IELTS Listening practice test: free owner tests, PDFs and a set of ours

The free IELTS Listening practice comes from the test owners. The British Council lists an Answer Key and a Recording Transcript as PDFs under each sample task, and IDP Australia has a free computer Familiarisation test with Listening answers. Below you also get a short practice set of ours, with a key.

Good practice copies the real test, so start with the real test. This is how the IELTS owners describe the Listening paper. IELTS is run by three owners, and the shared site ielts.org says so.

• Parts 1 and 2 deal with everyday, social situations.
• Parts 3 and 4 deal with educational and training situations.
• The questions are in the same order as the information in the recording, so the answer to the first question will be before the answer to the second question, and so on.

The British Council adds three timing details that matter for practice. Before each part you get time to read the questions. After each part you get time to review your answers. At the end you get 2 minutes to check. Their page puts the whole Listening test at between 30 – 34 minutes.

• Before the start of each part of the Listening test you will have some time to read the questions.
• After the end of each part of the Listening test you will have some time to review your answers.
• At the end of the Listening test, you will have 2 minutes to check your answers.
• The timing of the Listening test is between 30 – 34 minutes.
• Please remember that you will have 10 minutes after the Listening section to fill in your answer sheet.

Our reading: that last line is about an answer sheet, so it most likely describes the paper test. IELTS Australia says that when you take IELTS on computer, your Listening and Reading answers are entered directly on the computer, with no need to transfer them to an answer sheet. If you sit IELTS on computer, check with your test centre how your answers are entered.

Both companies that run IELTS in Canada publish free Listening practice. The table uses their own words.

Our reading: the PDFs are for marking and review. Listening needs sound, so the practice itself runs on the owner's page or on a recording you make. The transcript PDF is the most useful download, because it shows you exactly where each answer was said.

Cambridge sells these as books. Its page says "The book includes four authentic examination papers". Start with the free material above, and add a book when you want more full papers.

When you check a practice test, mark it the way the test is marked. These are the rules the owners give.

• You will lose the mark for writing more than the word limit.
• Contracted words such as 'they're' will not be tested. Hyphenated words such as 'check-in' count as single words.
• If the spelling is incorrect, then it will be marked as wrong.
• If you write a number in words and not numerals, that is acceptable.
• It is very important to try and answer every question as a blank answer will get no marks.

Your raw score out of 40 is then turned into a band. IELTS.org says: "Scores out of 40 are converted to the IELTS 9-band scale. Scores are reported in whole and half bands." It publishes four anchor points for Listening: 16 marks for band 5, 23 for band 6, 30 for band 7 and 35 for band 8. IDP's Australian results page gives the full converter, from band 9 down to band 4, and its ranges agree with those four points. IDP says actual marks vary slightly between tests.

These are averages. IELTS.org says: "The precise number of marks needed to achieve these band scores will vary slightly from test version to test version." Treat a home score as a rough guide only, not a promise of what you will get.

How to run it: ask a friend to read the script below once, at a normal speed, with no repeats. If you are alone, record yourself reading it, leave it for a day so you forget the words, then play it back. Before the reading starts, give yourself 30 seconds to look at the notes. Write your answers while you listen. Then check them against the key.

Questions 1 to 6. Complete the notes. Write ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

Answer key and the reason for each answer

This set trains habits: following a correction, ignoring a distractor, writing a spelled name and a time. It is short on purpose, so it does not give you a band score. Do it twice: once cold, and again three days later while reading the script as you listen, so you can see where you lost the thread.

Most lost marks in Listening are small. This drill goes after the small ones. A partner reads each line aloud once. You write what you hear. Then you check with the line.

1. Do the whole test once, with no pausing and no rewinding.
2. Mark it with the answer key. Next to each wrong answer, write the reason: spelling, singular or plural, word limit, number, distractor, lost my place, or did not hear it.
3. Listen again with the transcript in front of you. Underline the exact words that gave the answer, and the words that nearly fooled you.
4. Three days later, do the same recording again with no transcript.
5. After five tests, count your reasons. Practise the biggest one, not everything.

The goal is not a higher score on one recording. It is fewer repeat mistakes across many. Spelling and word limit errors are the easiest to fix, because the answer was in your ear and you lost the mark on paper. Our reading of the owners' marking rules is that they leave no room for a nearly right answer, so a tidy answer sheet is part of the skill.

Common questions