FORM FILLING LESSON LISTENING TIP IELTS EXAM

FORM FILLING LESSON LISTENING TIP IELTS EXAM

In the first section of the IELTS listening test, there is often a form filling question. Normally, the answers will be one or two words long and will be factual information, such as phone numbers, dates and times.

These questions may seem relatively simple, but it would surprise you how many students throw away easy marks in this section.

Also, this is one of the areas that IELTS tries to trick you by giving a number of different pieces of information when only one of them is correct. One common trick is for the person to give one piece of information and then correct it later in the recording. If they do this, always write down the second piece of corrected information.

There are a number of ways students can prepare for this kind of question. Below are some tips, common problems and solutions.
Prediction
Prediction is an important skill in all areas of the IELTS listening test but crucially important in the form filling section.

Predicting enables you to not only focus your brain on the area that you will hear, but more importantly, not focus on any other areas.
For example:
Name: Shaun Rodgers
Room no. ___________
Number of occupants: 1
Check out time: ____________

In this example we can accurately predict that we are going to hear a room number and time. That means we can completely focus on those two items, making it much easier for us to get the correct answer.

When predicting we should think about:

Grammar: noun, verb, adjective, adverb etc. Often it will be obvious which word form we need to use. If we use a different form of the word we will get the question wrong. Subject: phone number, address, date, business name etc. This will help us focus on the correct part of the recording and find the correct information more easily. Function: list, question, label, instruction etc.

Synonyms

It is normal for us to read one word but hear another word with the same meaning. For  example, we may read „cost‟ but hear „price‟. This is called a synonym and the IELTS  listening test has lots of them.A common mistake is to read a certain word and listen for  that word and not hear it. That is because the recording used a synonym. For example,  you might hear someone making a hotel reservation and you have to note down their  details.The form might say „Arrival Date‟, but you will hear „day you arrive‟. Similarly,  you may read „Departure Date‟, but you might hear „day you leave‟.Make sure you think  about the type of information you might hear in the form of synonyms, not just the  information you read

Word Limit

Be careful not to write too many words in this section. You will be given specific  instructions and you must not go over this limit. For example, NO MORE THAN TWO  WORDS means that you may write one OR two words but no more.NOT MORE THAN  ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER means that if you write more than one word your  answer will be incorrect.

 

Numbers

You should familiarise yourself with how numbers sound in English and remember that the  speaker may have an accent from an English speaking country you might not be familiar  with, such as Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand or Canada.

The numbers that often come up are:

13  30

14  40

15  50

16  60

17  70

18  80

19  90

These numbers are difficult for many non-native speakers and that is why IELTS like to use  them. Practice listening and saying these numbers.

You might also get a credit card number. These numbers are always 16 digits long, so  depending on how many numbers are already provided, you will know how many numbers  to write down.

Finally, telephone numbers have two considerations. Firstly, native speakers often say „oh‟  instead of „zero‟ and we may also group numbers together by saying „double‟ or „triple‟

in front of it. So 0778880700 would sound like „oh, double seven, triple eight, oh, seven,  double oh.‟

Letters

If there is a word, such as a surname or address, that is unfamiliar to most people, the  recording will spell it out. Make sure you familiarise yourself with how all the letters  sound. You could also categorise them by similar sound. For example, B, D, E, T, G, P and  C all have a similar final sound and may be used to try and trick you.

Address

Many different countries have very different address formats to this one and can be  confusing. In the exam you want to know exactly what to expect.

It is normally:

House/Flat Number 

Street Name 

Town/City Name

Finally, you might have to write down a post code. These always start and end with one or  two letters first (normally the same as the city) and then a series of numbers in between.  Make sure you write down both the letters and numbers. Example: M1 4JH

For example:

22 South Street 

Bristol

BS1 5TW

Dates

Make sure you are aware of the spelling of all the days of the week, especially difficult  ones like Wednesday. This is also true for months like February.

Also, be aware of some synonyms such as, weekend for Saturday and Sunday or  fortnight for two weeks.

There are also different ways of saying and writing dates, for example:

„The eleventh of September 2002′ could be written as ’11 September 2002.‟

Again, pay attention to the word limit in the question and only write under this limit.

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FORM FILLING LESSON LISTENING TIP IELTS EXAM FORM FILLING LESSON LISTENING TIP IELTS EXAM

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