Lessons / Listening / Short answer
IELTS Listening
Short answer
Direct questions with short factual answers. What, who, where, how long.
The instructions, word for word as the test writes them
Answer the questions below.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
What this task is
The plainest task in the test. A question, an answer. "What must visitors bring?" "Who funds the scheme?" The answer is a concrete fact stated in the recording.
A common variant asks you to list two or three things: "List TWO items members receive free", with each item as its own numbered question. In that form, the order you write them in does not matter.
The traps
These are built in on purpose. Know them by name and half the danger is gone.
The speaker mentions three things visitors might bring. The question wants only one. Its exact wording picks the winner: must, should, or can.
If the honest answer in your head is four words, you are holding the wrong answer. The real one fits the limit. That is a design rule of the test.
What to do next time
- Turn each question into a listening target before the audio. "How long" means a duration is coming. "Who" means a person or organisation.
- Answer with the fewest words that fully answer the question. Extra words risk the limit and add nothing.
- Question words are never decorative. "How many" wants a number, not "several".
Now meet it under a clock. Start a free mock. Every short answer question you get wrong comes back with the sentence that proves the answer, and the reason the trap was tempting.