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IELTS Listening Practice: Diagnostic Quiz

David Recine

April 25, 2018

IELTS Listening: Academic & General Training

So you want to master IELTS Listening. But how close are you to “mastery” right now? Not sure? No worries. Use Magoosh’s IELTS Listening Practice Test to get an idea of your current ability. In this IELTS Listening diagnostic you will listen to audio passages and answer questions just as you would on the real IELTS exam. Then, our automatic IELTS Listening Score Calculator will estimate your band level and provide you with an answer key to help you learn where you went right (and wrong)!

How This IELTS Listening Practice Test Works

This quiz contains two passages and 20 questions, and is half the length of an actual IELTS Listening section. Here, we’re using the first and fourth passages and question sets from the Magoosh’s full-length free IELTS Practice test.

Passage 1 is always the easiest passage in the section; the fourth and final passage is always the hardest. To account for these differences in difficulty, the first 10 questions in the quiz are worth 40% of the final score. Questions 31-40 are harder, and make up the remaining 60%.

This is just a rough estimate, of course. Be sure to keep practicing to get a clear, consistent idea of your IELTS Listening ability.

Take the IELTS Listening Diagnostic!

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QUESTIONS 1-6

Play the audio clip linked immediately below, and answer questions 1-6 as you listen. This clip can be paused or replayed. However, on the real exam, you will only hear the audio once, without pause or replay.

(Note: The conversation in this audio track continues in the sound clip for questions 7-10.)

Write your answers in boxes 1-6.

Giant Truck Moving Company: Customer Inquiry Form

Inquiry Number: 1

Customer Name: Mrs. June Rayburn

Destination: 2 798 Street, Grand City.

Origin: Street Address: 12 Irving Court, Grand City

Move Distance: 3

Apartment size, or number of bedrooms: 4

List of large items to be moved:
Sofa
Kitchen table
Two 5
Two beds
Three large bookshelves
6

Number of boxes: Approximately 60

Question 1 of 4

QUESTIONS 7-10

Play the audio clip linked immediately below, and answer questions 7-10 as you listen. This clip can be paused or replayed. However, on the real exam, you will only hear the audio once, without pause or replay.

(Note: The conversation in the audio track below is continued from the audio for questions 1-6.)

In the answer blank, write the correct letter, A , B , or C .

7 The woman describes her piano as being

A special

B small

C narrow

Answer:

8 The woman’s current apartment and her new address

A may have some steps

B are on the bottom level of her building

C do not allow pianos

Answer:

9 The customer service representative says that the move, with the piano, will cost

A $375

B $475

C $575

Answer:

10 The customer service representative instructed the woman to send him a photo and

A the size of her piano

B the type of her piano

C the weight of her piano

Answer:

Question 2 of 4

QUESTIONS 31-34

Play the audio clip linked immediately below, and answer questions 31-34 as you listen. This clip can be paused or replayed. However, on the real exam, you will only hear the audio once, without pause or replay.

(Note: The lecture in this audio track will continue in the audio for questions 35-40.)

Complete the sentences below. Write NO MORE THAN ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 31-34 on your answer sheet.

31 Approximately 2 billion people live in desert globally.

32 People living in dryland zones often over-use their own , such as water.

33 Drought is an example of how desertification can occur .

34 Historically, increasing populations led to the need for irrigated .

Question 3 of 4

QUESTIONS 35-40

Play the audio clip linked immediately below, and answer questions 35-40 as you listen. This clip can be paused or replayed. However, on the real exam, you will only hear the audio once, without pause or replay.

(Note: The lecture in the audio track below is continued from the audio for questions 31-34.)

Questions 35-37

Choose the correct letter: A, B, or C.
Write your answers in boxes 35-37.

35 What creates very rich soil?

A chemical fertilizers

B decaying organisms

C animal grazing

Answer:

36 Healthy topsoil can reduce desertification by

A preventing evaporation

B absorbing more water

C fostering plant growth

Answer:

37 Trees prevent desertification by

A limiting animal migration

B reflecting sunlight

C keeping soil in its place

Answer:

Questions 38-40

Which THREE features below are mentioned as methods to address the problem of desertification? Choose three letters: A-G.

Write your 3 answers together in the boxes for questions 38, 39, and 40. You may write the answers in any order.

A shielding plans from sunlight

B rotating crops

C watering plants responsibly

D eliminating harmful plant life

E stopping invasive species

F planting trees strategically

G limiting overfishing

38
39
40

Question 4 of 4

IELTS Listening Score Calculator

Now that you’ve completed our IELTS Listening evaluation, you’re probably wondering how well you performed. Knowing your approximate band level is important for determining your baseline score. That way, when you take another IELTS Listening evaluation you’ll be able to compare your results and figure out how much you’ve improved.

Be sure to check your email to get your band range and quiz results. Keep that email safe—you may even want to retake this IELTS Listening diagnostic at a later date (once you’ve forgotten the questions and answers) and then compare your two sets of results.

IELTS Listening Prep: Your Next Steps

Once you’ve finished the IELTS Listening diagnostic quiz, Magoosh has some great additional materials for IELTS Listening prep. We offer a page of full IELTS Listening practice tests as well. And be sure to check out Magoosh’s Complete Guide to IELTS Listening. And consider a subscription to Magoosh IELTS Prep.

To measure your other IELTS skills, see our diagnostic quizzes for Reading, Writing, and Speaking!

And if you want to measure your skills on the test as a whole, and figure out how challenging the IELTS test may be for you, read our article “How Hard is the IELTS?”

Author

David Recine

David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he’s helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in many scholarly articles, his Master’s Thesis is featured on the Reading with Pictures website, and he’s presented at the WITESOL (link to PDF) and NAFSA conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru. Come join David and the Magoosh team on Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram, or connect with him via LinkedIn!

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15 responses to “IELTS Listening Practice: Diagnostic Quiz”

Mihail

May 12, 2018

Hello , this applies for Ielts academic for UK ?

Reply
1. David Recine
  
  May 14, 2018
  
  Yes, these questions apply to IELTS Academic, for the UK and for all countries. (The same version of IELTS Academic is administered worldwide.) These questions also apply to IELTS General Training, since the IELTS Listening section is exactly the same on both versions of the test.
  
  Reply
guylaine

July 28, 2018

Thank you for this tool. I would like to know if during real tests, writing “zonez instead of “zones”, “km” instead of “kilometers” will make our answer being wrong.

Thanks once again,

Guylaine

Reply
1. David Recine
  
  July 29, 2018
  
  To my knowledge, there is no English standard (British, American, or other) that would allow for “zones” to be spelled as “zonez.” In general, any regular plural noun should end in s and never end in z. However, km is a common, accepted abbreviation for kilometer, so that would be perfectly permissible. 🙂
  
  Reply
Zohaib

September 1, 2018

For Questions 31 and 34, I wrote “ecological zones” and “farm lands” as my answers.Why are they wrong? In the explanation, there is mention that the answer should not be more than one word,however, here it says that it can be two words.

Reply
1. David Recine
  
  September 7, 2018
  
  Hi Zohaib,
  
  My apologies! First off, according to the directions you followed, both answers really are correct. Secondly, I actually intended to say that you should use no more than one word in the instructions. The 2 word limit was a typo, for which I apologize. I’ve corrected the mistake, and the instructions now call for one word. But for the purposes of scoring yourself on this practice quiz, consider your answers to 31 and 34 to be correct. 🙂
  
  Reply
Maria

December 3, 2018

In the actual ielts exam, should i use km kms or kilometers? 6 km was a wrong answer.
And how should i represent time. 6.00 or 6:00?

Reply
1. David Recine
  
  December 4, 2018
  
  Hi Maria,
  
  Great questions! 🙂 First, let’s talk about km vs kms vs kilometers… vs kilometres (phew!). You can use abbreviations for kilometer and other measurements on IELTS Listening. However, you should apply an “s” at the end of any abbreviation to make it plural… unless of course, you are dealing with a single kilometer, a single minute, a single gram, etc….
  
  So the answer to number 4 on the quiz would be 6 kms, not 6 km. For more information, see this video from the official makers of the IELTS.
  
  As for time, 6.00 or 6:00 should both be acceptable. But remember– be consistent! 🙂
  
  Reply
Clifford

January 18, 2019

HI,i read sometimes ago that it’s ideal for one to answer there ielts listening section with capital letter,is this correct or not?

Secondly,my answers to question 1to 4 are as follow

(1) AD569837JC6

(2) SCOTTS VILLE

(3) 6 KILOMETRS

(4) 2 BEDROOMS

and i was marked wrong,

Reply
1. Magoosh Test Prep Expert
  
  January 25, 2019
  
  Hi Clifford,
  
  Capitalization is not tested in IELTS listening. You can write in all caps, all lowercase, or a mixture. However, spelling is tested here. Did you watch the entire explanation video for these questions? You can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRVBqBOeslU&feature=youtu.be
  
  Here’s a quick explanation of why these answers are wrong:
  
  (1) you missed a ‘5’(the 5th character in the number). The answer should be AD5659837JC6
  (2) You broke “Scotts ville” into two words instead of 1
  (3) “kilometers” is spelled incorrectly
  (4) You wrote “bedrooms”, which is repeated information from the blank. With your answer, the blank would read ‘2 bedrooms bedrooms’. The correct answer here is just “2” or “two”
  
  There are a lot of rules to follow for the listening test! You would have gotten most of these questions correct with some more attention to details like spelling and the information around the blank!
  
  Reply
Aditya

February 29, 2020

For Question 32, I used the word resource instead of resources and it marked me wrong. In fact resource even sounds grammatically right there. Please guide me on this?

Reply
1. Magoosh Test Prep Expert
  
  March 13, 2020
  
  Hi Aditya,
  
  Here’s the question:
  32 People living in dryland zones often over-use their own _________
  , such as water.
  
  For IELTS short answer questions, the answer must be directly taken from the audio and create complete and grammatically correct sentences. ‘Resources’ is correct because that is what the lecturer says in the audio, and because it is the option that creates the grammatically correct sentence. We are talking about more than one resource here, so “resources” is the correct answer.
  
  Reply
lee seokhyeon

September 24, 2020

I wrote 6Km for question 3 and it is marked wrong. Do I have to write the full character?

Reply
1. Magoosh Test Prep Expert
  
  October 28, 2020
  
  HI Lee, ‘km’ is an acceptable substitution for kilometers. It sounds like this may have been marked wrong because you did not leave a space between 6 and km.
  
  Reply
Siva

January 6, 2021

What do you think about the difficulty of these questions (especially last 4) – one a scale of 5?

Great resource, thanks!

Reply