IELTS Listening Test Format
The Important Numbers
Questions: A variety (e.g. gap-filling, multiple choice, and so on).
Section 1 : A Dialogue of Social Nature (e.g. a student calling an ESL school to find out about their English Language courses)
Length: Around 9 minutes (including instructions)
Skills Tested: Listening for factual information
Tasks : Short-answer Questions (frequently)
Section 1 is the easiest section. If you want to score 7.0 in Listening,
you should not make any mistakes in this section.
Section 2 : A Monologue of Social Nature (e.g. a talk about a new park)
Length: Around 6-7 minutes
Skills Tested: Listening for factual information
Tasks : Sentence completion, map/diagram completion and/or multiple choice questions
Spelling and Grammar are also checked in the IELTS Listening Test.
Test takers are given 1 mark if their answer is grammatically right and spelled correctly. There are no half marks in IELTS.
Section 3 : A Discussion (2-4 people) of Educational Nature (e.g. a discussion between a professor and a research student)
Length: Around 6-7 minutes
Skills Tested: Listening for specific information, speaker’s attitude and opinion
Tasks : Form/notes/summary completion, classifying and/or multiple choice questions
It is recommended that you write all your answers in capital letter (e.g. PARK) on the IELTS Listening and Reading Answer Sheet.
Section 4 : A Lecture of Educational Nature (e.g. a lecture on art history)
Length: Around 6-7 minutes
Skills Tested: Listening for specific information, speaker’s attitude and opinion
Tasks : Table/map/diagram/summary completion, classifying and/or multiple choice questions
You can abbreviate commonly abbreviated words in English, such as km for “kilometer” or St for “street”. You cannot abbreviate days of weeks or months.
