There are some questions in the IELTS listening module asking the candidate to find dates and write in different forms. It is obvious that most of the topics discussed can easily find the answer, but lose points because they are wrong on the transfer sheet or piece of LR. Reading the article carefully will surely help you to avoid these careless mistakes.
The most important information about writing dates in the IELTS listening module is to never write dates like 07/1/2012. If you have written well, a U.S. person will perform at the 7th January 2012. However, a British citizen will read the same date to be July 12, 2012. Thus, to avoid confusion, you must write the dates in the IELTS listening than July 12, 2012 instead of 07/1/2012. Otherwise, you can also write July 12, 2012. 12th July 2012 and July 12th 2012, are correct.
Sometimes the months are written using short forms as of January January to December or Decrease. These short forms are not accepted as well. If you write using short forms of the name of the month, it will not be accepted and will be marked as bad a spelling mistake. Similarly, the day must also be written in the same way. For example, you should write instead of Saturday Sat Another thing is capitalizing the first letter. Write 'December' or 'Saturday' will be treated as spelling errors. So you must write the months and days with the first letter capitalized as "December" and "Saturday."
Understanding pronunciation is also important for the IELTS listening module. If months, non-native English users often confused when they hear the correct pronunciation of January, April, May and August. Similarly, days like Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday also create the same level of confusion. Cambridge ESOL people could be aware of this weakness and therefore often integrate these days and months listening to the questions.
The figures are sometimes confused too. A sure gain technique is to learn to differentiate between certain pairs of common numbers like these sounds. These pairs are 13-30, 14-40, 15-50, 16-60, 17-70, 18-80 and 19-90. The only remedy is to be deliberately cautious. There are also pairs or alphabets they are commonly used by Cambridge ESOL in the IELTS. BP, DT, H-8, SX and MN are the pairs that you have to watch very carefully to the IELTS listening.
All standardized test such as IELTS is really difficult for most of the subjects examined. However, there are still people who really excel in these tests. The key is obviously to practice as much as possible and to identify common patterns.
