SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS IN THE LISTENING TEST

Short answer questions in the listening test, will require you to write no more than
a set number of words and/or numbers. You will probably be given a limit, for
example, 'No more than two words and/or a number'. If you write more words than
the instructions tell you to, your answer will be marked as incorrect.
The short answers only need keywords, meaning you will not be able to write a
sentence. These questions are there to see how well you can find specific
information and be able to recognise when some information is not needed.
It is really important that you read the instructions of the questions carefully, often
when people do not read them and follow them correctly they lose marks. When
you are asked to complete questions, you will also be enlightened as to what
information you can put into the gaps.
Being able to provide accurate short answers in the listening test is really important
in order for you to gain a high score.
For example, you may be asked to:
Write NO MORE THAN ONE WORD for each answer
Write NO MORE THAN ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer
If your answer does not follow the instructions given, it will be marked as incorrect.
In the IELTS listening test, you must listen for specific information and be able to
recognise when some information is not needed.

DISTRACTORS
A distractor is when you are given information that is wrong. This can lead you to
choose the incorrect answer. They are common in the IELTS Listening tests, as they
test your ability to choose the right information for the answers, by ignoring the
wrong information. The distractors will try to trick you into selecting the wrong
answer, so you must listen carefully for specific information.

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REVIEW AND STRATEGY
1. Read the instructions and questions before you start listening to the
recording. What are you being asked to do? Familiarise yourself with the
questions and think about the context.
2. Look at the questions/options you have been given and highlight any
keywords.
3. Listen carefully for information but be wary of distractors.
4. Be aware of paraphrasing and synonyms.
5. If you do miss an answer or were not sure, then it is ok to take a guess. This
is better than leaving a blank space and you never know, you might answer
correctly!

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IELTS Academic Reading
1. The general content of IELTS Reading texts
For most of the time, the texts in IELTS Reading will be collected from books,
magazines or newspaper. Therefore, it is no need for you to worry because the
content will not be too academic, even non-professional people can understand it.
The essays can be written in different styles and forms such as a report, description
or an argument. Photos, graphs, and tables will show up sometimes, but in case
there are special terms, there will be an explanation in the text as well.
2. Notes while sitting for the IELTS exam
You are free to draft or write your answer in the question booklet but do not forget
to transfer it into the answer sheet, your result is only valid and approved in the
answer sheet only. Moreover, the transference must be done during the test time
due to the fact that you will not have extra time for this. And also, while copying
your answer into the answer sheet, remember to check back on the spelling and
grammar, each answer is equivalent to 1 point so do not miss it.
The Reading test will last for 60 minutes with 3 essays and 40 questions in different
types. Let’s find out about the common types.
COMMON TYPES OF QUESTION
1. Multiple Choice
In order to do this type, you will have to choose 1 out of 4 answers (A, B, C, D) or 2
out of 5 (A, B, C, D, E), or 3 out of 7 (A, B, C, D, E, F, G) then write your chosen answer
in the answer sheet.
The question can be given in 2 main formats:
1.1. Completing a sentence
You will be given one part of the clause only and what you have to do is find out the
other part that fit in based on the answers.
Example

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Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 9–Test 2–Reading-Questions 27-31

1.2 Answering a question

There will be a question and you have to find a perfect match answer for it based on
the given answers.
The questions will show up in corresponding order with the information in the text
from top to toe. It means that the paragraph which contains information for answer
to the first question will be placed above the paragraph includes the answer to the
second question.

Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 12–Test 6–Reading-Questions 10-11

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2. Identifying information
This type refers to True/False/Not given question. You will see a lot of statements
and the question ask you: “Do the following statements agree with the information
in the text?”. You have to identify whether the statements and the information in
the text are the same, different or not exist at all. Then choose True/False or Not
given for each statement.
What might confuse candidates in this type of question is that sometimes they fail
to distinguish between “False and Not given”. Whereas “False” means that the
information from the text is reverse to the statements, “Not given” tends to say that
the information is either agrees or disagrees with the statements. For easier
understanding, you can consider the statements do not exist in the text. Therefore,
you need to clarify these two terms clearly enough as to avoid mistakes in the test.
Once again, bear in mind about the definition of each term True/False/Not given
If the text agrees or confirms the information in the statement, the answer is TRUE.
In case the text contradicts or is the opposite of the information in the statements,
the answer is FALSE.
If there is no information or it is impossible to know, the answer is NOT GIVEN.
In contrast, one small tip for you to do this type of question is to stay objective.
Never use your own knowledge on the mentioned field to judge whether it is true
or false. The answer must be based on the information from the texts only.

Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 12–Test 5–Reading-Questions 1-5

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3. Identifying writer’s view/claims
This is the Yes/No/Not given type. You will be given some statements and asked
“Do the following statements agree with the views/claims of the writer” and your
task is to find whether it is yes/no/not given.
In this type, a small note is that you also need to be very clear in two terms “No”
and “Not given”.

Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 12–Test 5–Reading-Questions 37-40

If you have read until this part, there might be a concern that pops into your head
about the differences between True/False/Not given and Yes/No/Not given type.
Basically, these two types are quite identical in the way you solve it, which is
identifying information. The only thing that differs the two types is that
True/False/Not given refers to FACTS while Yes/No/Not given refers to OPINION.
4. Matching information
The paragraphs will be labeled using letter A, B, C, D and so on. There will be some
of the statements and you will be required to find where the information in the
statements is located in the paragraphs.
You will be asked to look for small details such as reason, explanation, description,
comparison or conclusion in the text. Sometimes, there might be more than one
statement that has the information mentioned in the same paragraph. For instance,
statement 14 along with 17 contains the information that exists in paragraph C. In
this case, the exam will allow you to choose an answer twice. So, it means that you
can match paragraph C with both 14 and 17.

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In addition, not all the paragraphs consist of the information in the statements and
so there will be answers that are not needed. For example, in every statement given,
none of which mentions the information in paragraph E then you will not use
paragraph E as your final answer.

Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 12–Test 6–Reading-Questions 1-3

5. Matching Headings
There will be a list of headings (usually represented and labeled in Roman number
like i, ii, iii, iv…). Each heading will tell you the main idea of a paragraph. You are
responsible for matching the headings with each paragraph or section in the text
(each paragraph or section also named A, B, C, …). In the exam, the number of
headings usually higher than the number of paragraphs, so there is a chance that
some headings will not be used. Additionally, each paragraph has one heading only,
but there will be paragraphs that not asked to match or made use of as an example.

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Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 12–Test 5–Reading-Questions 27-32
6. Matching features
This type of questions requires you to find detail feature and information about a
person, an object or a place in the text. You will be provided with proper nouns like
names and then match them with the statements that include the information about
features of the objects.

Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 12-Test 6–Reading-Questions 4-9

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7. Matching sentence endings
You will be given a list of unfinished sentences and a list of answers A, B, C, and D…
Those unfinished sentences contain the information in the text. You will need to
complete those sentences by reading the text and choosing one correct answer
from the given list of answers.

Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 12–Test 7–Reading-Questions 37-40

8. Sentence Completion
You will complete the sentence by filling in the gap with given numbers and words.
Pay attention that the words and numbers are taken from the text, not from your
own background knowledge.
The questions are in the same order as the information in the passage. This means
that the answer to the first question will be found before the answer to the second
question, and so on.

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Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 12–Test 5–Reading-Questions 14-21
9. Summary, note, table, flow-chart completion
In this type, you will need to complete a summary of a section of the text based on
the information provided in the text. The summary can be displayed in 4 forms:
Summary: A summary contains some connected sentences of text.

Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 12–Test 5–Reading-Questions 33-36

Note: A note consists of sentences which indicate the main content of a
section of the text.

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Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 1 –Test 3–Reading -Questions 1-9
Table: A table summarizes some ideas in a random paragraph, some columns and
rows are lack of information. You have to fill in them.

Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 12-Test 6–Reading-Questions 27-31

Flow-chart: A flow-chart demonstrates steps of a process displayed using arrows

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Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 9–Test 1–Reading-Questions 34-39
Some notices
The answers don’t necessarily occur in the same order as in the text.
The answers usually come from one section rather than the entire text.
You may be asked to complete the summary using words from the text or choose
the answer from given words.
In case you have to use words from the text to fill in the missing information,
make sure to read carefully the requirement about the number of words you are
can use. For instance, ‘NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the
passage’, “NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS” or “ONE WORD ONLY”. Pay attention or
you will lose your mark for that.
10. Diagram label completion
You are asked to finish labeling the diagram based on the description given in the
text. You will be given a diagram describing a progress perhaps. In this diagram,
there will be some gaps for you to fill in, these gaps could be steps of a process or
parts of an object.
Remember
The answers don’t necessarily occur in the same order as in the text.
The answers usually come from one section rather than the entire text.
The diagram may demonstrate some types of machine, or of parts of a building or
of other elements that can be represented pictorially.

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Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 11–Test 1–Reading-Questions 20-26
11. Short answer questions
As to solve this type of question, you will need to find words in the text to answer.
All questions usually relate to factual information about the details in the text.
Answers can be in the form of words or numbers.

Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 9–Test 1–Reading-Questions 8-13

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SKIMMING AND SCANNING
In the IELTS Reading Test, you have 60 minutes to read through and answer
questions on 3 texts of 1000 words or more. If you try to read every word in detail
you will run out of time and lose marks. In order to get a band score 7 or above,
you need to practice skim reading and scanning texts for information, making sure
that you are using your time well when looking for the answers.
Skimming - a text quickly for the main ideas.
Scanning - looking through a text for specific details.

SKIMMING
When you skim read a text for the main idea, you read the text quickly to get the
general idea of the main topic. When you do this, you are looking for the main
idea - not the specific details. For example, you may skim read the back cover of a
book jacket to get an idea of what the book is about before you decide to read/buy
the book.
Skimming is an important skill because in the test you are time conscious, so you
need to skim read texts in order to get the main idea, before locating specific
information needed to answer questions.
NB: Practice skim reading by reading articles, reviews and summaries to get
the main idea. Choose content that interests you, not only IELTS practice
materials.

SCANNING
When you scan a text to find the information you do this quite quickly to find what
you need. You normally use this skill when you are looking for facts. For example, if
you are looking for a train time or the departure gate you need at the airport, you
scan the board's looking for the information. Therefore, you use this skill every day
when looking at times, dates or places.
NB: Practice scanning by looking for information in timetables, the TV guide etc
and find facts you need quickly.

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Example Question

Source: Cambridge English IELTS Past Papers.

As you can see there are three incomplete sentences that we musty complete.
Note that it says NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer. This
means that we can write one or two words only. If we write any more than this, we
get the question wrong.
Also, note that it says ‘from the text’. This means that we can’t change the words
from the text.The word limit and whether we should use words from the text or
not can change from question to question so read them carefully.
Paraphrasing and Synonyms
In order to do well on the IELTS test, you have to understand what paraphrasing
and synonyms are because Cambridge use them so much in the reading and
listening tests and expect you to use them in the writing and speaking tests.
Paraphrasing is simply rephrasing or saying the sentence again, so that it has the
same meaning, but with different words.
Examples:
Most men drive cars to work.
The majority of males use automobiles to get to their jobs.
As you can see, both sentences mean exactly the same thing but I have used
different words.
I have used mostly synonyms to do this, i.e. words with the same or similar
meanings.

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Examples–
most – majority
drive – use
cars – automobiles
work – job

Common Problems
1. As you have probably already guessed from the passage above, the main
problem is students trying to match words in the question with exactly the
same words in the reading text. Instead, you should be looking for words
that mean the same thing i.e. paraphrases and synonyms.
2. Another common problem is not reading the instructions properly and then
writing too many words or not writing the same words as in the reading text,
as discussed above.
3. Finally, students often start reading the text before the question. This is
confusing for most people and wastes time. Read the questions first.

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Tips
1. Check how many words it asks you to write. If it says ‘no more than two’,
you can write one or two words. If it says ‘no more than three’, you can
write one, two or three words. Remember that numbers are written
numerically, such as 72, count as one word and hyphenated words, such
as state-of-the-art, count as one word.
2. Sometimes the question will state ‘using words from the text’ or ‘from the
text’. In this case, you should only use words from the text and not change
them or use different forms of the words. If it does not say this, then you are
allowed to change the words as long as the meaning is the same.
3. The answers appear in the same order as the questions. The answer to
number 1 will be above number 2, and the answer to number 3 will be
below the answer to number 2.
4. Remember that your answer should be grammatically correct. Check the
type of word that fits in the space. Is it a verb, noun, adjective or adverb?
This will help you answer the question correctly.
5. When scanning for your answer, make sure you are thinking about
paraphrasing and synonyms.
6. Find where the answer is located in the text before you try to answer the
question. Remember where before what.
7. Read the questions before reading the text.

Strategy
1. Read the instructions carefully, noting how many words you can write and if
they want you to include the exact words from the question or not.
2. Read the incomplete sentences first. Think about what word form can be
used and try to predict the answer. Also, think about keywords and how
they could be represented by synonyms or paraphrasing.
3. Locate where the information is located by scanning quickly. If you can’t
locate the answer quickly, move on.
4. Read the incomplete sentence again.
5. Study the reading text more carefully to establish the answer.
6. Check your spelling.
7. Repeat with the other sentences.

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