IELTS Listening practice tests

Short answer: a full IELTS Listening test is four parts and 40 questions in about 30 minutes, each part's recording playing once, marked out of 40 and converted on a fixed band table. Every test in this library has a separate answer page with the reasoning behind each answer and the full transcript.

8 tests · 40 questions each about 30 minutes each

8 tests

Listening Practice Series

Full 40-question papers at standard exam difficulty

Four parts, 40 questions, about 30 minutes — the same shape as the real Listening test. Part 1 is an everyday conversation, Part 2 a practical monologue, Part 3 an academic discussion, Part 4 a university lecture. The recording plays once per part, exactly as on test day. Listening is the one section that is identical for Academic and General Training candidates, so every paper here counts whichever module you are sitting.

IELTS 21 · Test 1
IELTS 21 Academic Listening Test 1
Pro
Registering for a city library card, a museum late-opening programme, a tutorial on choosing a dissertation case study, and a lecture on the archaeology of ancient roads.
40 questions · Libraries & Study / Museums & Culture / Education / Archaeology 30 min
Start test
IELTS 21 · Test 2
IELTS 21 Academic Listening Test 2
Pro
Enquiring about a bicycle maintenance course, a halls-of-residence facilities briefing, a tutorial planning a coastal erosion field trip, and a lecture on bioluminescence.
40 questions · Cycling & Repair / Student Life / Geography / Biology 30 min
Start test
IELTS 21 · Test 3
IELTS 21 Academic Listening Test 3
Pro
Booking family swimming lessons, a heritage railway volunteer induction, a tutorial on a nursing literature search, and a lecture on the economics of container shipping.
40 questions · Sport & Leisure / Volunteering / Health & Nursing / Economics 30 min
Start test
IELTS 21 · Test 4
IELTS 21 Academic Listening Test 4
Pro
Booking a tennis court, a farmers' market stallholder briefing, a tutorial preparing a presentation on household food waste, and a lecture on honeybee navigation.
40 questions · Sport & Leisure / Food & Markets / Sustainability / Biology 30 min
Start test
IELTS 20 · Test 1
IELTS 20 Academic Listening Test 1
Free
Booking a hall for a children's party, a festival volunteer briefing, a university tutorial on a social media presentation, and a lecture on green infrastructure in cities.
40 questions · Everyday Life / Volunteering / Education / Urban Planning 30 min
Start test
IELTS 20 · Test 2
IELTS 20 Academic Listening Test 2
Free
Enquiring about gym membership, a park's grand-opening briefing, a university tutorial on the history of public spaces, and a lecture on ecological rewilding.
40 questions · Health & Fitness / Community & Leisure / History / Ecology 30 min
Start test
IELTS 20 · Test 3
IELTS 20 Academic Listening Test 3
Free
Booking a car in for a garage service, a summer fair information announcement, a university tutorial on research ethics, and a lecture on the environmental impact of artificial light.
40 questions · Car Maintenance / Community Events / Psychology / Environmental Science 30 min
Start test
IELTS 20 · Test 4
IELTS 20 Academic Listening Test 4
Free
Booking a place on an evening pottery workshop, a wetland nature reserve's visitor information talk, a tutorial on designing a psychology questionnaire, and a lecture on synaesthesia.
40 questions · Arts & Crafts / Nature & Wildlife / Psychology / Neuroscience 30 min
Start test

On the size of this library: it is deliberately small and growing in reviewed batches. Every recording script is written for this site and every answer key is checked by hand before it is published, because a wrong key in a listening test is worse than no test at all. If you want unlimited fresh sets now rather than a fixed paper, generated practice by part has no limit.

Topics in this library

Recording topics across the tests above: Archaeology, Arts & Crafts, Biology, Car Maintenance, Community & Leisure, Community Events, Cycling & Repair, Ecology, Economics, Education, Environmental Science, Everyday Life, Food & Markets, Geography, Health & Fitness, Health & Nursing, History, Libraries & Study, Museums & Culture, Nature & Wildlife, Neuroscience, Psychology, Sport & Leisure, Student Life, Sustainability, Urban Planning, Volunteering.

IELTS Listening practice tests — common questions

Are these IELTS listening practice tests free?

The tests in this library marked Free are open to everyone. Sitting a guided test needs a free account, so a part-by-part attempt can be saved and resumed — the landing page, the sample question, and the answer key on every test need no account.

How long is an IELTS Listening test?

About 30 minutes for four parts and 40 questions, plus a short window to check your answers. Each part's recording plays once, exactly as on test day.

Are these Cambridge IELTS listening tests?

They are written in the same style as the real paper, not taken from a published volume: four parts rising in difficulty — an everyday conversation, a practical monologue, an academic discussion, and a lecture — with question types and a one-play recording matching the real exam. Original material built to that specification; nobody can legally give you a scanned past paper.

How many correct answers do I need for band 7?

The exact figure is on every answer page and on the Listening band calculator — Listening uses one conversion table for both Academic and General Training, unlike Reading.

Should I do full tests or practise by part?

Both. A full paper tells you your band; practising one part at a time — the generated Part 1-4 sets — is how a specific weakness (like Part 3's multi-speaker discussions) actually gets fixed.