Learn to follow direction in IELTS Maps!

Tips to help you with IELTS Listening map questions!

In the IELTS test, answering IELTS Listening Map or Diagram questions can be the most difficult for many students. With those questions, you have to look at a simple map, building layout, or diagram and figure out where certain landmarks are. This kind of question is unlike everything else in the test, and many students find them frustrating, because the dialogue you hear tries to trick you in different ways so that you pick the wrong answers. So, to raise your IELTS Listening score, you need to master the ability of listening to people giving directions. 

However, there are some useful tips that can help you answer these questions!

The ability to follow directions on these maps is a critical, daily-life skills that, if you are not good at, can lead to many frustrating interactions in the real world. Following someone’s directions is not as simple as hearing words like “left”, “right”, or “ahead” and “behind”. In the real world we don’t give such clear directions all the time. We use collocations, idioms, phrasal verbs, and less common location/direction words when giving directions to people. Real world directions are not always so straightforward as English learning textbooks try to make them.

IELTS Listening Map questions can be difficult

 

Listen for where YOU are in a map

In the following video, taken from PELA Online’s Listening Module 2, I talk about one important thing to listen for when getting directions from someone. To be able to follow someone’s directions, you need to know where to start!

As I pointed out in the video, you need to pay very close attention to the very beginning of whatever conversation or presentation you are listening to. This is because at the very beginning the speaker may give you an important clue about where all of their directions ‘start’ from.

Location clues will come at the beginning

Are the speakers talking about the map as if they are actually inside the map? Or do the speakers talk about the map as if they are holding it in their hands? Usually, the beginning of the conversation or lecture will give you a very simple clue about which of these are true.

For example, take a look at the map below:

IELTS Listening Map sample

Just looking at this map, you can see there is no ‘entrance’ or ‘starting’ location. In order to figure out what is in locations A through H, you will need to listen carefully to the very beginning of the conversation or presentation.

I suspect that for the above map the speaker is either:

  • looking at this map (like it is on a piece of paper) and pointing out places, or
  • standing somewhere in the area shown by the map and talking about how to get to various locations from where they are standing, or
  • looking at this map while standing somewhere in the area shown by the map!

The IELTS will try to hint at which of those situations is happening, but you’ve got to pay attention!

The IELTS Listening map questions that you face in the IELTS also points out that, once again, the IELTS is a great test because it is evaluating your ability to deal with various real-world situations. Asking for and giving directions is an ability everyone needs to have if they are going to survive in an English environment.

So, next time you’re lost somewhere, remember that the IELTS can help you build the skills needed to figure out where you are and how to get to where you want to go!

Summary

So, remember that even though IELTS map questions can be difficult to understand, the speakers will give you clues to help you! They will give you clues about how to look at the map; are you ‘inside the map‘ or ‘looking at the map on a piece of paper‘. Remember to focus your attention on the very first part of a conversation or presentation that is focused on describing locations on a map, and you will see your IELTS Listening score improve!

More IELTS exam tips!

Want to know how to start IELTS preparation at home? Learn the best way to prepare IELTS Listening questions with the Portland English Language Academy. You can learn many IELTS preparation tips for how to improve your IELTS score with PELA Online’s Academic IELTS Preparation course, with Modules to help you with listening, reading, writing, and speaking test questions.

Watch Lesson 1, Module 1 for IELTS Listening for FREE!

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