8 Ways to upgrade Your IELTS Listening Score

If you want to study in your dream university then a good score on the IELTS exam is crucial. This blog will help you to learn about some IELTS exam tips and tricks that can help you score high in the listening skills.

1. YOLO (You Only Listen Once)

This is what happens in real life. You only listen once. Most of us would like to listen again, but IELTS won’t offer you that. Below are some ways to do well with listening once:

● Only listen once while doing practice tests and get used to it.

● Identify your listening weaknesses and try to improve those areas.

● Underline key words on the question sheet and listen for those exact words and their synonyms.

● Practice different types of listening situations like- lectures, conversations, chatting.

2. Follow Your Heart

Choose interesting topics while practicing because it's a fact that we listen better to things we enjoy hearing. If you want to get the best out of each and every listening practice and want to motivate yourself, try this way. You might even enjoy doing this!

3. Audio Scripts

Try to find the practice tests with scripts. Scripts are the word-for-word written texts of the audio that you hear. There are many activities that you can do with scripts. Enlisted below are a few:

● Accuracy check: Check for accuracy, spelling, and misunderstanding by comparing the notes which you make without script with the script.

● Read aloud: Listen to the audio after you read aloud and analyze how accurate you were? Did you sound the same as the audio?

● Listen and read along: Try following the text while you listen. This will help you to make strong connections in respect to pronunciation and understanding key words.

4. Get used to it in Real – Real Life Listening

and to do well on the test is by using English in real life. Trying to have conversation, chat, text, call, email, discuss, and laugh in English.

5. Check It Again, Be Accurate!

Little mistakes can cause blunder. Your silly mistakes can be the difference between scoring a 5.5 and a 6. So, it’s better to check twice before making a mistake, this would help you to score good.

6. Beware of distractors

Pay attention to the details as what you hear first may not be the right answer. For Instance, the speaker may say one thing, but then reverse their answer. You may also find that the speaker mentions all the options with slight differences in meaning. So, be very careful while listening to the speaker.

7. Don’t wait too long to hear the answer

There are chances that you've already missed the answer if you feel like you’ve waited too long. A big advantage of the IELTS listening test is that they are all in order, So, you don’t have to go back and forth to answer the questions, so just relax!

8. Practice, practice, practice

Best way to Improve your listening skills is by becoming an active listener. Listen to a variety of English language resources, such as podcasts, news reports and Ted talks, which will expose you to new vocabulary and different accents (you may not just hear British accents during the IELTS test recordings).

Start with topics you are most interested in, before moving onto more academic material. The aim is to make listening a part of your daily life. You can find a variety of interesting and fun content online as well.

Being used to English will help you to manage your stress during the test.