Tip 1 As in any part of the exam, there are no lost marks for wrong answers. So, if you don’t know- guess!

Tip 2 All the parts of the paper are heard only once- so don’t do lots of textbook listenings where they hear twice. It can be useful, however, to occasionally play IELTS exam listenings through again while they read the tape script.

Tip 3 Although the question papers will be collected in, only the answer sheets will be marked. Students can therefore write anything they like on the question sheet. In fact, making a few notes as they listen will give students a chance to guess any answers they have missed during the time given to transfer answers to the answer sheet.

Tip 4 Grammar, spelling and punctuation (e.g. capital letters) must also be correct for all answers.

Tip 5 There are things that students must get right to get the points which do not have anything to do with listening comprehension (e.g. getting grammar right, see Tip 4). These things can therefore be practiced in the classroom without even using a tape. Simply give students an answer sheet where the answers are written out wrongly (e.g. 5 words or with a common spelling mistake) and get them to correct it. Give them a strict time limit, as they won’t have much time to do this in the exam. See example worksheets and Lesson Plan. Alternatively, give them a question paper with these kind of errors on it and get them to transfer the answers to the answer sheet whilst correcting any mistakes.

Tip 6 Of course, the best practice for the listening paper is to listen to as much English as possible. Students should try to listen to radio as well as watch TV, as they can’t rely on visual prompts in the exam. If they want to watch movies etc, then anything in an academic setting should include relevant vocabulary, e.g. Educating Rita or The Dead Poet’s Society.