The IELTS listening test is divided into four sections and the sections get increasingly difficult. You only hear each section one time.

The time for the test is 40 minutes. The listening takes 30 minutes, but you then have 10 minutes to transfer your answers to an answer sheet.

A range of English accents and dialects are used in the recordings which reflects the international usage of IELTS.

Test Overview:

Context Number of Speakers
Social Needs Conversation between two speakers
Social Needs Speech by one speaker
Educational or Training Conversation between up to four speakers
Academic Subject Speech by one speaker

These IELTS Listening Tips provide you with essential strategies to help you get the score you need in the exam.

Predict the topic

Predict the questions

Use a minute to look through each section

Careful with question order

Look at two questions at once

Move on if you miss an answer

Watch others if you’re completely lost

Look out for paraphrasing

Ignore words you don’t know

Underline key words

Take care with spelling and grammar

Use British or American spelling

Don’t worry about what you write on the exam sheet

Read the instructions

Use upper or lower case letters

Get used to the British accent

Practice the pronunciation of letter and numbers

Careful with what you write down

Don’t leave answers blank

Transfer your answers to the answer sheet carefully

Check your answers

Listen very carefully

Practice listening cally for IELTS, any kind of listening helps. Try to make listening fun and listen to things you like. You can move on to more difficult things as you improve.

Listen to lectures

Learn to listen and write together