Listening
Forms, notes, tables, flowcharts and summaries, and the prediction that makes them easy. With a practice exercise.
IELTS listening completion questions cover several formats that work the same way: a form, a set of notes, a table, a flowchart or a summary with words missing. You fill the gaps with words from the recording.
These are the most predictable questions in the paper. The layout around each gap usually tells you what kind of answer is coming, and using the pause to work that out is worth more than any other single habit.
The formats
Five layouts, one method.
Usually Section 1. A booking or application form: name, address, telephone number, dates. Expect spelled-out names and numbers read aloud.
Headings with bullet points underneath. The headings tell you when the topic changes, which helps you keep your place.
Rows and columns, and the pattern is the clue. If a column contains prices, the gap in it is a price. If a row lists destinations, the gap is a place.
A process in steps. The answers follow the order of the recording, and the arrows tell you the sequence in advance.
A connected paragraph rather than a layout. Grammar matters most here, because the sentence has to work when your answer is in it.
In every format. If you hear the answer to gap 5 while waiting for gap 4, you have missed 4. Move on rather than waiting.
Method
Six steps, four of them before the recording starts.
Not just the gaps. Understanding what the form or table is about tells you what kind of information is coming.
Noun, number, date, place, name? Write a letter beside each gap. Prediction is the whole skill in this question type.
In a table, the other entries in the same column tell you the answer type. In a form, the field labels do.
Names, numbers, and any unusual word in the surrounding text. Those signal that the answer is about to arrive.
Put your answer into the sentence and read it back. If the grammar is wrong, so is the answer.
Speakers give a number then change it. The second one is the answer, so keep listening after you think you have it.
Practice
This is the transcript of a short recording. Complete the table from it.
The adult programme starts next month. Courses run for ten weeks this year, rather than the usual eight, and each class is capped at eight students.
The cost depends on income, and anyone receiving a benefit pays a reduced rate. Contact Mike Edwards on 263-8147. All evening courses are held at the town hall, because the college is being refurbished.
Table
Course length: (1) ______
Maximum class size: (2) ______
Cost depends on: (3) ______
Contact name: (4) ______
Venue: (5) ______
1Gap 1, course length
Ten weeks. The row label says length, so you are listening for a period of time. Eight appears in the same sentence as the old length, which is the distractor.
2Gap 2, maximum class size
Eight. Maximum size means a number. Note that eight has already appeared as the previous course length, so the label matters more than the word.
3Gap 3, cost depends on
Income. The label depends on is followed by a noun, which rules out most alternatives before the recording even starts.
4Gap 4, contact name
Mike Edwards. The label says name, and two words is within a typical limit. Writing only Mike is incomplete when the full name was given.
5Gap 5, venue
The town hall. The college is named in the same sentence as the place classes are not being held, which is the classic completion distractor.
That is what prediction prevents. Knowing what type of answer is coming next lets you recognise it the moment it arrives instead of processing every word.
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A five-gap table with options is straightforward. Forty gaps across four sections, played once, is the real test.
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Yes, in every completion format. If you hear a later answer first, you have missed one, so put something down and move on.
Notes are headings with bullet points; a summary is a connected paragraph. Summaries depend more on grammar, because the sentence must work with your answer in it.
Use the layout. In a table, the other entries in that column tell you. In a form, the field label does. In a summary, the words either side of the gap do.
No. An over-length answer is marked wrong even when it contains the right words, so count the words as you type.
The second version is the answer. Speakers correcting themselves is a deliberate feature of the test, so keep listening after you think you have it.
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It improves quickly with feedback and barely at all without it, because you cannot tell which predictions you got wrong on your own.
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