By Ma
In the previous article of the series “IELTS Exam Preparation”, I shared with you the latest news about the IELTS listening format, as well as the characteristics of three types of questions: Multiple Choice, Matching and Plan, Map, Diagram Labelling (Click here to re-read the article). In this piece, I will go on showing you the remaining three question type, before shedding light on how to prepare the test.
Form, Note, Table, Flow-chart, Summary Completion
As indicated in the sub-heading, in this question-type an exam taker needs to fill in the form such as an application form, take notes using a given layout (as seen in the sample question below), complete a table where basic information such as venue, time, details are summarized or fill out the flow chart indicating steps or directions.
For instance, in the above sample question, a candidate is shown with a layout titled “The National Arts Centre”. Therefore, s/he will expect to hear something related to the building such as its structures, history and management team. What is assessed in this question type is the candidate’s ability to understand the main points of the broadcast. Note-completion question appears more often in Part 1 and 4, and quite rarely in Part 2 or 3.
Sentence Completion
Sentence completion is a rather straight-forward question type. You will be given three or four incomplete sentences and you need to complete them by filling in sometimes no more than two words or sometimes no more than three, depending on the instruction.
One thing to note in this type of questions is that you should pay close attention to the cause-and-effect among the sentences as they are pertinent to each other. From the above sample sentence, you can already guess Rachel will probably talk about her experience of studying and working at the same time, her difficulty encountered in the study, as well as how she overcomes the problem and what she achieves in the end.
Sentence completion is more frequently seen in Part 4 than in Part 2 or Part 3.
Short Answer Questions
A candidate is required to give a short answer after reading the question and listening to the recordings. The questions can be very diverse. If you have a look at the sample question, you need to complete the cycle, in addition to filling in two/three words in some sentences (Click here to see the whole sample question).
However, you will perform well in this question type if you listen carefully and focus on particular information required in the question paper. This type of questions is more likely to be found in Part 1 and Part 4.
Preparations:
Having seen the various sorts of questions, now it is time to think about how to prepare separate part of the listening test.
As you can see, Part 1 usually requires a candidate to complete a form by filling out proper names, date, price or one single word, it should be the easiest among all. Those aiming at obtaining a score of 5 or above should get all the questions correct in this part. Meanwhile, proper nouns appear quite often in the answers, so you should make sure of spelling the words correctly. Particular training on the spelling (e.g. months, English names of boys and girls) may be preferred before handling this part.
The level of difficulty rises when you goes on filling out the answer. Part 2, as discussed earlier, requires you to read a plan/map/diagram or to answer multiple choice questions. Thus it is necessary for you to master perfectly words and expressions related to direction and position. To list a few expressions, they are:
opposite, next to, located in, to the left/right of, located in the end of …, far side of , near side of , at the end of the road, located in the centre of …,
turn left, turn right, straight ahead, front, back
Part 3 involves discussion of at least two people on a particular issue. Some of the common topics include working on a project or seeking academic advice. In part 4, on the other hand, you will always hear a seminar talk or an academic lecture, after the recording of which you need to either complete the sentences or to give some short answers.
Part 3 and Part 4 are two most difficult parts in the listening test. Your score will be mostly affected by how well you have done in these parts. If you want to succeed in obtaining a good score, I would suggest you watch videos of TEDx where you will find the formality and tone used very similar to the last part of the recording. You can simply find any lecture or talk that may interest you among those videos. Go try to listen to one video every day and summarize yourself what the speaker talks about.
Accent Training
If you read IELTS official website carefully, you will see that “[the speakers of the recordings in the test] include a range of accents, including British, Australian, New Zealand, American and Canadian” is clearly stated. This means you should not skew in favour of watching American movies but should also get accustomed to various English accents. To achieve this, you can listen to news from different countries or watch videos/movies where different actors/actresses speak in different accents.
Other Exam Strategies
Make Good Use of the Time Given to Read the Questions
As some time is given to you to read each part of the questions, you should skim through them, identify the question type and analyze briefly what you may expect to hear in the recordings. Try to think whether you need to jot down a date, time or price, or whether you should summarize whatever is heard.
Do Not Cry over the Spilled Milk
Some prospective candidates may fret that the questions may not follow the order. the official website, however, has demystified this kind of redundant worry: “The questions are designed so that the answers appear in the order they are heard in the audio”.
In other words, if you miss the answer of one question, do not look back and keep moving on to the next question.
Read the Instructions Carefully:
Often, there are instructions that tell the candidate the maximum number of words or the maximum times of the same number they can fill in. Therefore, if you see something like ‘NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER’, obey strictly what you are told or you will lose the mark.
Word counting can be tricky. IELTS exam setters already spotted the problem and have issued two crystal clear guidelines that help a would-be exam taker to solve the problem:
Contracted words will NOT be tested
Hyphenated words count as single words
The first guideline implies that instead of writing ‘I’d like’ and ‘He doesn’t sleep’, write ‘I would like’ (3 words) and ‘He does not sleep’ (4 words). The second guideline states that ‘5-year-olds’ and ‘He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’ are both counted as one word.
That is what I want to share today. If you have any particular problem regarding the test, don’t hesitate to comment below! We will try to answer your questions as best as we can.
Reference:
IELTS. [https://www.ielts.org/about-the-test/test-format]
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