IELTS

HARDEST QUESTIONS
PRACTICE BOOKLET

© E2 TEST PREP 2024

 Contents
Page
Hardest Question #1 2
IELTS Listening: Multiple Choice

Hardest Question #2 4
IELTS Reading: Matching Headings

Hardest Question #3 6
IELTS Speaking: Part 2 (Long turn)

Hardest Question #4 8
IELTS Writing: Task 2

Bonus Question #1 10
IELTS Speaking: Part 2 (Long turn)

Bonus Question #2 11
IELTS Writing: Task 2

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 Hardest Question #1 - IELTS Listening: Multiple Choice
Questions 1–4

Questions 1 and 2

Choose TWO letters, A–E.

Which TWO things do Jenny and Liam agree to include in their presentation?

A photos of key activities

B information about their hosts
C a description of the French university
D a map of the city
E the timetable of their studies

Questions 3 and 4

Choose TWO letters, A–E.

Which TWO feelings did Liam experience during the exchange?

A nervousness
B embarrassment
C confusion
D pride
E fear

To listen to the audio, click the icon or scan the QR code.

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 Listening: Multiple Choice Transcript

Examiner: Part Three. You will hear two students, called Liam and Jenny, discussing a French exchange
programme they took part in. First, you have some time to look at questions one to four.
Examiner: Now listen carefully and answer questions one to four.
Liam: So, Jenny, we need to put together our presentation about our French exchange trip.
Jenny: Yeah. It was certainly an interesting semester! Studying French abroad at the University of Labège
was quite a different experience to studying French here.
Liam: Absolutely! I think we can share lots of insights in our presentation to help other students work out
whether the exchange programme is right for them.
Jenny: So, Liam, what information do you think we should include?
Liam: Well, I don’t think we need to go into too much detail about the institution itself, because it won’t be
relevant to students who go to study at other universities.
Jenny: Oh, that’s a good point. I was thinking about including some visuals to show where the university
was located in the town, so people could see how far away it was from where we were staying and so on.
But you’re right, that wouldn’t be useful for everyone.
Liam: I think featuring some visuals is a great idea though. It would make the presentation much more
engaging.
Jenny: And it would allow us to showcase some highlights of our trip, like attending the Bastille Day
celebrations.
Liam: And our weekend skiing in the Pyrenees – all that incredible scenery! I think people would like to
see that!
Jenny: Agreed. Do you think we should show some things on campus too, like the lectures and tutorials?
Liam: Good idea. We could even display our weekly schedule to give others an idea of what it entailed.
What do you think?
Jenny: Sounds good. I’d also really like to include some details about the families we stayed with too.
They really helped to make the exchange such a fantastic experience for us, and it would be a fitting way
to show our appreciation to them.
Liam: Remember they won’t get to see this presentation though. Maybe we can thank them in some other
way?
Jenny: I suppose so.
Liam: So, while we’re giving the presentation, we can share our overall impressions and views on the
exchange.
Jenny: Of course.
Liam: What’s your memory of what it was like on our first day?
Jenny: Oh, I remember being a bag of nerves! It was really daunting. But you seemed surprisingly calm.
Liam: I think I was. I always got excellent grades for my French here, so I was confident I could cope in
France. But then we got into the first lecture, and it was like, ‘What’s happening? Why can’t I understand
anything?’
Jenny: The lecturers all spoke so quickly. And the other students’ accents were really difficult to
understand.
Liam: But we didn’t give up, and we improved massively. In the end, I thought, ‘Well done, us.’
Jenny: Yeah, I feel like we sound more like native speakers now, and I don’t think we would have
achieved that in such a short time over here.

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 Hardest Question #2 - IELTS Reading: Matching Headings
The passage has five paragraphs, A–E. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from
the list of headings below.

List of Headings

i Diverse voices on when to teach reading

ii An integration of techniques
iii Why some children read slowly
iv A key life skill
v The discrediting of phonics
vi From pre-readers to experts
vii The importance of a child’s environment

1 Paragraph A

2 Paragraph B

3 Paragraph C

4 Paragraph D

5 Paragraph E

Learning to read

A
Learning to read is a crucial component of school curricula around the world. It unlocks a world of
knowledge, fosters critical thinking, and enhances communication skills. Reading is not only essential
for academic success but also for personal and professional development. It promotes empathy,
expands vocabulary, and cultivates a lifelong love for learning. In today’s information-driven society, the
ability to read is vital for accessing information, making informed decisions and understanding diverse
perspectives, making it an indispensable tool.

B
The journey of learning to read begins in infancy, in a stage called reading readiness. Babies pay
attention to the speech signals they hear around them and then go on to start producing spoken
language. Children absorb a great variety of information from their surroundings, including concepts
and words, and these surroundings significantly influence their ability to read, too. Reading to children,
especially during their preschool years, is crucial. Quality time spent with parents or caregivers, sharing
stories and exploring pictures, helps children to understand that symbols on pages represent words.
Insufficient exposure to books and limited interaction with literary phrases such as, ‘And they all lived
happily ever after’, can limit a child’s comprehension and lead to reading difficulties later in life.

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 Learning to read (cont.)

C
Some scholars believe the best time to begin children’s formal instruction in reading is around six or
seven years old, arguing that this is appropriate for children’s stage of development. Others think a
better approach is to offer limited reading instruction at ages four and five, though they caution against
spending too much time on repetitive academic activities such as completing worksheets. The debate
also involves parents, some of whom choose to teach their babies to read. Babies have been seen to
learn differently and more easily than children taught in formal settings (though researchers are also in
disagreement about whether a baby can actually read in the way older children can).

D
The first phase of reading development is the emerging reader phase. This occurs when young
children listen to someone reading to them. Despite not being able to decode the words on a page,
children in this phase often ‘read’ books by relying on their memory of the story as it was told in
previous readings. Next comes the novice reading phase, in which readers learn to make sense of
printed words and understand their meaning. Novice readers learn that different letters make different
sounds and start sounding out what they see on a page. As readers progress in their learning, they
become more confident and no longer need to slowly sound out every letter. By the time they enter the
decoding reader phase, they are becoming more fluent, able to decode and recognise a growing list
of words. In the following fluent, comprehending phase, readers move from learning to read to reading
to learn. They have developed their knowledge of spelling and can read with relative fluency even
if they do not always understand the content of what they are reading. The advanced reader phase
represents exceptional proficiency, with readers processing words almost instantaneously.

E
Educators have debated the best methods for teaching students how to read. Phonics is widely
considered to be an essential part of the learning process. Phonics emphasises character–sound
associations and specific rules for reading and spelling. It is therefore crucial in a well-founded reading
curriculum because without the ability to decode words, students are unable to extract any meaning
from them. Through learning phonics, children understand how letters and sounds go together, but this
can be challenging because English has some complex letter and sound combinations. Additionally,
mastering the alphabetic code alone does not guarantee proficient reading. Another approach known
as the whole language approach focuses on recognising not only entire words, but also complete
sentences or even paragraphs. Supporters of this approach believe that words have to be understood
in relation to the other words around them. However, recent research shows that this approach is not
as effective as phonics-based methods. As a result, some educators choose to combine both methods,
adapting to diverse learning needs across students, schools and countries.

Notes:

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 Hardest Question #3 - IELTS Speaking: Part 2
Candidate Task Card

Describe a type of food you would like to try.

You should say:

what the type of food is
how you know about this food
where you would try this food

and explain why you would like to try it.

You will have to talk about the topic for 1 to 2 minutes.

You have one minute to think about what you are going to say.

You can make some notes to help you if you wish.

Notes:

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 Sample IELTS Speaking Task 2 Response

To listen to the audio, click the icon or scan the QR code.

Transcript

Examiner: Thank you. Now I am going to give you a topic and I would like you to talk about it for
one to two minutes. You will have one minute to prepare and you can write notes if you want. Do you
understand?
Candidate: Yes, I do.
Examiner: OK here is your card and some paper to write some notes. I would like you to describe a
type of food you would like to try.
Examiner: Alright. Remember you have one to two minutes for this so don’t worry if I stop you. I’ll tell
you when your time is up. Can you start speaking now please?
Candidate: Well, the type of food I’d like to try is Indigenous Australian food, which is often known as
bush tucker. It’s food that’s native to Australia and has been grown, gathered, prepared and eaten for
millenia by Indigenous Australians. I first heard about bush tucker when I was watching a TV show
called I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. On that show, the contestants were challenged with eating
some of the more unusual Indigenous ingredients, such as green ants and witchetty grubs, which
look similar to caterpillars. While I feel a bit too squeamish to try those particular foods, it did lead me
to research other Indigenous foods. I learned about fruits like Davidson plums, which are tangy rather
than sweet, and nuts like the bunya nut, which is like a giant pine nut and when cooked apparently
tastes like buttered potatoes. I also learned about native flavourings like lemon myrtle, which gives a
lemon sherbet flavour and can be used in anything from curries to cakes, and mountain pepperberry
and saltbush, which are bush alternatives to salt and pepper. I haven’t tried any of those ingredients
before, and they sound so tempting, so I’d love to try this cuisine. I also think it’d be a great way of
learning more about Indigenous Australian culture. From that perspective, I’d love to try this food in an
Indigenous culinary experience in outback Australia. I think it’d be fascinating to see how the food is
traditionally prepared. And of course, even better to try the food! I’m planning on visiting Alice Springs
and Uluru some time next year, so I think I’ll try and see if there’s a suitable bush tucker experience
that I can take part in there.
Examiner: Thank you. Do you think other people would also like to try this food?
Candidate: Oh yes, absolutely. I think it sounds delicious, and it’s also a great way for people to learn
more about Indigenous Australian culture and heritage.

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 Hardest Question #4 - IELTS Writing: Task 2
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic.

In the age of digital communication and social media, face-to-face interactions are
becoming less common. Some people think that this is decreasing people’s ability
to communicate well in person.

Do you agree or disagree with this view?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or
experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Write your response below:

below.

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 Sample Writing Task 2 Essay

With the prevalence of communication technology, people are interacting in person less and
less often. I believe this has a negative impact on their ability to communicate effectively
face-to-face.

The main impact of digital interactions on in-person conversations is in the development of

essential communication skills. In face-to-face exchanges, people are required to employ
a wide variety of techniques, such as interpreting facial expressions, body language
and tone of voice. These non-verbal cues provide valuable context to the spoken words,
facilitating a more nuanced and accurate understanding of the message. In contrast, digital
communication often lacks non-verbal elements, so people have fewer opportunities to
practise these skills, potentially leading to misunderstandings when they do communicate
in person. Thus, the decline in face-to-face interactions is depriving individuals of the
opportunity to fine-tune their non-verbal communication skills, which are essential for
effective personal communication.

An equally important feature of face-to-face interactions is that they stimulate empathy and
active listening. When people meet in the physical world, they tend to be more attuned
to the emotions and needs of others. This encourages individuals to actively engage
in the conversation, ask questions and show empathy. These attributes are harder to
convey through digital means, where the communication tends to be more impersonal and
transactional. Consequently, as face-to-face interactions decline, people may become less
adept at engaging empathetically, diminishing their ability to connect on a deeper level.

To conclude, in my opinion, the reduction in face-to-face interactions is negatively affecting

people’s ability to communicate effectively and meaningfully. To address this issue,
individuals should prioritise and actively engage in face-to-face encounters whenever
possible.

(267 words)

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 Bonus Question #1 - IELTS Speaking: Part 2
Candidate Task Card

Describe a website you have recently used.

You should say:

what the website is
what you used the website for
how often you use the website

and explain what you like and dislike about the website.

You will have to talk about the topic for 1 to 2 minutes.

You have one minute to think about what you are going to say.

You can make some notes to help you if you wish.

Notes:

Notes:

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 Bonus Question #2 - IELTS Writing: Task 2
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic.

The rise of online shopping has transformed the way many people purchase goods.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or
experience.

Write at least 250 words.

below.
Write your response below:

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