How important is it to spell words correctly in the IELTS Listening test? The British Council’s LearnEnglish site answers clearly and succinctly: ‘Everything must be spelled correctly.’ That means if you spell a word wrongly, the answer is marked wrong and you don’t get the mark for it. (The good news: IELTS doesn’t deduct marks for wrong answers anywhere in the test, so a misspelling costs you one mark, not more.)
In this post, we’re going to look at one common pitfall – spelling out names – and what to do about it.
Why names matter
In the IELTS Listening test, you may have the answer spelled out for you. One of the speakers might give their name, and you have to copy it down – often at natural speaking speed. A typical exchange sounds like this:
Speaker 1: And your name please, for the delivery form?
Speaker 2: It’s McDougal.
Speaker 1: McDougal? Can you spell that for me please?
Speaker 2: Sure. M-C-D-O-U-G-A-L.
Speaker 1: OK, thank you Ms McDougal…
The test deliberately uses names you won’t recognise – unusual surnames, foreign-origin names, names with silent letters – so you can’t fall back on guessing. You really do have to catch every letter.
The problem
Listening to letters in English is harder than it sounds, especially if you’re not used to it. There are four common traps:
- Vowels sound similar. E and I are the single most-confused pair for learners from almost every language background, with A and E close behind. Many candidates lose marks on these letters alone.
- Some consonants sound similar to each other. M and N are easy to mishear, as are B and P, and F and S.
- English letters often don’t match the same letters in your language. The English letter J, for example, doesn’t sound like J in most other European languages.
- Two English letters may sound identical to your ear. A Spanish speaker, for instance, may struggle to tell B from V.
The single most useful technique in the test
Before we get to the practice exercises, here’s the most important in-test tip: write each letter down the moment you hear it, even if the word doesn’t make sense yet. Don’t try to assemble the name in your head as you go. If you’re still mentally piecing together McDougal when the speaker has moved on to G-A-L, you’ll miss the ending. Get the letters on paper first, read the word back at the end, and trust the process.
The solution: two practice exercises
Exercise 1: The alphabet
Start with this video, which takes you through every letter of the alphabet as it’s pronounced in English. Pay particular attention to the trouble pairs: A / E / I; B / V; B / P; M / N; G / J; and F / S.
- 00:00 – 00:45. Listen, pause, and repeat each letter aloud. Check your pronunciation against the speaker’s. (Alternatively, read the whole alphabet into your phone’s voice recorder, then play the video and your recording back-to-back to compare.)
- From 01:00. Minimise the video so you can’t see the screen. With pen and paper, write down the words you hear letter by letter. Don’t worry if you recognise the words (e.g. apple) – the point is to focus on how the letters sound, not on guessing the word.
- From 00:47. Open the video again and check your spelling against the answers.
Exercise 2: Names at full speed
Now try listening to names.
Now move on to this video, which spells out 20 names at normal native-speaker pace – the speed you’ll hear in the test itself.
- Minimise the page so you can’t see the answers.
- Listen and write each name down letter by letter, using the technique above (letters first, word second).
- Open the video and check your answers.
- The step that actually fixes mistakes: for any name you got wrong, write it out three times while saying the letters aloud. Just spotting the error isn’t enough – your ear and your hand both need to learn the correction.
What’s next?
Improving your spelling will help you not only in the IELTS Listening test but also in the Reading and Writing sections. As British Council Manager Peter Hare puts it in this blogpost: ‘The problem is that spelling in English is notoriously difficult. The only effective way of improving your spelling is to learn words one by one…’ He gives practical advice on how to improve your spelling and where to focus your efforts.
Good and helpful lessons indeed
Hi Andrew!
I was wondering if the correct capialisation of a word is also important?
When it comes to words like “club lounge”, these are sometimes spelled with capital letters in the answer sheet. Do I get still get a point if I write down my words without capitalisation?
Hi Elisabeth. We may need more context for where the phrase ‘club lounge’ comes from (e.g. Is it provided in the Listening Question Paper in title-case i.e Club Lounge, or is it just referred to generically), but normally you will be fine writing either in all-caps or just small letters. Hope it helps!
Hi Andrew,
I am unable to find the test I was referring to, but I can give you some more examples:
In the reading test 7, number 11, “Scholarship” is capitalized, even though it is not at the beginning of the answer text, nor capitalised in the reading text itself.
Also for number 12 of the same test, “Commonwealth games” has a lower case “game” , but a upper case for “Comonwealth”, whereas in the text it is both capitalized.
Further, in reading test 9, number 17, “ice shelves” is written with lower case letters, even though it is at the start of a sentence.
Another example I found is in the listening test 1, number 31, where “negative” is spelled in lower case letters, while in the same table “Positive” is spelled with an upper case letter.
Finding many more discrepancies, I was wondering whether capitalisation will be a criteria that decides upon the point one can get or loses.
If so, would you recommend me to write everything in capital letters?
Kind regards
Hi Elisabeth, thanks for the explanation. In Reading and Listening, capitalisation have no effect on your score. In Writing, however, you are expected to show good awareness of grammar so using commonly accepted capitalisation becomes important. Hope this helps.
what if your answer is correct but just written in different way to actual answer e.g. Half past 7 or 7:30 although half past 7 was mentioned in speaking
Hi Jigon, thanks for your question. Even though both ‘half past 7’ and ‘7:30’ are correct. In Reading or Listening, you may want to look at how many words you are permitted to write. In many cases, there will be a word limit (usually 1-3) so you should be careful. To us, the safest way is to write them with numbers (e.g. 7:30).
That’s really important to spell out words correctly in IELTS listening and your method of how to spell the word of IELTS listening is very correct and i think it will become very useful for some IELTS students.
Thanks for you comment – we’re really glad you think so!
I need some tips or help. I did IELTS GT CBT 5 times and I am stuck at 7.5 in listening and need 8. My score in other modules vary in every attempt except in listening. I don’t know what to do.
Hi there! Have you tried Road to IELTS? We have plenty of tips for Reading, Writing and Speaking, and have recently added 10 mock tests in the computer format! Doing more of these test simulations will help you get a higher mark in your next IELTS. Good luck with your next IELTS. Hope this helps!
Thank you for sharing your idea to this blog.
Your encouragement is like finding the perfect puzzle piece, making your writing better and helping you improve!