Filling In The Answer Sheet For The IELTS Reading And Listening Papers

The heading without the letter is correct. 'C' by itself would also have been correct, and this is how most candidates answer. Never write more than one answer unless the question tells you to. If half of the question is right and the other wrong, then it will be marked wrong.

NG stands for 'not given'. Be careful, though, if your 'G' looks like an 'O', it will be marked wrong. Some students use 'not' to mean 'false', so this is marked wrong. The dash could mean that you have not tried to answer this question.

Numbers from the listening are difficult to get right. You must hear them correctly, write them down correctly, and the copy them onto the answer sheet correctly. Adding hyphens will not be penalised. This will be marked as correct. Do not add any extra words which you have copied from the question paper. They will not be on the answer sheet and this will be marked as incorrect.

Capitalization does not make a difference in the IELTS. However, if you write a plural noun instead of a singular noun it will be marked wrong. Also if you add articles (a, an, the) to the answer, it will be marked wrong.

It is always a good idea to write exactly what it says in the question. However, 'no' is accepted for 'false', and 'false' is accepted instead of 'no'. 'Not' would be marked wrong as it is not clear whether you meant 'false' or 'not given'. Ticks and crosses are automatically marked as being wrong.

You are given 10 minutes at the end of the listening to transfer your answers over, but NOT at the end of the reading. If you haven't transferred your answers, you will not be given extra time!

It's okay to write dates in figures. The clerical marker will look for all parts of the answer - here he/she will look for the date, the month and the year. The last option is wrong because 'February' is spelt incorrectly.

Extra words / information that are not on the answer key will mean that your answer is marked as wrong. Incorrect spelling is always marked as wrong. Synonyms or paraphrases of the correct answer are not accepted as you must write exactly what is on the answer sheet. Hyphen in words which are not normally hyphenated are not marked as incorrect.

'Fish and sea creatures' is 4 words. This is too long. 'The sea creatures' is the write number of words, but the candidate has added the word 'the'. Adding any word(s) that aren't on the answer key will mean that your answer is wrong. 'Fish' is correct. 'Sea creatures' would also have been correct.

In the listening, you musts add 'am' for 'in the morning' and 'pm' for 'in the afternoon/evening' if that information is given. If you use the 24-hour clock, then you cannot use 'am' or 'pm'. Here, 16.00 (without pm) would have been correct. You can choose to write the time out in full, but be careful of the spelling. This candidate could have just written 4.00 pm instead.

Incorrect capitalization is not marked wrong. If a word is missing, even a small word like 'in', it is marked wrong. In the last option, Australia is spelt incorrectly and, therefore, wrong.