IELTS listening section one contains a dialogue between two people in daily settings about general needs. When you are listening, you need to fill in the blanks with information in the dialogue. It is not a difficult part of the listening test. Therefore, our goal is to get all answers correct in this section. 

Read Instructions and Questions Carefully

The first thing you need to do is to read the instructions and questions carefully. Instructions are important because they tell you what to do. Take the following sentence for example:

Write no more than one word and/or a number for each answer.

You need to know that you should write just one word/number for each blank. Always keep it in your mind when writing your answers.

The questions will tell you what kind of information is required. As reading questions while listening will distract you, it is better to read them while the speaker is reading the example question.

Use Your Prior Knowledge

Then you can use your prior knowledge to predict / guess the words. Prior knowledge refers to your own knowledge and life experience. Most situations in IELTS listening section one are familiar to students. Here is a list of common situations and related vocabulary in this section.

• Accommodation

Payment: cash, check, credit card, money order, prepayment, deposit, receipt

House type: house, flat, dorm / dormitory / boarding house, camp, housing, homestay, student hostel

 Facilities: gym, laundry, furniture (which mostly are wooden, such as table, sofa, bed),

 (mainly electrical devices) household appliances

• Library

ID: ID card, passport, driving license/licence, student card, membership card

Book type: novel, magazine, newspaper, fiction, non-fiction, journal, reference book

Rules: due date, loan period, fine, renew a book

• Bank

Types of bank account: saving account, checking account, deposit account, debit card, credit card

Activities: withdraw money, transfer money, deposit money, open/suspend/activate an account

Required information: billing address, phone number, bank statement

• Booking a flight

Basic information: departing date, returning date, first/business/economy class

Types of ticket: one-way, round-trip, multi-destination, non-stop flight

• Buying insurance

Types of insurance: home insurance, medical and dental insurance, life insurance, travel insurance, critical illness insurance

Other related words: coverage, third party, monthly/half-yearly/annually payment, insurance terms

Write Down Answers on the Paper First (for paper-based IELTS)

Although the computer-delivered IELTS is becoming more and more common, the majority of IELTS test-takers still take the exam in its “classic” paper-based form. If your IELTS will be paper-based, be prepared to do some old-fashioned writing by hand.

When you are listening, write down answers on the test paper first and then transfer them to the answer sheet. Writing down answers on the answer sheet will be a distraction because you have to pay attention to handwriting and spelling. Besides, you will have another 10 minutes to finish your answer sheet at the end of the listening section.

Check Spelling and Grammar

Before handing in your answer sheet, do not forget to check spelling and grammar, especially the plural and past forms of nouns and verbs. Although most students understand these rules, they may have careless mistakes in the test.

Form completion questions are one of the easiest types of IELTS Listening questions to answer as long as you know how to recognize and write the vocabulary they typically contain.

You also need a good strategy to follow. I cover all this and many valuable tips in this lesson. The lesson includes:

• Question types 

• Strategy & tips 

• Vocabulary 

Question types

Form completion questions are common in Section 1 of the test and the recording will often be a telephone conversation between two people.

The two most common types of form you’ll see are:

• An application form

• An order or quotation form

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Strategy & Tips

You will have a short time to prepare before the speakers begin talking. Use this time to familiarize yourself with the question and focus your mind on what you need to listen out for.

1) Read the instructions

Read the instruction carefully, paying particular attention to how many words you are allowed to write for the answer.

The instructions for our sample question state that you must,

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

If you write more than three words, your answer will be marked incorrect even if the information you give is correct. Don’t lose marks over silly mistakes like this.

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2) Look for a title

Not every question will have a title but if there is one, it will tell you the context of the question. 
Knowing the context gives meaning to the information in the notes. This will help you to understand the question and give you a big clue as to what sort of information will be contained in the recording.

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3) Predict the answers

Try to predict what the answers might be. This will focus your mind on what to listen out for in the recording.

Occasionally, you’ll be able to predict the actual word but mostly it’s one of these things that you’ll be able to determine:

• The type of information required, e.g. surname, place name, date, phone number, postcode, percentage, price.

• The type of word required, e.g. noun, adjective, verb.

The answers to form completion questions will usually be factual information such as that listed in the first bullet point above.

Any clues you can get will help you to understand the recording and identify the information needed for the answers.

Have a go at predicting some of the answers in our form completion practice question. There are 8 answers to fill in. Then have a look at my predictions below.

Predictions:

1  –  a surname

2  –  the college name

3  –  a postcode made up of letters and numbers

4 & 5  –  numbers of measurement

6 & 7  –  nouns (items in the box)

8 –  numbers written as a price

Answers 1 and 2 will be proper nouns so, the first letter of each word must be a capital. If you don’t use capitals, your answer will be marked wrong.

If you're concerned that you'll forget, write all your answers for the Listening test in capital letters.

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4) Problematic vocabulary

There are 7 types of vocabulary that can cause particular problems for students and some of them will definitely be present in form completion questions, as we've just seen. The 6 types are:

• Time

• Numbers

• Prices

• Dates

• Letters

• Addresses

• Zip codes

You must be able to recognize them in speech and to write them correctly in your answers.

Learn about all types of zip code formatting around the world

https://www.geoapify.com/postcode-formats-around-the-world/

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5) Synonyms and paraphrasing

In all types of Listening questions, you need to listen out for synonyms and paraphrasing. These are something else that you may be able to predict.

If you have time before the recording starts, scan the question to identify key words or phrases that are likely to be replaced by synonyms and think of some that might be used. For example, the word ‘box’ might be used instead of ‘container’.

As you’re listening to the recording, remind yourself that you are not only looking for the exact words as are used in the question but words and phrases that have the same meaning.

We’ll look at some synonyms that have been used in this question when we review the answers

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6) Watch out for distractors

The examiners will try and catch you out with distractors. A distractor is a word or a phrase that changes or corrects the original piece of information given. So, you may be given an answer and then have it taken away again.

Here are some sample sentences containing distractors. I’ve highlighted the relevant words.

• I really like the blue blouse but I think I’ll go for the red one as it will match my skirt better.

• The package contains clothes, toys and five books. However, I’ll take out the books if their weight makes shipping too expensive.

• I’d like to order two, please. No, wait a minute. I’ll have three so that I can give one to my mum as well as my sister.

‘But’ and ‘however’ are particularly common distractors but there are many different words and phrases that can be used to change or correct a piece of information so be alert for them.

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7) Answer order

The answers will come in the same order in the recording as they are listed in the question so, you will hear answer 1 first, then answer 2 and so on. This makes it easier to pick out the answers than if they were in a random order.

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8) Guess if necessary

My final tip is to never leave a blank space on the answer sheet. If you miss an answer, take an educated guess. This gives you at least some chance of getting it right. Don’t stress about a missed answer or it will affect your ability to answer the next set of questions. Just make your choice and move on.

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4    These 3 variations are acceptable:

• 0.75 m/metre(s)/meter(s) (wide)

• ¾ m (wide)

• 75 cm(s) (wide) 

5    These 4 variations are acceptable:

• 0.5 m/metre(s)/meter(s) (high/deep)

• half metre/meter (high/deep)

• ½ m (high/deep)

• 50 cm(s) (high/deep)

6 & 7  These 2 answers can be written in either order:

• (some) books

• (some) toys  

8    1,700

We’ll now look at them in context and examine the language that has been used.

Answer 1: Mkere

Here’s the section of dialogue this answer appears in:

A  Can I take your name?

B  It’s Jacob Mkere.

A  Can you spell your surname, please?

B  Yes, it’s M-K-E-R-E.

It’s common in the IELTS Listening test to hear names spelt out. This is to test your knowledge of the different letter sounds, so make sure that you know them.

Pay particular attention to letters that sound similar when spoken, for example,

• Letters with an ‘ee’ sound – B, C, D, E, G, P, T, V

• Letters with an ‘ay’ sound – A, J, K

• M and N also sound very similar.

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Answer 2: Westall

Here’s the section of dialogue this answer appears in:

A  And where would you like the box picked up from?

B  From college, if possible.

A  Yes, of course. I’ll take down the address now.

B  It’s Westall College.

A  Is that W-E-S-T-A-L-L?

The answer is again spelt out and synonyms have also been used.

And where would you like the box picked up from?    Address to be collected from

In the dialogue, the company agent asks where the box should be picked up from. In the diagram the 'box' is labelled as a container.

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Answer 3: BS8 9PU

Here’s the section of dialogue this answer appears in:

A  Oh yes, I know it. And the postcode?

B  It’s BS8 9PU.

For this answer, there are more letters to listen for and also numbers.

For form completion questions, you need to understand how addresses are written. British and Australian addresses are the most likely address formats to be used, although you could get a US address.

Here are examples of all three:

UK

5 Springfield Road

Taunton

Somerset

TA2 6JS

Australia

Unit 12

834 Benambra Street

Hinnomunjie Victoria 3898

USA

Apartment 1c

217 Berwick Avenue

Boston, MA 02130

You must use capital letters for the letters in a postcode. Also, make sure that you can spell common words such as ‘road’, ‘street’ and ‘avenue’.

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Answer 4: Any of these 3 variations are acceptable:

• 0.75 m/metre(s)/meter(s) (wide)

• ¾ m (wide)

• 75 cm(s) (wide)

Here’s the section of dialogue this answer appears in:

A  Right ... and I need to know the size.

B  Yes, I’ve measured it carefully and it’s 1.5m long ...

A  Right.

B  0.75m wide ...

They have tried to catch you out by changing the form of some key words in this question and the next question from the adjective form to the noun form.

• long (adjective)    length (noun)

• wide (adjective)    width (noun)

• high / deep (adjective)    height / depth (noun)

It can be useful to learn some common proportions, for example,

• 0.25      ¼      a quarter

• 0.50     ½      a half

• 0.75      ¾      three quarters

These will be useful in several parts of your IELTS test. Proportions are one variation of the answer you could give for this question.

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Answer 5: Any of these 4 variations are acceptable:

• 0.5 m/metre(s)/meter(s) (high/deep)

• half metre/meter (high/deep)

• ½ m (high/deep)

• 50 cm(s) (high/deep)

Here’s the sentence this answer appears in:

B And it’s 0.5m high or deep.

We discussed this language in the previous answer.

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Answer 6 & 7: These 2 answers can be written in either order:

• (some) books

• (some) toys 

Here’s the section of dialogue they appear in:

A Can you tell me, you know, very generally, what will be in the box?

B Yes, there’s mostly clothes.                      

A OK.

B And there’s some books.

A OK. Good. Um ... Anything else?

B Yes, there’s also some toys.

This question uses a synonym:

What will be in the box?    contents

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Answer 8:  1,700

Here’s the section of dialogue this answer appears in:

A OK and what is the total value, do you think, of the contents?

B Well the main costs are the clothes and the books – they’ll be about £1500 but then the toys are about another two hundred – so I’d put down £1700.

Again, a synonym has been used:

cost    value

Recordings often include discussion of the cost or price of things. You’re most likely to hear the price expressed as dollars ($), pounds (£) or euros (€). Learn these symbols and know how to write the amounts.