Thanks, I think focusing on the last two sections will help as I always tend to make mistakes in those, I find it really hard focusing on listening while reading and writing at the same time.
That's the challenge. I struggled with same issue. The goal is to practice and pray for the best. I found listening the hardest in IELTS simply because of that reason.
Maybe I should just stop looking at the questions while I'm listening as this confuses me? I'll try staring at the wall next time.
You should most definitely
not stop looking at the questions. You have to manage the time. After each section, it would give you time to check your answers, don't do that but instead spend your time looking for the next section. That way, you would have two intervals to check that section before its audio is played.
In my test, what I did was as soon as recording started for section 1 (before example is played), I used the time given to actually check on section 4 and just go through quickly the first 5 questions. Then once section 1 example started playing, I switched back to section 1 and checked for key words, for instance first question was to write address, second was mobile number, another post code etc... So, after example was done, I knew what was needed of me in section 1.
Once section 1 was finished and it said to check answers, I went ahead to go through section 2. This gave me two intervals to read section 2. I repeated this process for section 3 and and 4.
With this trick, I found I did less reading and more listening while audios were being played.
Checking answers should be done in the last 10 minutes. I followed this ICSG which stands for
Instructions.
Capitalisation.
Spelling.
Grammar (for complete sentences). This is a made thing which I used to remember what to check in the last 10 minutes when you are copying answers to the answer sheet. Does your answer follow the instruction of that question? Does your answer need to be capitalized like names...? Is the spelling correct for the answer? and if it is complete sentence question, does your answer grammatically fit into the sentence?
I didn't know certain sections can be skipped, I thought the test always follows the same structure, let's hope for the best!
I wasn't talking about actual test. Test goes in ascending order S1->S2...->S4. I was talking about your practice tests.
