smarter practice of the IELTS Listening Exam.
1. The IELTS Listening Exam makes use of a wide variety of English accents. So you’ve got the American accent figured out. Awesome. Now get ready to be exposed to British, Australian, Canadian, other English European accents, sometimes, Asian English accents.
2. The IELTS Listening Exam is chronologically arranged … thus, you may use the words in the question paper as landmarks to follow the recording. Wait for these landmarks – these key words – to be stated in the recording so you’ll have an idea if answers are about to be given.
3. The IELTS Listening Exam is arranged in order of increasing difficulty. This means that the highest possibility of perfecting sections is in the first two. Try and get these all correct so you can build up your points before diving into Sections 3 and 4, which are more challenging.
4. The IELTS Listening Exam gives you time to transfer your answers to an answer sheet…which is why you shouldn’t transfer any answer while the recording is being played. Relax. After the four sections, ten more minutes will be allocated for transferring answers.
5. The IELTS Listening Exam is as much about comprehension as it is about hearing. Concentrate on the message as well as the words. Difficult questions in the IELTS Listening exam would require you to understand what is being said and not simply remember the words spoken.
The IELTS Listening Exam can be the easiest exam for any test taker. All it takes is practice, concentration, and a little knowledge about the secrets of the exams. We’ve dished out the essential ones. Your turn to put these tidbits of information to practice.
Good luck!