You will be listening for a purpose and hear a variety of accents.
A variety of voices is used in the IELTS Listening test, so you might hear Australian, British, New Zealand or North American accents.
You will be listening to a pre-recorded CD-ROM, and the passages that you hear will increase in difficulty as you go through the test.
The content of the Listening test is the same for both IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training tests.
Purpose of the test
The IELTS Listening test is designed to assess a wide range of listening skills, including how well you
understand main ideas and specific factual information
recognise the opinions, attitudes and purpose of a speaker
follow the development of an argument
Timing
The IELTS Listening test takes approximately 30 minutes, and you are allowed an extra 10 minutes to transfer your answers from your question booklet to your answer sheet.
Four sections
The IELTS Listening test is broken down into four sections:
Section Description
1 You listen to a conversation between two people set in an everyday social situation, e.g. a conversation in an accommodation agency, and answer questions on your comprehension.
2 You listen to a monologue set in an everyday social situation, e.g. a speech about local facilities or a talk about the arrangements for meals during a conference.
3 You listen to a conversation between up to four people set in an educational or training context, e.g. a university tutor and a student discussing an assignment, or a group of students planning a research project.
4 You listen to a monologue on an academic subject, e.g. a university lecture.
You will begin by listening to a recording of instructions and a sample question for section 1. Then you will read the questions for section 1, listen to section 1, and answer the questions.
This procedure is repeated for sections 2, 3 and 4.
In the final 10 minutes, you will transfer your answers onto the answer sheet.
Each section is heard once only.
Questions
There are 40 questions.
A variety of question types is used, and you may be asked to
answer multiple choice questions
label a plan, map or diagram
fill in a form
complete a table
complete a flow-chart
give short answers
