Cambridge IELTS 20 Academic Listening Test 1

• Each audio plays once. You CANNOT pause or rewind during the exam.
• Take notes on the question section as you listen.
• After audio ends, you have 10 minutes to review and finalize answers.

Cambridge IELTS 20 Academic Listening Test 1 reads as a fairly standard Cambridge paper on the surface, but the question types it cycles through expose any weakness in your prediction routine. Section 1 features a restaurant booking dialogue; Section 2 moves into a public safety briefing; Section 3 shifts into students preparing a joint presentation; and Section 4 closes with a lecture on bees and pollination.

Section 1 uses note completion; Section 2 uses multiple choice plus multi-answer multiple choice; Section 3 uses multi-answer multiple choice plus multiple choice; Section 4 uses note completion. In Section 2, the multiple-choice items rely on paraphrase rather than direct repetition, so the option that contains an exact word from the recording is usually the distractor, not the answer.

Spend the preview seconds underlining the keyword in each gap and pencilling a word-class hint above it. Resist over-correcting in real time — if you miss an answer, leave it and rejoin at the next signpost. Use the ten-minute transfer window to clean up capitalisation, plurals and word limits. For band 7, accuracy on the last ten questions usually decides the score.

New to this skill? Read the Listening question types guide for tactics, scoring rules, and frequency analysis across Cambridge 10–20. Or browse all Listening practice tests.

Looking for written strategy? See the IELTS Blog for in-depth posts.