R.E.A.D.I.N.G.: THE UNIVERSAL LISTENING STRATEGY

In the IELTS Listening component, due to the test’s settings and environment, for example, a shortage of time, a multitude of question variants, and so on, to assume that there is a single method or formula that will work for all question types is delusional and foolish.

There can be no universal rule that would be deemed successful if applied to all question types.

However, there is a strategy, when applied and practiced efficiently, that will help you comprehend and master the grand picture behind Listening and guide you to become faster at understanding and filtering out the answers.

This strategy should be followed taking into account the following premise:
“Knowing English does not mean you will understand everything you hear or read. It simply means you can understand the grand picture; the full context of what you hear.”

But there is good news. The good news is that:
"You do not need to hear or understand every single word from the Listening audio to be able to answer all the questions in a given task. In fact, even English academics would fail to hear or understand some words."

Therefore, if applied correctly, this strategy will help you fully understand the context of the audio and filter out the answers.

R.E.A.D.I.N.G. is the grand strategy framework that will allow you to comprehend the big picture of any IELTS question type, prepare you fully, and equip you with the readiness needed to listen attentively and extract the answers to the fullest.

As the name reflects, this strategy is inspired by the following assertion:

With this assumption in mind, you can already grasp the largest part of the strategy before diving into further explanations.

Let's take a closer look at the R.E.A.D.I.N.G. strategy.

1. Read Before Listening

This is the most crucial part of mastering IELTS Listening. Use every second before the recording starts to actively and attentively read every single question and instruction. Understand the context, highlight key words, and prepare your mind for what’s coming. If you wait until the audio begins, you’re already behind. 

Even if you don’t understand every word, focus on the surrounding words and structure. That alone is enough to give you direction and eliminate wrong answers later.

Practices

Practice 1. Questions 1–6. Listen carefully and fill the following form

Practice 2.  Part I. Multiple Choices Questions.

Part II: Map Labeling

2. Eliminate the Noise

While reading, tune out everything else, your stress, the room, the accent, fully emerge yourself to the listening. Enter the scene and be part of the play “just like the Greek Gods in the face of challenge, concentrate your force”. Let your brain enter what is called “The IELTS Mode”.  This is a deep level of focus state where you fully emerge yourself in the test and maximize your concentration. Without a deep focus, even the most skilled of English test takers will fail to perform well.
 

Practices 

Practice 1.

Practice 2.

Practice 3. Listen carefully and answer the questions

3. Anticipate the Answer

A detailed explanation about word prediction is already contained in the previous section's grand strategy. However, there's a need to recover it here even deeper.

Prediction is a superpower. Based on grammar, context, or logic, guess what kind of word is missing for completion, labeling and short answer question types. However, you need to reasonably guess the choices for MCQs and Matching question types.

As explained previously to fully get the best out of this anticipation phase, use the "G.Lo.W." micro-strategy.

Practices

Practice 1. Listen carefully and match the information

Practice 2. Listen carefully and label the plan below.

🎙️078	📝078
	Labels to add to the plan above. Reception desk Careers Office Wellbeing centre IT Hub  Seminar Room

Practice 3.

4. Deflect (Avoid) Distractions

To efficiently test your English level, IELTS uses certain distractions in the listening. For instance, in case of MCQs(Multiple Choice Questions), you might hear all options in the audio but only 1 or 2 are correct, meaning there will be an obvious or imperceptible (a small) detail that makes other options fallible. 

So be prepared for the following 3 most common IELTS listening distractions:

Practices.

Practice 1. Corrected opinions

Practice 2. Out-dated Information

Label the following areas on the map of the recreation center: Gym Swimming Pool Café Study Lounge Dance Studio Some distractions that you will hear in the audio. Corrected opinions. “I thought the gym was on the first floor, but actually it’s in the basement.” Outdated info. “The pool used to be summer-only.” Half-truth.  “Most people go there not to study, but to socialize.”

Practice 3. Half-Truths. Complete the sentences below with ONE WORD only.

5. Identify Keywords and Synonyms

Generally, paraphrasing is another technique for IELTS to test your linguistic skill. So most often than not, you will not hear the exact words or sentences you are looking for, but their synonyms or paraphrased versions. 

For instance, In the question:  Let’s say you have a multiple-choice question which goes: “Why did she choose the college?”

In the audio, you might hear something like: “I decided to apply there because it had an excellent reputation for academic excellence.”
 From this, you should infer that the correct answer is related to “prestige,” “reputation,” or “academic standing,” rather than factors such as location or facilities.

Practices.

Practice 1.

Practice 2. Label the park map using the information from the conversation.

🎙️084	📝084
	Label the map above with the following: Playground Skate Area Rose Garden Dog Park Butterfly Garden Location synonyms from the audio “Next to” = beside / close to “Heart” = center “Behind” ≠ “beside”: subtle difference matters!

Practice 3. Complete the notes using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

6. Note While Listening

Since we only have the chance to listen once in the IELTS listening test, and the audio can be very quick sometimes, then note-taking is the utmost support for storage and recall of information.

Smart listeners are not those who attempt to write everything they hear, but they write smart notes by using symbols and shorthand to speed the process and to keep in sync with the audio. Note taking is very crucial but do not sacrifice your synchronization to the audio for it.

Here are a couple of symbols, arrows, or codes to use for note taking mastery:

Also hen applying the note-taking strategy, always keep this in mind: "Don’t try to write full sentences, just enough to recognize the answer when you read the question."

Use the "S.W.I.F.T." micro-strategy in (D. IMPROVEMENT) in the listening book.

Practices

Practice 1. Choose ONE answer A–D

Practice 2.

Practice 3. Complete the Summary with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS.

6. Grammar and spelling check

Now that the audio has finished playing, you have done answering the questions and now you have some time to check your answers. This is undoubtedly one of the most important steps of the Strategy and thus your performance on the task at hand. Especially for the written answers. In questions such as Part I. Completion, Part V Short Answer Questions. And that is because of this: IELTS examiners are extremely intolerant of any kind of grammatical or spelling mistakes, no matter how mild(small) it is. This final check is also greatly important for the other questions Part II. Matching, Part III. MCQs, and Part IV. Labeling. As while answering, due to the speed and time pressure, you might have checked or chosen the wrong answer by mistake. So, give your answers a final check to leave no room for grammatical, spelling, or choice mistakes that could prevent you from getting the score you so diligently deserve.

Practices

Practice 1. Listen carefully and choose the appropriate answer for each question

Practice 2.

🎙️090	📝090
	Label the museum plan with the following: Entrance Ticket Desk Information Booth Main Exhibition Hall Ancient Artefacts Gallery Temporary Exhibition Area Children’s Discovery Zone

Practice 3. Complete the sentences below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS.

This is the complete R.E.A.D.I.N.G. Strategy. The 7 steps of this strategy are meant to give you dimensional thinking around listening. By applying them in your listening, you will have the ability to think in different aspects of the audio you listen to allowing you to perform well on all listening parts.