 We've helped thousands of students get a Band 9 in IELTS listening test. So in this video, I'm going to show you a simple technique that we've used to improve the listening scores of thousands of students to a Band 9. I'm also going to give you a free IELTS course at the end of the video that has helped thousands of students get a Band 7, 8 and 9 in their IELTS test. So as you can see, the key to improving your listening score to a Band 9 is in your answers. So every IELTS listening test looks exactly the same. Section one, two, three and four. Section one will normally be two people talking. Section two will be one person talking. Section three, there could be multiple people talking at the same time. And section four is normally one person giving a lecture in an academic style, for example. And as you go through these sections, the listening test becomes more and more difficult. So section one is much easier than section four, which is the most difficult part. And they will also ask you a range of different questions. So here we have no completion, multiple choice, label a match, matching information and sentence completion. And there are a range of other types of questions that you might get as well in the listening test. You also need to make sure that you're using the real official practice tests from Cambridge English. It's really important that you only use real tests from official sources, such as Cambridge English or IDP or the British Council. If you use fake tests, this technique, this strategy will not work. So the first thing you need to do is you need to get one sample test, preferably from one of these books. And you need to do that practice test under exam conditions. That means that you've never seen that test before and you do it within the time limit. So you're recreating what it will be like on test day. It's also best that you do two or three of these practice tests for this strategy. But for the purposes of this video, I'm going to show you what it would look like if we were working with a student that just did one. So this is a perfect band nine. Every single question here is 100% correct. 40 out of 40, they would get a band nine. The key to this strategy is to identify which questions you got wrong and understand why you got those wrong. And there are generally six different types of students that we work with and you probably are one of those six. So I want you to imagine that you get this question wrong, this question wrong, this question wrong, this one wrong, this one wrong, this one wrong, and this one wrong, and that one wrong. All the others are correct. So if I was working with that student, that would be a clear indication that they have no problem with listening skills. They have no problem with the English language because they're getting all or most of these questions correct. But they really struggle with labeling maps and multiple choice. Now for you, that might be a completely different type of question. But for this student, every time they get a map or multiple choice question, they get most of them wrong. So for this student, what they need to work on is simply multiple choice and labeling maps. They've identified that their key weakness is that type of question. They learn a strategy for improving that type of question. They practice it and they turn that into a strength. So next time they do the test, they get all the questions correct and they get a band nine. Now let's look at a completely different student. This student has all of the questions correct, but they have spelled these answers incorrectly. So Wednesday is a weird spelling in English. Students often get this wrong. Let's say they spelled opportunity with just one P instead of two P's. Capitalism with a K instead of a C. This student has no problem finding the correct answer. Their only weakness is spelling. So if we tried to help this student with labeling maps and multiple choice, it would be a complete waste of their time. But if we just focus on helping them improve their spelling, then they are going to improve to a band nine in quite a short period of time. Because this technique is not just about helping you get to a band nine, it's about helping you get there as quickly as possible. Okay, next this student gets this one wrong, this one wrong, this one wrong, this one wrong, this one wrong, this one wrong, this one wrong, and this one wrong. Nearly all of their wrong answers are in section three. So if we analyze section three, what is section three about? Section three is about listening to multiple people talk at the same time. Often students have been learning English by just listening to one person, and that person has been speaking very slowly and clearly, as I am doing now. That does not really represent what real English sounds like in an English-speaking country. You're going to have multiple people talking over each other all at the same time. So for this student, they're just not used to this type of listening. So to improve their score, what we need to do is give them some podcasts or TV shows or radio shows with as multiple people talking at the same time, get them used to listening to that way of English, that style of English, sorry, and then they are going to dramatically improve their score. And another student might get all of these correct, but they might get this one wrong, this one wrong, this one wrong, this one wrong, and this one wrong. And section four is a monologue. It is normally one person speaking, normally like a lecture, a university lecture, something like that. Now that's quite a specific type of language that is being used. It is often using more academic type words, more high-level vocabulary, more unusual vocabulary that you're not used to hearing. So we might have someone who is excellent at listening to English, but all of the English that they've been listening to might have been in a relaxed social setting. But once they are listening to this more academic type English, they really struggle. For this person, they could listen to, you know, one of the millions of university lectures on YouTube or a TED talk or something like that, just to get them used to that type of listening. And then you might also get a student that is getting mostly questions towards the end of the test wrong. So it's quite a common scenario where they get all of section one and all of section two correct, most of section three correct and most of section four wrong. So as they go through the test, as it is getting more difficult, they're getting more incorrect. And this is totally normal and very, very common. This student really needs to work on their vocabulary and their listening skills. They just need to improve their listening a little bit more, and then they will eventually get the score that they need. Now, focusing on specific types of question or spelling is not really going to be beneficial to this student. They could completely master all of the different types of question here and still get a lower score than they're hoping for. Because strategy is not really the issue for them. What is the issue is their listening skills and their vocabulary. So they need to work on that. Then finally, you might get a student that it's just getting lots of questions wrong. But when you speak to them and ask them, why did you get these questions wrong? They normally say something like, I don't know, or I just lost focus. Now, if it's the focus one, you need to work on the amount of listening practice that you're doing. It's kind of like a muscle, you know, if you go to the gym for the first time and you've not used that muscle, it's going to be very difficult for you. But if you progressively overload your muscles and you go two or three times a week for a couple of months, then it becomes much, much easier. A huge number of students quite rarely listen to English and then go into the listening test and like, why can't I improve my listening score? Then if there's just a lot of incorrect answers and you really don't know why, that is normally a vocabulary issue that they are mentioning a lot of new words, unusual words that you do not understand, then you need to work on your vocabulary. But you won't know any of this unless you actually do this thing. Use this technique, use this strategy, and improve your score. If you want help in improving those weaknesses, I've included a free fundamentals course. This is our most popular free course. And it goes into a lot more detail on not just listening, but also vocabulary, grammar, writing, speaking, reading, absolutely everything. It's 100% free, it's helped thousands of students get a band 7, 8, and 9, and you can get a free link in the description. Just go to the description, click the fundamentals course, and you can sign up for free. It goes into a lot more detail on listening and this type of stuff as well. So to summarize, it is very rare for a student to be bad at listening. We work with thousands of students, and none of the students that got a band 9 came in and we were like, you're just bad at listening, you need to do a whole big listening course. It's normally just one or two key areas, key weaknesses that they need to work on, and it's all just about identifying your weaknesses and then turning those weaknesses into strength. So again, get real practice tests, do two or three of them. At the back of the book, you'll find the correct answers, and then you will also find the audio scripts so you can identify, you know, why did I get this question wrong? Why did I get this question wrong? And then do an analysis and think about what are your key weaknesses and attack those key weaknesses. If you want our help with that, we do have a few places available on our VIP course and I've included a link below that will give you 10% off that VIP course. The VIP course is the most successful IELTS course in the world, quite simply because we have helped more students get a band 7, 8 and 9 than any other IELTS course in the entire world. If you have any questions about this or anything else related to IELTS, feel free to write your question in the comments. We answer 100% of the questions that we get. I hope you enjoyed this video and feel free to check out the rest of our channel.