It has been found that students sometimes suffer a lot and find difficulty to answer the questions in the listening part. But the problems can be overcome by following some techniques. Let us practice some strategies.
1. Read the instructions carefully: If you are instructed to write no more than two words, you should not write no more than two words. In question 1 to 5, you must not write more than two words as your answer.
2. Try to understand the speech of the person, who introduces the topic: In every part of the listening test, you will find a speaker who introduces the topics to you. If you cannot understand the speaker's speech, you cannot answer the questions as the speaker will introduce you with the topic of the conversation. In the section 1, you will see that a person is telling that "a man and woman will talk about a transport company." So, the first conversation is related to a transport company.
2. Read before you listen – predict the answer : The candidate face difficulty as he involves with reading, listening and speaking at the same time. You will be given some time to read the questions and instructions,but that’s not enough to understand the questions. You will not understand all ideas before listening the conversation. When you will be given time to read the question, just read carefully and underline the keywords in your script.
In this listening you are listening about a transport company. So, your questions might be related to kinds of transport, fare, name of a station and arrival or departure time.
3. Try to relate ideas with next section of the conversation: In every section, you will find two parts. Obviously, there is a relation between the two parts. So, don’t forget the first part. Just guess the second part and predict the answer. In this listening, you will find that in the section-1, the first part is about transport company and you will find the second part related to 1st part. As a result, you can understand the 2nd part easily.
4. While reading table , just read the headings of the table: In this listening part, you will find some tables. Have a look at all questions, but try to remember the table headings. For example, question from 15 to 20 is related to table. you will try to remember the headings, like workshop, content and target group. It will help you to remember all the questions easily.
5. Look at 2 questions at once: Sometimes, the speakers speak too speedy as a result a candidate cannot catch the question. So, look at 2 questions at the same time. For example, while listening question 19 look at the question 20. So that, you might not miss the question 20.
6. Practice your shorthand: While listening you need not write everything as you will be given 10 minutes to transfer your answer to the answer sheet. So, during the time of listening write shorthand, so that you can write full word later. But never try it in the first section since there is only name, time or number .
8. Check your spelling: Sometimes, you may face problem with spelling. You may not differentiate between two alphabet sounds. It may create problem even for the advanced learners. Try to learn some rules from the phonetics book. For instance:
J & G, Y, A & E & I , 15-50, 18-80, 19-90. ( for 15, 18, 19 you will find long stress and for others you will find shorter stress). On the other hand you can remember this like: J is for Jesus, but G is for God, A is for apple, E is for elephant.
9. Don’t write the answer too quickly: You will find that in the conversation the speakers sometimes give some wrong information, but make that correct afterwards. To illustrate:
“So I’ll see you on Wednesday afternoon”
“Sorry, I’m busy then. How about Thursday evening?”
“Fine, Thursday at 7 0’clock”
“Can I have your contact no please ?”
“Yes, it is 897056432”
“Oh sorry it is 797056432”
10. Don’t leave any blank answers: For 2 reasons you should not leave your answer blank. Firstly, your prediction may be correct, especially, if it is multiple choice questions( question-11 to 14 & 35 to 40) . Secondly, you might write correct answer in the wrong box in your answer sheet and that will make your score lower unexpectedly.
11. Listen for repeated information: Sometimes, the correct answer will be repeated by the speakers, but that does not happen always( i.e. Q-2, HELENDALE).
12. Listen only specific information: Most of the time you will listen some unnecessary conversation. Avoid those part and just concentrate on particular questions. In section 2, question 21 to 30 is related to literature. You will find some story about the novel "The Secret Garden". You need not listen all conversation. Just concentrate on your part. Then it will be easier for you to answer the questions.
13. Try to understand synonym: You will find differences between the conversation and the questions of the booklet. The speaker most of the time uses synonyms. You must be familiar with such words. Some examples are given below from the listening part.
In the question no-7, "After" is written but the speaker uses synonym " no later than" half past seven(7.30).
In the question no-27, "transition" word is written but the speaker use word "Moves" darkness to lightness.
14. Gather some knowledge on various topics: like, literature, science, world culture etc. Sometimes, background knowledge is helpful to understand the topic( i.e. question 21 to 30 are related to literature, if you have no idea about literature, it will be difficult for you to answer the questions)
