From the night before to the moment the audio starts — every key point for test day, in one walkthrough.
Sit at your assigned number, adjust chair and posture, and put on the headphones provided.
Set the headphones to a comfortable volume and check both channels. Do it properly — this is your only chance.
Unclear audio, noise, broken headphones — raise your hand immediately. Never fix it yourself.
Phones switched off and stored; smart watches stay out. When in doubt, ask the invigilator.
Two speakers, daily situations (renting, booking, enquiries). Slowest speech — bank every mark here.
One speaker introducing a venue, event or map. Watch for map questions and order words.
2–4 speakers discussing an assignment or course. Faster speech, more accents — the home of paraphrasing.
One dense academic monologue. Scan the headings first, capture the backbone, not every word.
Answers go straight onto the screen. Use the 2 minutes to check spelling, plurals and question numbers.
Use the preview time to note keywords and predict the answer's part of speech.
Answers usually paraphrase the audio. Hearing the exact word can mean it's a trap.
Plurals, capitals, hyphens, date formats — a spelling mistake means zero for that question.
Enter answers one by one and don't skip a line. Check after each section.
You get ~30 seconds before each section — read all its questions quickly to build expectations.
After "but / however / actually / then", the real answer or a turning point often follows.
Miss one? Mark it, move on, guess at the end. Never stall on one question.
Missing one sentence is not a disaster. IELTS scores per question.