In a couple of day’s time many of you will be sitting IELTS exams and I thought this would be a good time to tell you about one common mistake that has been hurting the scores of other test takers.

As you know the Listening test consists of 4 sections. Before each section you will hear some instructions and there will be some time to look at the questions. Then the recording begins playing and you need to listen and write down your answers. You will be writing the answers right in the Listening booklet, next to the questions they belong to.

As you also know, at the end of the Listening test the answers must be written on the Answer Sheet. And here is the part you need to pay attention to: some people mistakenly choose to copy the answers to the Answer Sheet during the time they are given before each section begins. This is a BIG mistake, because that time is for you to concentrate on reading the questions about the new section (that is about to begin), it is the time to try and understand what’s coming – not for looking back and not for copying questions.

After the test you will be given 10 whole minutes to copy all your answers to the Answer Sheet and only then you need to be doing that. Any time spent on copying during the actual test is WASTED, it’s not doing you any good – in fact it distracts you and therefore harms your score.

Good luck with your exams, everybody!