IELTS · 20% of test plan
Listening for the IELTS Exam
Listening is identical for Academic and General Training candidates. Section 4 (academic lecture) is the highest-failure section because it has no built-in pauses for question reading.
Locale-specific study guides
Pass-rate data, regulatory context, and study tips for Listening all change by candidate locale. Pick your context:
Common failure modes
These are the patterns that cause most candidates to lose marks on this topic. Recognising them in advance is half the work.
- !Spelling errors transferred to the answer sheet
- !Wrong number-format on completion items (singular vs plural, hyphen vs space)
- !Missing the cue word that signals the answer
- !Falling behind in Section 4 because there's no pause
Study tips
- 1Practice section-by-section transcription drills daily.
- 2Drill numbers, dates, and addresses — these dominate Section 1.
- 3Read the questions during the 30-second preview; predict the part of speech for each blank.
- 4Use the 10 minutes at the end to transfer answers carefully — spelling counts.
Sample IELTS Listening questions
These sample items mirror the format and difficulty of real IELTS questions. Practice with thousands more on the free Koydo question bank.
- 1
On the Listening test answer sheet, the answer "21 high street" should be written:
- Aexactly as heard, lowercase
- B21 High Street (proper-noun capitalisation)
- C21 HIGH STREET (all caps)
- DEither case is acceptedCorrect
Why this answer?
IELTS accepts answers in any case (all lowercase, all caps, or mixed) on the answer sheet. The marking is case-insensitive. However, spelling and punctuation must be correct.
Practice IELTS reading, writing, listening, speaking — free.
Band-7 vocabulary, Task-1 / Task-2 templates, and AI speaking partners that score by band descriptors.