This article will demonstrate how to score maximum bands for fill in the blanks questions in IELTS listening module. The strategies enlisted here will boost your score and you will be able to achieve a very good score in the listening module of IELTS. I have myself applied them and scored 9 bands twice and 8.5 bands once. Therefore, if you read this article till the end, you will be able to score more than 8.5 bands.
What should you not do before your listening exam?
Candidates who are about to appear in the exam have a sleepless night before the day of examination. This makes their mind full of lethargy and makes things harder to understand. It is advised to take a good sleep before your exam, as listening is all about focus. If you do not concentrate you will lose band score.
What things to do before your exam?
If may sound little abrupt, but if you practice focusing on listening to things from television and songs, you will be able to answer every question in the listening module. Try to focus and understand what is being played. This way you will practice the listening module of your IELTS exam. The next thing is not to lose your confidence, because confidence is a key factor in your exam. Focus and confidence if taken care of in your exam, will never let you down in your results.
The trick through which you can score band 8.5+
When you are allowed to turn to Section 1, quickly read the question and understand what has been asked of you. When you have understood the question, answer the question. Now the question arises when there is no acoustics, how can a candidate answer without being understanding the sound. This is the key, you have to answer the question with any arbitrary answer. This will give you an idea of what is asked and thus you will not waste time on understanding what is asked in the question. When you will go through the script played in the headphone, you will focus on the what is similar to the answer, you have written. I will demonstrate you with this example.
Suppose you opened the first page after listening to the instructions and you find the below-written questions. Normally an instruction will be played that will ask you to read questions 1-5, here after reading the question answer randomly with an assumption.
1. John has been playing _________ since 1989. (football?cricket?)
2. The ticket cost $ ______ to view the game. (100?)
3. The ground is especially created from ________. (machine?)
4. The special equipment weared by players is called _________. (boots?)
5. The height at which the player throws the ball is _________. (900 meters?)
Here in the above example, I have made assumptions that these are the probable answers to the questions. This way you know what can be there in the answer. Now, listen carefully and answer the questions based on what is to be listened and answered. This way you will be able to answer the questions correctly and precisely. Follow this trick for all the fill in the blanks questions and you will never lose a single answer if you focus on the listening script being played during the listening exam. You can follow the same for the rest of the listening test, but however, it best suits in answering fill in the blanks.
I hope this article helps IELTS candidates to understand and perform well in their IELTS listening exam. Please give your honest feedback and opinion on this article.
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Very helpful . May it work positively during my test. I am having my general ielts test on 1st November.
Thank you Nisha, best of luck for your test.