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IELTS 21 Academic Listening Test 3

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.

4 parts · 40 questions · 3,025 words 30 minutesListening Practice SeriesTopics: Sport & Leisure, Volunteering, Health & Nursing, Economics

Part of the Pro library — sign in to sit the guided test with each recording playing once, exactly like the real exam. The full answer key, with reasoning drawn from the transcript, is on its own page — open it after you finish, not before.

Start IELTS 21 Academic Listening Test 3

The four parts

What's in this test

  • Part 1

    Booking Family Swimming Lessons

    Form & note completion

    10 questions · 808 words

  • Part 2

    New Volunteer Induction at Heritage Railway

    Multiple choice + matching

    10 questions · 705 words

  • Part 3

    Literature Search Strategy for Nursing Essay

    Multiple choice

    10 questions · 856 words

  • Part 4

    The Economics of Container Shipping: A Global Revolution

    Sentence & summary completion

    10 questions · 656 words

Try one

A sample question from Part 2

This one question is answerable here with no sign-up — it is worth zero marks and isn't recorded anywhere. The real test has 40 of these behind a one-play recording.

1.

What is the main aim of today's induction session?

About this test

How many questions are in IELTS 21 Academic Listening Test 3?

40, across four parts of 10 marks each, exactly as the real Listening paper is structured. Each part's recording plays once, and you get about 30 minutes in total.

Do I need an account to take this test?

Yes — sitting the guided test requires a free account, so your progress across parts can be saved and resumed. This landing page and the answer key need no account.

Where are the answers?

On a separate page — the answer key for this test lists every correct answer with the reasoning drawn from the transcript, plus the full transcript itself.

Is this a Cambridge IELTS test?

It is written in the same style as the real paper, not taken from a published volume: four parts rising in difficulty, the same question types, and a recording that plays once. Original material written for this library — nobody can legally hand you a scanned past paper.

Answer key and transcript for this test

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