Map and plan labelling gives you a drawing and a speaker who walks you around it. Candidates lose marks not because the vocabulary is hard but because they lose their place: one missed turn and every later label is wrong. This page drills position language, route tracking and the habit of keeping a finger on the map, across forty original questions.
Find the entrance, the compass if there is one, and everything already labelled. Those labels are the anchors the speaker will use.
Note where each lettered box sits relative to a labelled feature: A is opposite the lift, B is at the end of the corridor. You are pre-writing the descriptions the speaker will give.
Speakers begin with 'we're standing at the main entrance' or 'as you come in'. Put your pen there and keep it there.
Literally trace the route. Following with your eyes alone is where candidates lose their place.
Take the first left, go past, carry straight on, at the end. Each one moves you a fixed distance; answers are given immediately after.
The labels are asked in the order the route reaches them, so question five is further along than question four.
If you lose the route, stop tracking and wait for the next named landmark. Do not try to reconstruct the missed section while the recording continues.
If the answer is a letter from the map, write the letter. Writing the name of the room when a letter is asked for scores nothing.
During transfer, reread your labels against the map once. A whole set shifted by one position is a recognisable pattern and sometimes fixable.
Not thisFollowing the route with your eyes only.
ThisTracing it with your pen.
The pen keeps your place when the speaker digresses, and digressions are built into the recording.
Not thisAssuming 'on your right' means the right side of the page.
ThisWorking out which way the speaker is facing.
Right depends on the direction of travel, and speakers turn corners.
Not thisWriting the name of a room when the question asks for a letter.
ThisWriting the letter shown on the map.
The answer key accepts the letter only, so a correct room name still scores zero.
Not thisTrying to work out a missed instruction while the recording continues.
ThisWaiting for the next named landmark.
Reconstructing costs you the following two answers as well as the one already lost.
Not thisIgnoring the compass key on the map.
ThisUsing it when the speaker says north or east.
Speakers mix route directions with compass directions, and the key is the only way to reconcile them.
Not thisExpecting the answers in the order the letters appear on the map.
ThisExpecting them in the order of the route.
The lettering is arbitrary; the walk is not.
Not thisLabelling a space because it is the only one left.
ThisChecking that the description actually matches before committing.
Elimination works only if the earlier answers are right, and one early error spreads.
Not thisLeaving the preparation pause unused because the map looks simple.
ThisReading every existing label first.
The existing labels are the vocabulary the speaker will use; recognising them live is much slower than recognising them in advance.
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.
6Complete the sentence.
7Why is the preparation pause more important on a map task than on most others?
One good answer
Because the existing labels are the anchors the speaker will refer to, and recognising them for the first time while the recording plays is far slower than having already read and located them.
9Complete the sentence.
11Complete the sentence.
13Complete the sentence.
15Complete the sentence.
17Complete the sentence.
19Complete the sentence.
21Complete the sentence.
23Complete the sentence.
24Describe what you write in the preparation pause on a plan of a building with six lettered rooms.
One good answer
Beside each letter I note its position against a printed label: A opposite the stairs, B at the end of the left corridor, C next to reception. That way the speaker's description matches something I have already written.
26Complete the sentence.
28Complete the sentence.
31Complete the sentence.
33Complete the sentence.
35Complete the sentence.
36Give two ways a map task can go wrong even when you understand every word.
One good answer
Losing your position after a digression, so every later label is shifted; and misreading which way the speaker is facing, so left and right are reversed for the rest of the route.
38Complete the sentence.
40Summarise your method for a map labelling task in one sentence.
One good answer
Read every printed label in the pause and note where each lettered space sits, find the starting point as soon as the speaker names it, trace the route with my pen, write letters not names, and rejoin at the next landmark if I lose the thread.
Note
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Only when the map shows a compass. If it does, expect the speaker to use north and east at least once, usually to describe a large outdoor site rather than a building.
It is rare on map tasks, because the recording is built around a walk. If the descriptions seem to jump, check whether you have missed a turn rather than assuming the order has changed.
No. They also cover town plans, campus sites, floor plans of museums and layouts of rooms. The language of position is the same in each case.
Often five or six within one section, which means it is worth about the same as a whole completion set and deserves the full preparation pause.
Write only what the instruction asks for. Extra information on an answer sheet can make an answer ambiguous, and an ambiguous answer is marked wrong.
Ask someone to describe a route through a building you both know while you draw it, or describe your own route to work aloud. The skill is holding a position while processing instructions, and it transfers.