Skip to content

IELTS Listening practice tests

Four recordings and 40 questions, with each part played once, just like the real exam. Afterwards you see your band and the exact words from the recording that give each answer. All ten tests are free to take without an account.

All Listening tests

Short on time? Practise one part

About ten minutes each. Check your answers as you go and get an estimated band for the part.

New to Listening? Read our IELTS Listening tips and tricks before you start.

The four parts of the Listening test

Part 1 practice
A conversation about an everyday situation, such as booking a course or renting a flat. Usually form completion.
Part 2 practice
One speaker talking about a local facility or event. Often multiple choice and matching.
Part 3 practice
Students discussing a project with a tutor. Listen for opinions and decisions.
Part 4 practice
A short academic lecture. Usually note completion with one word per answer.

Use headphones, read the questions before each part starts, and watch for speakers changing their minds: the first answer you hear is often a trap. See the band for every score on the Listening band score chart, and your overall band with the band score calculator.

How IELTS Listening is scored

The Listening test is the same for Academic and General Training: four recordings, 40 questions and about 30 minutes of audio. Each correct answer earns one mark, and the total out of 40 is converted to a band.

In the conversion table our tests use, about 23 correct answers gives band 6 and about 30 gives band 7. The questions get harder from Part 1 to Part 4, so most of the marks people lose are in the second half.

Spelling counts, and so do the word limits in the instructions. In the paper-based test you get 10 minutes at the end to copy your answers onto the answer sheet; on computer you get 2 minutes to check them.

Worked example: a Part 1 question with a trap

A short extract written for this page in the style of Part 1, and how to avoid the wrong answer that the recording offers first.

  1. The question

    Course start date: ______ (Write ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER.)

  2. What you hear

    Woman: "So the course starts on the fourteenth of March?" Man: "It did, but we've had to move it back a week, so it's now the twenty-first."

  3. 1. Predict the answer type

    Before the recording, you can see the gap needs a date. Knowing that, you listen for numbers and months.

  4. 2. Do not write the first date

    The fourteenth is said first, and it is the trap. Wait until the speaker finishes the sentence.

  5. 3. Listen for the change

    But and now signal a correction. The answer is the date after the change: 21 March.

  6. 4. Check the instructions

    ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER allows 21 March. Writing the twenty-first of March would break the limit and lose the mark.

Common mistakes in IELTS Listening

Most lost Listening marks are not about understanding. They come from these small, avoidable errors.

  • Not: accomodation

    Better: accommodation

    Misspelled answers are marked wrong. Practise the words that come up in everyday situations: accommodation, Wednesday, environment, necessary.

  • Not: "a large blue suitcase" for NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

    Better: "blue suitcase"

    Going over the word limit makes the answer wrong, even if the words are correct.

  • Not: "ticket" when the speaker said "tickets"

    Better: "tickets"

    A missing plural s can make an answer wrong. Check that your word fits the grammar of the sentence around the gap.

  • Not: Writing the first number you hear.

    Better: Waiting for the end of the speaker's sentence.

    Speakers often correct themselves or change plans. The final version is the answer.

  • Not: Using the pause between parts to check old answers.

    Better: Using it to read the next questions.

    Reading ahead tells you what to listen for. You can check old answers at the end.

  • Not: Leaving a gap blank.

    Better: Writing your best guess.

    There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so a guess can only help.

Sample Part 4 answer, explained

Part 4 is a lecture, and note completion is the most common task. Here is a sentence written for this page in that style, with the gap you would see. Question: In the 18th century, umbrellas in London were made waterproof using oiled ______. (Write ONE WORD ONLY.) What you hear: "The first umbrellas in Europe were used to keep off the sun, not the rain. It was only in the eighteenth century that waterproof umbrellas, covered in oiled silk, became a common sight on the streets of London."

silk

Why it works

  • The question says 18th century and the speaker says eighteenth century: the same idea in a different form, which is how the answer is signposted.
  • Sun is mentioned first, but the question is about waterproof umbrellas, so the earlier sentence is background.
  • Oiled is already printed in the question, so writing oiled silk would break the one-word limit.
  • Silk is a word you can spell with confidence. If you are unsure of a spelling, practise lists of everyday nouns before the test.