1) Listen to English every day

The only way to improve your listening skills is to listen to English every day. It doesn’t matter if it’s just 10 or 15 minutes here and there as you’re travelling on a bus, eating lunch or cooking the tea, just listen to something.

You need to hear English used naturally in many different contexts and spoken with a range of accents. In your test, you could hear speakers from the UK (including different regional accents), Ireland, the US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia or South Africa.

2) Listen to a range of things

The test will include two monologues (one person speaking) and two conversations, so you must practice listening to both. You’ll find all the practice material you need online. Podcasts and TED Talks are great for listening to monologues, and radio broadcasts and interviews on YouTube ideal for conversations.

3) Improve your vocabulary

The third of my IELTS Listening tips might seem obvious but many students don’t know the most effective way to improve their vocabulary. Just memorizing lists of new words will achieve very little. You won’t fully understand the words – what they mean and how they’re used in context – and you’ll quickly forget them.

When you listen to spoken English, listen actively, that is, note down words you hear that are unfamiliar or you don’t fully understand. Then, check them out in a dictionary. Note the meaning, pronunciation, how the word is used in a sentence, common synonyms, antonyms and collocations. Record all this information in your vocabulary notebook.

Yes, this takes time, but it’s time well spent. Every time you do this, you will have added one more word to your vocabulary that you’ll remember and be able to use confidently in all parts of the IELTS exam.

4) Have a strategy

To score highly in the Listening test, you need to understand the 10 different types of questions and have a strategy for answering them.

• Matching

• Multiple choice

• Note completion

• Form completion

• Table completion

• Sentence completion

• Summary completion

• Short answer questions

• Map & plan labelling

• Diagram & flowchart completion

5) Identify your weaknesses

Throughout the website, you will hear me say, ‘Practice, Practice, Practice’. This is true, of course, but practice wisely. Just completing practice test after practice test isn’t necessarily going to improve your score. Take time to analyze your results and determine what mistakes you are regularly making. Then, work on improving these.

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Extra IELTS Listening Tip 1:

Check your spelling. If it’s wrong you’ll lose the mark.

Is it grammar that’s letting you down, a limited range of vocabulary or do you find it hard to follow conversations? Identify your greatest challenges and focus on them.

The Cambridge English books of authentic test papers (and some online tests) include transcripts of the recordings. These will help you to understand why you got a particular answer wrong.

6) The introduction

My next two IELTS Listening tips relate to the test itself. First, the introduction.

Before the first speaker begins talking, there will be an introduction by a narrator in which you’ll be told what the recording is about, e.g.

You will hear a part of a seminar entitled Understanding the World's Oceans given by a climate scientist.

The speaker will then begin the talk or conversation by introducing themselves and, often, the subject or purpose of the talk, e.g.

Thanks to all of you for coming along today to hear about how the robotic float project is helping with ocean research.

These introductions give important information that will help you to understand the recording, So, listen carefully right from the start.

7) Signpost language

As the speaker(s) talk, listen out for signpost language. We use signposting to connect ideas and indicate to the listeners that we're moving on to a new idea. Signpost language includes words such as,

• first

• second

• then

• next

• after that

• finally

In a map or plan labelling question, you might hear phrases such as,

• Moving on...

• Now we come to...

• Beyond the library, you’ll come to the...

Extra IELTS Listening Tip 2:

Synonyms and paraphrasing will be used. Listen for the keywords in the questions but also, different words and phrases that have the same meaning.

These also indicate progression.

Recognizing signpost language will help you to follow the recording more easily and better understand what is being said.

8) Capital letters

My next IELTS Listening tip concerns a grammar issue. Remember to use capital letters for proper nouns. If you forget, your answer will be marked wrong.

A proper noun is the name given to something to make it more specific. For example,

Common noun 

a boy 

a city 

a country 

a day 

an organization

Proper noun 

Alex 

London 

China 

Monday 

United Nations

If you have difficulty remembering this grammar rule, write your answers for the Listening test in capitals so you don’t make a mistake.

9) Read the instructions

Read the instruction carefully, paying particular attention to how many words you’re allowed to write for the answer. For example,

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.

Other questions might tell you to write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS or ONLY ONE WORD, so be careful. Don’t lose marks over silly mistakes like this.

10) Are you ready?

Don’t book your test until you’re ready to take it. I get many emails from students asking for last-minute IELTS Listening tips and tricks as their exam is a few weeks away and they know their English is not good enough for the score they want.

If you’re not ready, don’t take the test!

Some additional hints

1. Complete official practice tests under exam conditions.

2. Identify any particular question types that caused you problems.

3. Analyze your mistakes.

4. Think about why you made those mistakes. What were the particular reasons why you answered those questions incorrectly? Was it timing, strategy, vocabulary, grammar, listening skills, spelling?

5. Focus on improving your weakest areas first.

6. Repeat the process until you are consistently getting the score you need.