Tips on excelling at IELTS listening test for overseas career

The listening test is considered to be the most difficult part in IELTS exams. It is highly academic compared to other types of listening exercises. In order to get through this test, you have to understand the common issues faced by IELTS candidates.

Accent is proved to be one of the biggest problems. If you are comfortable with the speaker, it is not much big of an issue. However, in this case, you are not. Many IELTS candidates wrongly develop their IELTS listening skills by putting too much focus on understanding each lexical term.

Next, you should get used to the flow of information in the passage. Two types of keywords are used – triggers and distracters. Triggers lead up to the answer in the listening passage. Distracters are keywords that are meant to distract you. Hence, you have to practice and get accustomed to focusing on main ideas and overlook as many distracters as possible.

Moreover, IELTS listening passage is played only once. That makes it even more difficult. Candidates tend to lose confidence when they miss one or more sentences. It does not matter actually. Your main focus should be on the underlying idea.

Let’s discuss two methods for practicing before you take the test:

1. You should listen to as many different passages and speakers as possible. It will prepare you mentally before the test. You will have a wider range of vocabulary on different topics. Moreover, listening to speakers with different accents makes you proficient in quickly adapting to change of accents during the exam.
2. You should train yourself to focus on main ideas. But first, you should know what it means. Suppose you are attending a meeting at work. The first thing you want to know is what they are talking about. What are the roadblocks? And then, what is the main idea being conveyed? You should get an idea of the topic from the vocabulary and gestures they are using. The main idea is the predominant issue or message being discussed, as quoted by the Ezinearticles.

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