Form and note completion opens most IELTS listening tests, and it is where careless marks disappear fastest: a misspelled surname, a date written the wrong way round, an answer that is one word over the limit. This page trains prediction, spelling and the habit of listening for corrections, with forty original questions.
Before each section, read the gaps and write N, No or D beside them for noun, number or date. You are then listening for a category, not a sound.
It tells you who is speaking and why, which makes the vocabulary predictable: a booking form means dates, prices and names.
Most completion tasks allow one, two or three words. Write the number at the top of the page and check each answer against it.
Answers follow signposts: 'the address is', 'it's on', 'that'll be'. Catch the signpost and the answer arrives a second later.
When a speaker says 'sorry, that's the old number' or 'actually, make that Tuesday', the answer is what comes after the correction.
Write in the question booklet in rough form and tidy it during the transfer time. Waiting to write a neat answer loses the next question.
The recording does not wait. Mark the gap with a dash and keep your eyes on the next question.
When letters are given, write them as letters first. Double letters and the letters that sound alike are the usual traps.
Ten minutes is generous. Spend it on plurals, capital letters for names, and any answer that breaks the word limit.
Not thisWriting 'the 15th of March' when the limit is one word and a number.
ThisWriting '15 March'.
Over-length answers are marked wrong even when the information is right.
Not thisWriting the first number a speaker gives when they then correct themselves.
ThisWriting the corrected number.
Self-correction is a standard feature of the recordings and is specifically designed to test attention.
Not thisWriting 'Smith' when the speaker spells S-M-Y-T-H.
ThisWriting 'Smyth'.
Spelled-out names are always a spelling test, and the common spelling is the trap.
Not thisWriting 'book' where the sentence needs 'books'.
ThisMatching the grammar of the printed words around the gap.
A singular noun after 'three' is a grammatical error and the answer is marked wrong.
Not thisStopping to think about a missed answer.
ThisMarking it and moving to the next gap.
The recording is played once, so a lost second costs the next answer as well as the last.
Not thisWriting answers only on the answer sheet as you listen.
ThisWriting in the booklet and transferring at the end.
You have ten minutes at the end of the listening paper for transfer, and neat writing during the recording costs answers.
Not thisLeaving a gap blank because you did not hear it.
ThisWriting a plausible word of the right type.
Nothing is deducted for a wrong answer, so a guess of the right category sometimes lands.
Not thisWriting a currency amount without its unit when the unit is not printed.
ThisChecking whether the form already shows a pound or dollar sign.
If the symbol is printed, adding it again makes the answer wrong; if it is not, leaving it out loses the information.
40 original questions. The first 10 are open to everyone. Answers are checked in your browser and never sent to us, so you can share this page with a class as it is.
1Complete the sentence.
3Complete the sentence.
5Complete the sentence.
8Complete the sentence.
9Why is predicting the answer type worth doing before the recording starts?
One good answer
Because it turns listening into a targeted search: if I know gap three needs a number I can ignore everything until a figure appears, which stops me being distracted by the topic vocabulary around it.
11Complete the sentence.
13Complete the sentence.
15Complete the sentence.
17Complete the sentence.
19Complete the sentence.
21Complete the sentence.
23Complete the sentence.
24The speaker says 'We're open every day except Mondays.' The gap reads 'Closed on ______.' What do you write and why?
One good answer
Mondays, because the question rewords the information: 'except Mondays' in the recording means 'closed on Mondays' in the note, and the plural matches the speaker's own form.
26Complete the sentence.
28Complete the sentence.
31Complete the sentence.
33Complete the sentence.
34Give three checks to run during the ten-minute transfer time.
One good answer
Check that no answer exceeds the word limit, that names and places are spelled as they were given and capitalised, and that singular and plural forms match the words printed around each gap.
36Complete the sentence.
38Complete the sentence.
40Summarise your routine for a form completion section in one sentence.
One good answer
Read the heading and gaps in the pause, mark each gap with the type of answer expected, listen for the signpost before each one and write roughly in the booklet, leave anything missed, then use the transfer time for spelling, plurals and the word limit.
Note
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No. Write in the question booklet while you listen and transfer everything in the ten minutes given at the end. Trying to write neatly during the recording is the commonest way to miss the next answer.
Standard British and American spellings are both normally acceptable. What is not acceptable is a spelling that is neither, so copy letters exactly when a word is spelled out.
Yes, and it is safer and faster. A date such as 3 May is fine; writing it out in words risks both spelling and the word limit.
The answer is marked wrong, even if it contains the right information. This is the single most avoidable loss on the listening paper.
Yes for completion tasks. If you find yourself hearing answers out of order, you have almost certainly missed one, so look ahead rather than back.
Decide in advance what you will do: write a dash, look at the next gap, breathe out. Having a fixed response makes the missed answer cost one mark instead of three.