hi there it's asiya and in this video i'd like to answer some of the most common questions people
have about ielts listening and by doing that help you avoid some mistakes and achieve a higher score
thank you so much for sending your questions and now let's get started
the very first question is from laden i apologize in advance if i mispronounce any of your names
and the question is is it okay to write all the answers in capital letters in ielts listening
absolutely you can do that in both ielts listening and ielts reading and both in the paper-based
and computer-based exams the next question is from mania how do we write dates time and do we use
prepositions and articles excellent questions let's talk about each one by one first of all
writing dates for example your question looks like that date of birth gap 1992.
so there are two options to write the correct answer you can just write 10 october or 10th
october and we know that when we pronounce it we say the 10th of october but you can just
write 10 october and that's fine just remember that in english you need to
capitalize the first letter of each month or write the whole word in capital letters
here is the next question date of theft so which option is correct 6 september or 6th september
both options are correct if you've noticed in both these questions you didn't need to write the year
it was either already in the question or it wasn't needed at all that's quite typical for ielts
i looked through a number of questions and i couldn't find any way you would write the whole
date now let's talk about the time for instance the question is the opening ceremony starts at
2 45 you just write down 2.45 or 3 15 quarter past 3 that is 3.15
sometimes in english we use am to indicate morning hours 8 am and p.m to indicate evening hours
6 p.m and you can write those letters in small letters or in capital letters it's up to you
if you hear for example 8 30 a.m just write it down like that 8 dot 30 am but if you just hear
8 30 only write down the numbers and leave am and pm out the next question is whether you need to
include prepositions in on ad and articles a and the in your answers the answer is no they will be
written in the question let me show you a few questions i found in the official practice tasks
here is the first one he was about slim built with hair you see the preposition with is already there
and your answer is one word dark with dark hair the next question is some voice asked for the
so what's the answer time or the time the answer is one word time asked for the time
if you write down the time into this gap then you will read some boys asked
for the the time they will be twice which is incorrect the sentence will be incorrect you don't
need to include the article into your answer and the last one he works as a teacher or a teacher
you see the indefinite article a is already in the question and the answer is one word teacher
hadis asked a similar question when the answer is academic calendar and the task is to write not
more than three words with the following answer the academic calendar be wrong yes it would be
wrong the next question is really interesting how do we predict if the word is singular or plural
you are looking for a missing word and when you write this word down in the gap the sentence
must become grammatically correct and that's how you find if the word should be singular or plural
let me show you a few questions from the official practice tests
you don't need to listen to the recording just look at the sentence and decide if the answer
should be singular or plural the project is likely to create a number of job or jobs
the answer is jobs and number of jobs a number of job is incorrect
next water is released through a gate or gates we have an indefinite article
which means that we need this singular noun released through a gate
he takes no regular medication apart from vitamin or vitamins the answer is vitamins apart
from vitamins otherwise we would need an indefinite article which is not there and one more
visitors can walk in the farm's garden or gardens what do you think which one is correct let's try
walk in the farm's garden that's correct walk in the farm's gardens that's also correct and both
answers will be accepted as correct answers the next question is from someone who would like to
be known as an astronaut i hope you become one one day sometimes i don't write full answers
for example the answer was frequent sandstorms but i wrote frequent stones is it an incorrect answer
well let's have a look it depends on the question for example the task may be choose not more than
three words and then you have three combinations frequent stones sandstorms or frequent sandstones
in this case they all make sense and all three will be accepted as correct answers
i would like to say that this is not likely to happen in ielts listening and it's listening you
usually need to write down one word it's more common for ielts reading but anyway
let's have a look at the next combination the task is choose not more than two words and we have the
same three combinations in this case the first two frequent storms and sandstorms are correct but
frequent sandstorms is wrong because it has an extra word the next question is from alla does
it make any sense to check the answers well at the end of each section in ielts listening you will
hear now you have some time to check your answers and then now you have some time to read questions
from 8 to 16 and basically there is not enough time to read all the questions that are coming
and if you haven't read them yet it will be more difficult for you to answer them so i think that
it's better to spend all this time on reading and memorizing questions which are coming some people
ask if they can actually turn pages in their brochure before they hear the command to do that
yes after the listening section begins you are free to turn pages as you wish
and in a computer-based exam you actually need to click on the next page to open questions because
pages will not change automatically okay so during the listening section it makes no
sense to spend time on checking your answers but after the recording finishes you will be
given a bit of time 10 minutes in a paper-based exam and two minutes in a computer-based exam
of course in a paper-based exam you need to transfer your answers but it doesn't take
10 minutes so you have a bit of time to play with and here is what i think you
should do well first of all you should go back to all the questions where you missed answers
read them again and just try to guess what their answer is sometimes it's possible
then you should also pay attention to those questions where you write down words so read them
with the word you find and check if the sentence is grammatically correct so that will help you
to spot any errors between singular and plural nouns also check that the spelling is correct
if you are not sure how to spell a certain word try to write it down by hand on a sheet of paper
in different variations and see which one you like most quite often we can see the correct spelling
okay and one more thing that's only applicable to the paper-based exam
in a computer-based exam you either drag answers to the correct place or you simply click on them
but in a paper-based exam you may see a task like that choose two letters a e a decorating b
cleaning c cooking and so on and let's say the first answer is correct you need to write down
the letter e not the word decorating so be careful about that the next question is from
batira the worst problem for me is that i lose an answer and then i keep on waiting for it and
the recording goes on and then i don't know which part they're talking about it's a tragedy i agree
it would be a very expensive mistake because once you miss an answer it's hard to get back on track
what i do is i try to keep an eye on two questions the current question and the next question
you don't need to remember what the next question is about and all the options just roughly the
topic and then when you hear something about it you know that it's time to switch it works for
me and i do it in every exam so try doing it in a practice test and see if it works for you and then
i received dozens of messages about just two types of questions multiple choice questions and maps
and i'm totally with you i also find that these two types of questions are the most challenging
and i've done my research and i could find some patterns and develop some strategies so i made
two videos about each type of task you can watch them right now they also include some practice
questions and thank you so much for being with me today good luck with your preparation and your
exam