Course
IELTS Listening
The Listening test is the same for Academic and General Training. Start with Lesson 1 to learn how the test works, then practise a strategy for each type of question. Every lesson has a recording you can play, with the transcript to check afterwards.
Before you start
What is the Listening test?
| Part | What you hear | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A conversation between two people | Everyday social situation, e.g. making travel arrangements |
| 2 | One speaker (a monologue) | Everyday social situation, e.g. a talk about local facilities |
| 3 | A conversation between two to four people | Education or training, e.g. a tutor and a student discussing an assignment |
| 4 | One speaker (a monologue) | An academic lecture |
- 40 questions, 10 in each part, 1 mark each. The questions follow the order of the recording.
- You hear each recording only once. Speakers have a range of accents, including British, Australian, New Zealand, American and Canadian.
- About 30 minutes. On paper, you get 10 extra minutes at the end to transfer your answers. On computer, you type as you listen and get 2 minutes at the end to check.
Sources: the official IELTS Listening test format (ielts.org) and British Council teaching materials.
About the recordings on this site: each lesson has a player. If an official recording is available, it appears first. You can always press ▶ to hear the transcript read by your browser's computer voice. Answer first, then open the transcript to check.
Lessons
Course lessons
Your progress is saved in this browser when you mark a lesson as complete.
Start here
Completion tasks
-
2
40–50 min
Form completion
Predict names, addresses and numbers, and catch spellings (Part 1).
✓ Completed -
3
40–50 min
Note completion
Use headings and the words around each gap to predict and follow the talk.
✓ Completed -
4
40–50 min
Table completion
Read the row and column headings, then follow the table as you listen.
✓ Completed -
5
30–40 min
Flow-chart completion
Follow the arrows and listen for sequence words (first, next, finally).
✓ Completed -
6
40–50 min
Summary completion
Complete summaries of two lectures, and choose words from a box.
✓ Completed -
7
40–50 min
Sentence completion
Grammar, collocation and meaning: make the answer fit the sentence.
✓ Completed
Short answers and multiple choice
-
8
30–45 min
Short-answer questions
Follow the word limit exactly and predict the type of answer.
✓ Completed -
9
40–50 min
Multiple choice
Listen past the distractors: you often hear all three options.
✓ Completed
Matching tasks
-
10
40–60 min
Matching
Language of certainty and doubt: will, might, won’t.
✓ Completed -
11
30–45 min
Matching features (classification)
Match descriptions to hotels, and listen for paraphrases.
✓ Completed
Labelling tasks
Quick reference
The 12 question types
The official IELTS description groups these into six task types (for example, form, note, table, flow-chart and summary completion count as one task type). Each format has its own lesson here.