IELTS Listening: how to stop losing marks on spelling and numbers
Spelling, plurals, dates and numbers cost easy Listening marks. Seven habits that protect them, with examples of what is and isn't accepted.
By IELTSora teaching team · Updated · 2 min read
Why these marks matter
Part 1 of the Listening test is full of names, dates, prices and addresses. They are the easiest questions in the test, and the most common reason careful learners lose marks is not understanding, but writing the answer wrongly.
A correct word spelled wrongly is marked wrong. So is a singular word where the recording gave a plural, or an answer over the word limit.
Seven habits
Practise these until they are automatic:
- Learn the letter names the way IELTS speakers say them, especially A, E, I, G, J, R and Y, which are easily confused.
- Listen for "double": "double L" means LL, "double seven" means 77.
- In phone numbers, "oh" means zero.
- Write numbers as digits. "Fourteen" and "forty" sound alike, so listen for the stress: fourTEEN, FORty.
- Dates can be written "12 May", "May 12" or "12/5"; all are usually accepted. Don't add words such as "the" if they break the word limit.
- Check plurals against what you heard: "tickets" is not "ticket".
- Learn to spell the topic words that come up again and again: accommodation, environment, necessary, recommend, Wednesday, February, library, government.
What a corrected answer looks like
Speakers often spell a name and then correct a letter. Write only the final version.
Example from a Part 1 call
"My surname is Okafor. That's O, K, A, F, O, R."
"And the postcode is BS7 3QR. Sorry, BS7 3QW."
Answers: Okafor · BS7 3QW
How to practise
Take a Part 1 test in exam mode, then compare every answer to the transcript letter by letter. Add any word you misspelled to your mistake notebook and test yourself on it a week later.