The challenges that you might face in the IELTS listening test is understanding the accents, the audio plays only once and there is never getting back of the missed answers, distractions, you should multi task listen read and write at the same time, and finally different types of instructions. The following tips help you to overcome the challenges and get a good band score in listening.

Considering the first section it can be a telephone conversation or a personal conversation between two people. The questions and answers will be from both sides. In this part you will most probably have a tabular column with fill in the blank questions. You should fill the blanks from the words you hear in the audio that matches the question. Try to get a full score because it is the easy part of the listening section.

The second section is a monologue where a person describes information on various topics. The questions will be to fill in the blanks with specific number of words.

The third section could be more challenging because it is a conversation between a group of people. The answers can be from any person you should be ready at any time to get the answers a small distraction can make you get the wrong answer.

The last section will be a monologue where there is an explanation on certain topic and there will be questions on the topic which you need to answer. The last section has more complex phrases and vocabulary.

Use the thirty seconds given before the test analyze the instructions skim through the questions and identify the type of answers for the questions. Listen to more audios this could help get acquainted with the different accents in the conversations. Improve your concentration and learn to multitask that is learn to write, read, listen and think at the same time.