Understanding the IELTS Listening test format 

What is the format of the IELTS Listening Test?

This article is common for both the IELTS Academic and General Training tests.

The Listening Test Format

The listening test is of 40 minutes. Of these for 30 minutes you hear the recordings and answer on the question paper. You then get 10 minutes to transfer the answers to the answer sheet. Please note that the audio recordings are played once and only once. You cannot request for a recording to be replayed or paused. Once the recordings begin you will need to sit through the duration of the recordings and answer the questions. The ideal way to do this is to answer on the question paper while the recordings are playing. If you do make a mistake, you can easily strike out the answer or write next to it on the question paper instead of having to erase the answer and write, which you will have to do if you are writing on the answer sheet. The answers you write on the question paper are not checked at all.

The answers to the questions in these recordings will be in the order of the questions. Which means that answer to question 1 will be before the answer to question 2 and the answer to question 2 will be before answer to question 3 and so on. SO do not worry about the order.

The listening test has 4 audio recordings and there are 10 questions against each of these recordings. Thus, making it a total of 40 question for the listening test.

Let us understand what you will come across in these recordings.

The Listening test is designed to test your ability to listen and understand a conversation under various scenarios and situations. Accordingly, you will come across 4 different types of recordings.

1^st Section 

You will hear a dialogue between two people. They will discuss a general social situation or scenario. For example, they may be discussing the possibility of finding accommodation or booking tickets to a movie show.

2^nd Section

You will hear a monologue. Which means there will be just this one person speaking. The topic will be about an everyday social situation. For example, a speech about the local facilities or changes planned for an area

3^rd Section 

You will hear a conversation that may have up to 4 participants. Please note that it says up to 4, which means that there could be 2, 3 or 4 participants. This recording will be set in an educational or training context. The scenario could be a professor and students discussing an assignment, a set of students figuring out how to approach an exam or a team of people assessing the results of a research project.

4^th Section 

You will once again listen to a monologue, which means only one person will be speaking. The topic of this monologue will be academic. The speaker may read out a university lecture, an article from a science magazine or an excerpt from a published paper.

Question Types

There are 6 question types on the IELTS Listening test.

Multiple Choice questions ask you to choose the best answer from the given list of options. You need to choose the answer that you think is the best suited to the question. In certain cases, you may have to choose more than 1.

Matching questions require that you match the information provided in a numbered list with the correct option. There will be multiple question in a row that will ask you to choose the right option from the same list.

Map/Plan/Diagram labelling are for an image. You will see a box in which there will be multiple options to choose from. The image itself will have blanks that need to be filled. So, you need to listen to the recording carefully and then fill out the blanks using the correct option.

Table/Form/Note/Summary/Flow Chart completion questions ask you to fill out the correct information in the blanks provided. There will be no accompanying list of options instead you will hear the recording and fill the blanks with the correct answers by choosing the information from the recording.

Sentence Completion questions ask you to complete a partial sentence that has been presented as a question. You will hear the recording and answer the question directly.

Short Answer questions You will be presented with a question and you need to identify the answer from the recording. Now please note that these are not answers where you write full sentences or paragraphs. These answers will be no more than three words and/or a number. Nowhere in the Listening test will you come across a question that allows you to write more than three words and/or a number.

To know what type of questions to expect on the other 3 modules, you can read the following articles: 

- What to expect on the Speaking Test ?

- What to expect on the Academic Reading Test?

- What to expect on the General Training Reading Test?

- What to expect on the Academic Writing Test?

- What to expect on the General Training Writing Test?

- Understanding the IELTS Test format - Paper based Test

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