Listening Strategy

1. Read the question carefully. Understand the map or plan and its features.
2. Ask yourself where things are in relation to the questions. This should help you predict the
answers and follow the talk.
3. Think about where the person might begin their talk from. What is to their right and left?
What is in front of and behind them?
4. Look at the major parts of the map or plan to help you understand and navigate your way
around.
5. Predict what type of words might be the answer i.e. will it be a place, room, street, building
etc.
6. Listen to the beginning of the talk carefully because this will help you understand the context
and help you follow the talk more easily.
7. Visualize the place they are describing whilst the person is talking. Note down any possible
answers, but be careful with distractors e.g. ‘this was the library but we decided to move it down to
the end of the corridor’.
8. Use signposting language like ‘The next room we are about to see is…’, or ‘If you now follow
me to….’,

IELTS READING – MATCHING TEST

Strategy
-If this type of question is on the test, do it first.
-Don’t look at the headings.
-Read the first one or two sentences and the last sentence of each paragraph to understand the
general meaning of the paragraph. Don’t worry about highlighting keywords in the test. Try to sum up
the general meaning of each paragraph in one or two words.
-Look at the headings and identify keywords within each heading.
-Match any headings that are very obvious and you are sure about.
Info that is not obvious ,check synonyms
-For the others, write 2 or 3 headings beside the paragraph. Identify the difference between each of
the headings. Establish if there are any synonyms in the paragraph to keywords in the headings.
-If you still can’t pick one, move one. The answer will often reveal itself later.
Repeat until finished.