IELTS Listening Test Can You Take Notes While Listening?

There are many students who face difficulty in IELTS Listening test. Especially, test takers find it almost impossible to keep track of what they listen and then possibly arrive at the right answer.

The big mistake is that they do not focus on taking notes while listening to the script which is very important. By taking the notes you will know what the speakers have discussed and you will be able to provide the right answers.

Practicing this skill of note taking is important.

When you take the IELTS Practice Tests, it is necessary that you shall learn to take the notes. Listen to the recordings and jot down important points or important information which can be helpful for you to create the perfect answers.

If you are taking computer-based IELTS or paper-based IELTS, you can have this option to jot down some notes on the paper. It is true that at many test centers where there is computer-based IELTS, it is not allowed. But, there is nothing wrong in asking if you can take notes on the paper or not. The test center authority may allow you to do so for they also know how important note taking is while taking this listening test.

Look for relevant words / phrases

Before listening to the recordings, you will have some time to look at the questions. So, do not waste this time. Look at the questions carefully. Read well. Keep in mind the target keywords.

For instance, if there are questions where you see blank space for the answers which may possibly be time, date, day, the name of the person, place or animal or thing then try to grab that info from the recordings you hear.

Remember, you do not have to write down everything you hear. Focus more on the information related to your keywords which you find in the questions. Sometimes, you may not get to hear exact keywords. So, in that case, you will have to be attentive and look for synonyms or other similar words which are close to meaning your keywords or phrases provide.

Putting the information in simple phrases

Whatever information you hear try to write that down in simple manner. There is certainly no need to write down complete words. Just write in a way you can understand.

Using short forms of the words, abbreviations and symbols can be the best way to take out the right information.

For some words like “Gorilla”, you can write “Gorla” For “Printing Machine” you can write like “Prt Mac.” Influenza can be written as “flu,” Martial Arts can be written as Mrtl Arts or in any other form you think you can remember.

You can use symbols for some words. For instance, for the word “arrow” you can use the symbol such as this: →. For increase and decrease, you can use symbols like ↑ ↓.

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