With a lot of students studying overseas and people moving to live in other countries, IELTS is becoming a popular test. The best advice that I can give you for succeeding in the IELTS listening test is practice, practice, practice.
How to prepare for the IELTS listening part
And when you practice, here are some good habits to build:
1)Get used to a variety of accents. Don’t just watch American series. Make sure that you get a good intake of British accents but also New Zealand, Australian, Irish, and even Asian accents. They could all come up in your test.
2)Follow the instructions carefully. It doesn’t feel good to lose marks for silly mistakes.
3)Get used to guessing. Read the question before you listen and try to predict what they might say.
4)Use the background noise to help you to imagine the scene. If you imagine the scene, you are more likely to predict what they are about to say.
5)Try to read two questions. Sometimes they come soon after the one before so reading two questions will help you especially in the latter half of the test.
6)Be careful of speakers correcting themselves. They might say one answer and then change to another answer so be careful.
7)Look at any tables, labels and other visual clues. This will help you to know what to listen for.
8)Don’t leave any questions unanswered. Try to eliminate ridiculous answers first and then guess from what’s left. Also, if you leave a blank answer, you might mistakenly write the next answer there. Now every answer you write is in the wrong place.
Good technique and lots of practice will help you to feel confident in the test so try to make these habits yours and then you can relax and achieve the score that you really want.
Good luck.
