PRACTICE Your Listening Skills in ENGLISH for IELTS | Get a Band 9

What you just listened to is an  example listening task that gives you  

an idea of what to expect on the IELTS exam. 

The IELTS exam is a globally recognized English  language exam, which you can take if you need to  

provide a certificate of your English proficiency  when you go to a university in the UK, Australia,  

Ireland, New Zealand, Canada and a number of  institutions in The United States as well.

IELTS tests your listening, speaking, reading  and writing. In this lesson we’ll focus on the  

listening part. You can use this lesson  to test your listening skills, whether  

you’re planning on taking this exam or not. The IELTS listening test consists of four  

recordings (or sections). Section  #1 and #2 use everyday English,  

while #3 and #4 use academic English. Sections #1  and #3 are a dialogue between two or more people,  

and recordings #2 and #4 are monologues,  meaning it’s just one person speaking.

From now on this video  breaks down into three parts.  

First you’ll listen to an audio recording that  Ethan and I made that corresponds to section #1.

Then, we’ll learn more about  the listening part of this test.  

After that, we’ll move on to another recording,  a monolog that corresponds to section #2.

If you give us some love by watching  this video from beginning to end,  

subscribing, liking and sharing it with a friend  

we’ll make sure to do another lesson with  sections #3 and #4. How does that sound?

In the exam you will have some time to look at  the questions before you listen to the recording.  

It’s important that you take  advantage of this opportunity  

and read the questions along with the options.  This way you’ll be more prepared to anticipate  

the answers as you listen to the recording. In this recording, I play a customer who’s  

booking a coach ticket to London. Ethan plays  the agent that is selling me this ticket.  

Take a look at the 4 questions that you’ll  answer while you’re listening to the recording.  

We’ll keep these questions  on screen for a few seconds,  

but pause for as long as it’s necessary  for you to read each question in detail.

Let's start with the recording.

Share your answers with us down  in the comments. We’ll share the  

correct answers in the pinned comment. What you just saw, is just a shortened  

version of what you can expect in section  #1. But, on the day of the test, you’ll take  

30 minutes to do the listening tasks for  the #4 sections and answer 40 questions.

Depending on how many of those 40 questions you  get right, you'll get a band score from 1 to 9. A  

test with between 26 to 30 answers right is going  to be good enough for most institutions, although  

a higher score might sometimes be required. Now, here’s a tip for preparing for the IELTS  

listening test. Start preparing well before the  test. Don’t make the typical mistake you’ve seen  

at your school or university, where on the  day before the exam everybody is revising,  

learning, memorising in the hope that’ll give them  a chance. That will not work in an exam like this.  

You have to use the weeks or months before the  exam to listen to as much English as possible.  

If you haven’t checked them out already, or if you  didn’t know, we have two podcasts, the RealLife  

English podcast and Beyond Borders. Download The  RealLife English app and listen to them there. You  

could listen to them on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or  any other podcast platform. However, if you listen  

to them on our app, you also get transcripts,  so that means that whenever you don’t understand  

a word, you can check the transcription and in  that way discover a new word, or clarify doubts  

with your listening. You can click up here or the  link down in the description to download it now.

Okay, let’s now move to the next recording, which,  as I said earlier, corresponds to section #2 of  

the IELTS listening test. You’ll hear me introduce  an amusement park. But, first take a look at the  

questions for this listening task. You can pause  to look at each question along with its options.

That brings this video to the  end. I hope you enjoyed it.  

Remember to share your answers in the comments  below and if you want to check the right answers,  

you'll find them in the description below. If you want to continue on the topic of  

international exams, watch this recent  lesson we've made with Josh MacPherson.  

Josh is an English teacher specializing in  helping students prepare for the TOEFL exam  

and Duolingo English test, two of the many  proficiency exams used by universities and  

other institutions in English-speaking countries.