LISTENING TIPS WANTED

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Beth
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Feb 10, 2014 2:16 am

LISTENING TIPS WANTED

Post by Beth »

Hi! I am currently studying for the IELTS exam. I have few questions regarding the LISTENING PART.
Is it a mistake if I:
- spell a word wrong ( e.g BOUNCH instead of BUNCH) if yes how many points? 1/2 or 1 ?
- miss a letter ( e.g I write CLOSE instead of CLOSED ) " " "
- confuse plural with singular ( e.g CAR instead of CARS)
- write 250.000.000, meanwhile the answer requires just 250 million
- add a preposition/ an adjective in an answer which is not wrong but doesn't appear in the answer sheet? e.g small talk , where the answer in just talk...OR EAT LOTS OF where the answer is EAT LOTS....

I know they might be just silly questions but I would like to understand how they do evaluate these mistakes. :roll:

THANKS

BETTA :geek:
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Larry
IELTS Instructor
IELTS Instructor
Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Feb 11, 2014 10:07 am
Location: South Korea
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Re: LISTENING TIPS WANTED

Post by Larry »

Hello Beth,

Unfortunately the answer will be wrong if you:

-spell a word wrong
-miss a letter
-confuse plural with singular

If you make of those mistakes, the whole answer is wrong. As for points, generally (each version of the listening test is graded slightly differently), if you miss five answers you get band 8, miss ten band 7, miss seventeen band 6, miss twenty five band 5, and so on.

As for the number, if the audio says 250 million:

-250 million (correct)
-250,000,000 (correct)
-250.000.000 (incorrect)

As for the preposition or adjective, it's really on a case by case basis. The examiner has a sheet of acceptable answers, if your answer isn't on there it's wrong.

edit: Oh, and if you make a mistake with capitalization that is also counted as wrong. Here's a tip though: If you don't know what to capitalize, just capitalize the whole answer.

-florida (incorrect)
-Florida (correct)
-FLORIDA (correct)

Hope this helps! :D
If you like my advice, you might consider checking out my website IELTS Boot Camp.

There you can find lots of speaking, writing, reading, and listening tips.

You can also find a ton of speaking practice questions.
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