Form, Note and Table Completion in IELTS Listening: how to get it right

You fill gaps in a form, set of notes, table, flow-chart or summary with words and numbers you hear. Part 1 is almost always a form or notes about an everyday booking or enquiry, and Part 4 is usually lecture notes. The task tests whether you can catch exact details, spell them correctly and notice when a speaker corrects themselves.

Format

• Appears in every test, most often in Part 1 (a form or notes, usually 10 gaps about a booking, enquiry or application) and Part 4 (lecture notes, usually 10 gaps). Table, flow-chart and summary versions turn up less predictably in other parts.
• The instruction sets the limit: ONE WORD ONLY, ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER, or NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER. Part 4 is usually ONE WORD ONLY.
• Gaps follow the order of the recording, and the printed labels, headings and fixed phrases around each gap are your signposts.
• A hyphenated word counts as one word. Numbers may be written as figures or words, capital letters do not matter, and British and American spellings are both accepted.
• On computer you type straight into the gap while the recording plays and you can highlight words in the printed text. There is no 10-minute transfer time; you get 2 minutes at the end of the test to check.

Strategy

1. Use the pause before each section to read the whole form or set of notes, including the title. The title and headings tell you the topic and the order in which the gaps will arrive.
2. Predict every gap by word class and meaning. 'Date of visit: ____' needs a day or date, 'Nearest ____ station' needs a name, 'Cost: £____' needs a number.
3. Highlight one anchor beside each gap, such as the label 'Postcode' or a fixed phrase like 'booked for'. You will hear it, or a close variant, just before the answer.
4. Listen for the anchor, then wait for the detail to be finished before you type. Speakers often give a first version and then change it: 'It's the fourteenth - no, sorry, the fifteenth'.
5. When a name or postcode is spelt out, write it letter by letter and trust the letters, not the version you expected. Write digits as figures; they are quicker to type and cannot be misspelt.
6. Type the answer and move your eyes straight to the next gap. If you have lost one, leave it blank and stay with the speaker; you can return to it in the checking time.
7. In a table, follow the row and column headings; in a flow-chart, follow the arrows. The speaker describes the stages in the same sequence as the chart.
8. Read each completed line as a sentence. Check singular or plural, check that 'an' is followed by a vowel sound, check you have not repeated a printed word ('£ £96'), and count the words against the limit.

Common traps

• Writing the first value you hear. The recording often gives the wrong date, price or room first and corrects it, because corrections are an easy way to test attention.
• Missing the plural. 'Tools' heard as 'tool' loses the mark when the note needs a plural, and the final -s is weak in natural speech.
• Breaking the word limit with an article or unit, such as 'the library' for ONE WORD ONLY or 'at 7 pm' when 'pm' is already printed.
• Misspelling an easy word after concentrating on the hard ones: Wednesday, accommodation, February and Thursday are the classic losses. A misspelt answer earns nothing.
• Typing an answer in the wrong gap after losing your place, which shifts every later answer by one. Re-anchor on the printed label before you type again.
• Writing what the form usually contains instead of what the speaker says, for example assuming a 'Mr' title or a familiar spelling of a name.

FAQ

More IELTS Listening guides

• Sentence completion
• Short-answer questions
• Multiple choice
• Choose two answers
• Matching
• Map & plan labelling

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