IELTS listening practice test: Effective gap-filling strategies for 8+bands

Undoubtedly, it is now trending to move abroad for higher studies or work opportunities. But there are some procedures which one needs to follow by all means. They have to undergo an IELTS exam either academic or general depending upon their targets. Most importantly, candidates have to attend IELTS online coaching to get a good score. Though there are four modules to work on. But the listening module needs a little harder practice. You can train yourself through the IELTS listening practice test.

 You can focus on some IELTS listening practice tips to achieve a satisfactory IELTS listening score. Here are some of them: 

 Grammar

Students need to know that using Incorrect grammar will impact the marking. So, it is a must to be careful with grammar usage. For example, plural nouns, singular nouns, tenses, and verbs. Also, the names of countries, and cities must be in capital letters.

Spelling

Also, incorrect spelling will also affect your IELTS scores. So, you must be very careful while mentioning the answers. 

 Handwriting

Your handwriting should be nice and clear enough for the examiner to check your answers clearly.

 Use all capitals

There is no problem in writing your answers in CAPITALS. It is a good idea for those who rush to catch up on time. Therefore, you will not lose scores. 

Concentrate to Avoid Skipping Audio

A very common mistake that candidates do in completing questions in IELTS listening is to skip the audio. Since the speaker is saying a lot of things about the topic, you are likely to get distracted and lose concentration in between. Here, you must concentrate a lot till the audio is stopped so that you may not skip any part of the audio and hence you would be able to complete all the questions well. So, keep on practicing to improve your concentration level in order to perform well in these questions.

Keep in Mind Word Instruction

Another common silly mistake that you can avoid in completing the question of IELTS listening is to always keep the word instruction in mind. Usually, the word instruction is one word but it can also be more than two words or three words. Just underline whatever instruction is written at the top of the question or you may like to encircle it so that it gets highlighted well on the question paper.

You Can Do Rough Work

You can make the habit of doing rough work by writing down words on the question paper once you hear them. This can help you stay concentrated as well. You can cross the words or replace them once you hear the next part of the audio. The habit of being ready to immediately write down whatever you hear as your answer will help you to avoid skipping any part of the audio.

Use the time before the audio clip starts

Candidates get some time before they start hearing the audio. They should consume this period smartly since they already get the question paper. You can see where the blank spaces are on the paper that you have. Also, you can find the location of the gaps or blanks in sentences. Hence, you can also guess your answer. Whether it be noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc. So, you can understand what you might expect to fill the gaps. That means it can be a mobile number, a card number, a business name, an address, a date, etc. Also, it will be very beneficial for you to target some specific areas of the audio. It is feasible if you spend a few seconds to make good guesses or expectations before you begin listening to the clip. Candidates need to be very wise and fast before they start the IELTS listening tests. The quicker you can do it, the better you begin understanding as the listening starts. 

IELTS listening practice test: Must Know Word Limit

It is one of the most imperative points for the IELTS Listening part. Many people don’t take the instructions seriously, hence they lose marks. They must ensure that they stay within the specific range of the word limit. Many students lose marks on exceeding the limit. Therefore, the answer is marked wrong, even if they write the correct information.

IELTS listening practice test: Learn to deal with Confusing Letters

 Undoubtedly, it is a tricky section of IELTS Listening. Your examiner may puzzle you by using the same sound of letters, for example, A, B, D, H, G, N, M. The alphabet's final sounds are precisely the same. It is significant to practice listening to these sounds at home. And, you must be capable to find the fine differences in their pronunciation. It will benefit you in the IELTS examination.​Also, there are some names, phrases, or addresses that you are unfamiliar with. They will spell it clearly if anything in IELTS listening is unknown to you. For instance, if instructions ask you to respond in A NUMBER OR NOT MORE THAN A WORD, your answer can be one word, a single number, or a word and a number. But, if it mentions writing NOT MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER, Then your answer is either One word, one number, or a word and number, two words, two words, and a number (Example: 11 Oxford Street).

Gap Filling with a Date in IELTS Listening Test

You must know about the different date formats for IELTS Listening exam preparation. It is because each country may have a varied date format. For instance, either “20 July 2021” or “the twentieth of July 2022”, are correct date formats. Moreover, spelling is a must for IELTS. Candidates need to remember the correct spellings of all days of the week, and the names of months. Moreover, you must not forget to use capital letters for writing the name of days and months. Also, there are a few terms that you must know like, weekends for Saturday and Sunday, and the fortnight for 14-day periods.

IELTS Listening Tip: Deal with Word Trap

You must know that IELTS examiners are smart enough to trick you. For instance, a Candidate sometimes gets tricked by listening to the recording. It often happens that he may listen to the statement, described initially by the speaker, thinking it to be the answer. But, the speaker may change her statement the second time. Similarly, it continues to happen a couple of times more. In that phase of listening, you need to be calm and careful. You have to wait till the speaker ends his statement. Then you can choose the right answer to the given question blank. 

Bonus topic: GUIDANCE ON RETAKING IELTS EXAM

Conclusion 

At last, it is a good decision to prepare for ​​the IELTS listening practice test. You can either join IELTS online coaching like Dr. Roma Ielts to build more confidence for your exam.

Dr. Roma

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