IELTS Commentry: Changes to IELTS Listening Test in January 2020

Friday 10 January 2020

Changes to IELTS Listening Test in January 2020

Starting from 4 January 2020 the IELTS Listening test has changed. The changes are quite small but important to be aware of, because encountering an unexpected change can take you by surprise and affect your performance.

The changes have been made to the instructions and layout of paper-based IELTS Listening test.

IELTS Listening Test Changes January 2020

Change #1 – from ‘Sections’ to ‘Parts’.

The word “Sections” has changed to “Parts”. Instead of Section 1, Section 2, Section 3 and Section 4 there are now Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 in the Listening test.

Change #2 – no more references to page numbers.

Page number reference has been removed from the instructions. This means that, for instance, instead of asking you to ‘look at questions 1-5 on page X’, you will be just asked to ‘look at questions 1-5’ without a page number. This shouldn’t present a problem because there is just one group of questions numbered 1-5, and it will be easy to find.

Change #3 – Part 1 Example has been removed.

Prior to the change in the Listening Part 1 a short part of conversation was played twice, first to demonstrate where the answer is and what it is, and then as part of the actual Listening test. Now Part 1 recording will be played only once, with no parts of it being played twice. Get ready to listen for the answers as soon as the test begins.

Luckily there are no more changes to the content, format or accents used in the Listening test.