IELTS listening and reading: where the marks are actually lost

What each paper looks like

Both are marked objectively. Nobody exercises judgement about your English: an answer is right or it is not. That is precisely why these two sections respond to technique faster than writing or speaking do.

The raw score converts to a band

Your number of correct answers out of 40 becomes a band. The providers publish indicative conversions with their official practice tests, and the shape of them is worth knowing:

⚠️ Treat these as indicative, not a promise. The conversion is adjusted for the difficulty of each version of the test, and the official figure that applies is the one printed with the practice test you are using. What the table shows reliably is the shape: near the middle of the range, three or four extra correct answers is roughly half a band.

That is the whole argument of this article. Three marks is a spelling habit.

Where the marks actually go

1. Spelling. In listening especially. You heard "accommodation" and wrote "accomodation": zero. Both British and American spellings are accepted, but a spelling that is neither is wrong.

2. Singular and plural. The recording said "tickets" and you wrote "ticket": zero. This is not pedantry from the examiner's side — it is an automated standard.

3. The word limit. "No more than two words and/or a number" is an instruction, not a suggestion. A three-word answer scores zero however correct it is. Read the limit at the top of each question group, because it changes between groups.

4. Losing your place in listening. The recording moves whether you do or not. If you miss one, leave it and move to the next question immediately — the commonest disaster is losing four answers while hunting for one.

5. Reading the whole passage first. There is no time. Sixty minutes, three long passages and 40 questions means about 20 minutes per passage including the questions.

The listening plan

• Read ahead during the pauses. You are given time before each section; use it to read the next set of questions and predict the kind of answer needed — a number, a name, a noun.
• Predict the word type. If the gap follows "the cost was", a number is coming. You will catch it even if the sentence around it is fast.
• Watch for correction. Speakers change their minds: "Tuesday — sorry, Wednesday". The answer is Wednesday. Part 1 and part 2 do this deliberately.
• Type it correctly the first time. On the computer test there is no ten-minute transfer window any more, only about two minutes at the end. The old habit of fixing spelling during transfer no longer exists.

The reading plan

• Question order usually follows the text order. True/false/not given, sentence completion and multiple choice generally move down the passage. So if question 5's answer was in paragraph C, question 6 is almost certainly not in paragraph A.
• Two types do not follow the order: matching headings and matching information. Do these last, when you already know roughly what each paragraph is about.
• Not given means not given. It does not mean false. If the passage does not state it, the answer is not given even when you are certain it is true in real life. This is where opinionated readers lose four marks in a row.
• Timebox each passage at 20 minutes and move on even if two questions are unanswered. Passage three is not harder than passage one by so much that it is worth sacrificing.
• Never leave a blank. There is no negative marking. A guess costs nothing.

A four-week routine that moves the number

1. 1Week 1. One listening section and one reading passage daily, timed. Log every error into one of three buckets: did not understand, technique, careless.
2. 2Week 2. Whichever bucket is biggest gets the work. If "careless" is biggest, the fix is a checklist, not more English.
3. 3Week 3. Full papers, timed, on screen — not from a printed book, because the test is computer-delivered in Bangladesh now.
4. 4Week 4. Two full mocks at your booked test's time of day, then rest.

Both providers host free official practice tests, and their question style matches the real thing better than any commercial book. The wider routine, including writing and speaking, is in the three-month plan.

Why this matters more than it sounds

If you are one point short of the band your programmes ask for, these two sections are where that point is cheapest — see closing the gap from band 6 to 6.5. And if only one of them is dragging you down, it is one of the four sections eligible for a One Skill Retake.