DailyMocksLessons / Listening
IELTS Listening
Learn what each Listening part asks
You answer 40 questions while you listen to about 30 minutes of audio. You hear each part once. There is no replay or pause. You get two minutes to check your answers before the section submits. Academic and General Training use the same Listening section.
What each part is
| Part | Questions | What you hear | What makes it hard |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1–10 | Two people in an everyday exchange. A booking, an enquiry, a registration. | Most answers are close to the words you hear. Small details can cost marks, especially when a speaker corrects themselves. |
| 2 | 11–20 | One speaker addressing the public. A tour, an induction, a radio feature. | The language gets harder. Sentences are longer and the answers use different words from the question. |
| 3 | 21–30 | Two to four people in an academic discussion. Usually students, sometimes a tutor. | Follow the speakers. They may interrupt each other, so keep track of who said what. |
| 4 | 31–40 | One lecturer, speaking without interruption on an academic topic. | The language is dense. The lecture uses long sentences and has no mid-part break. |
Remember this: Part 4 is hard because the language is dense and there is no break. The lecturer does not need to rush. Practise each part in the way it tests you.
Use the pauses before the audio
Each part has the same shape. Use the pauses to read ahead.
A narrator introduces the setting and the speakers, then gives you a short pause to read the questions before the audio starts. In Parts 1 to 3 the recording usually breaks once in the middle, with another short pause to preview the second group of questions. Every part ends with a pause to check what you wrote.
Part 4 is the exception, and it matters. No mid-part break. You get one longer preview, because all ten questions are shown at once. Then the whole lecture runs straight through. Use the preview to read all ten questions.
Keep these Listening rules in mind. Answers arrive in the order of the recording. If you are waiting for question 14 and hear the answer to 15, question 14 is gone. Let it go. The recording plays once only, so stay with it and do not stop to dwell on a gap.
Spelling counts, and capitalisation does not. When a name or unusual word is spelled out in the audio, write the letters as you hear them, not the spelling you expect. When the audio ends, you have two minutes to check before the section submits. That is the computer rule. The ten-minute transfer time belonged to the paper test, which is being retired.
The Listening question types
IELTS Listening has 6 official question types. We teach them as 10 short lessons. True/False/Not Given is a Reading task, so it is not here.
- 1 Form completion Two people talk and you complete a form from what they say. Most common in Part 1.
- 2 Note completion Complete a set of structured notes with words from the recording. Most common in Part 4.
- 3 Table completion Fill the empty cells of a grid. Rows are things, columns are facts about them.
- 4 Flow-chart completion Complete the stages of a process, in the order the speaker walks through them.
- 5 Sentence completion Finish full written sentences with a word or two from the recording.
- 6 Short answer Direct questions with short factual answers. What, who, where, how long.
- 7 Multiple choice One question, three options, one answer. And every option gets mentioned.
- 8 Multiple choice, two or more answers Choose two or more correct options from a longer list.
- 9 Matching Assign a letter from a shared list to each item. People to opinions, places to features.
- 10 Map, plan and diagram labelling Follow spoken directions around a map or plan, matching letters to places.
After you read
Read a Listening lesson, then practise it free.
Every Listening question type has free practice in the app. Try one, and the review shows you the answer and why the wrong choices looked right. No payment needed.