IELTS Listening map and plan labelling questions

A map or plan question gives you a picture of a place, such as a park, a campus or the ground floor of a building, and asks you to label parts of it while someone describes it. Most candidates who lose marks here understand the English. They lose their place on the map. The fix is a routine for the 30 seconds before the recording starts, and knowing which words the speaker will use to move you around.

Below is a method for test day and an original practice map with answers explained.

What does a map labelling question look like?

The official IELTS description says you complete labels on a visual, which may be a plan of a building, a map of part of a town, a diagram of a piece of equipment or a set of pictures. There are two common formats:

• Choose a letter. The map has places marked A to H or A to I. You match each numbered place in the question (for example, 14 Bike hire) to one letter. There are more letters than questions.
• Write a word. The map has numbered blanks, and you write what the place is, following a word limit such as ONE WORD ONLY.

The letter format is more common. Official guidance says the answers can usually be selected from a list on the question paper.

Map questions usually appear in Part 2, the monologue in an everyday setting: a guide welcoming visitors, a manager showing new staff around, a council officer describing changes to a park. They can also turn up in Part 1 or Part 3. Like every question type in the Listening test, the questions follow the order of the recording, and you hear it once.

Why do people find map questions hard?

Three reasons, from what we see in AIL Listening classes:

1. They lose the starting point. The speaker says "we're standing at the main gate" and the candidate is still reading the question list. Everything after that sentence depends on knowing where the gate is.
2. They mix up left and right. If the speaker is walking north on the map, their left is your left. If they are walking south, their left is your right. Under pressure, people forget to turn the map in their head.
3. They hear the place name and stop listening. The speaker mentions the café, and the candidate looks for it. But the location comes after the name, often in the next sentence, and sometimes with a correction.

A method for test day

Use the time before the recording to set up the map. You get time to read the questions before each part.

1. Find the starting point. Look for "You are here", an entrance, a car park or a reception desk. Put your finger or cursor on it. If there's a compass, note where north is.

2. Read the question list and number the map. If the questions are 11 to 16, look at which places are already labelled on the map. These are your landmarks: the speaker will use them to describe the others ("opposite the toilets", "just past the playground").

3. Predict the route. Questions follow the order of the recording, so the speaker will usually move in one direction. If question 11 is near the entrance and the last question is labelled with a place that sounds like it's further away (a lookout, a boat ramp), that tells you roughly which way the tour goes.

4. Listen for the position, not the name. When you hear the name of a place in your list, keep listening. The answer is in the words that follow: next to, behind, at the end of, on the corner.

5. Move with the speaker. Keep your finger on where the speaker is now. When they say "if you carry on along this path", move your finger. If you lose your place, listen for the next landmark that is already labelled on the map and pick up from there.

6. Leave nothing blank. A blank scores zero. If you miss one, choose the most likely unused letter at the end.

The language you will hear

These expressions come up again and again, grouped by what they tell you.

Two pairs cause most mistakes:

• Opposite vs next to. Opposite means on the other side of a path, road or room. Next to means on the same side, beside it.
• In front of vs behind. These depend on which way the building faces. If the speaker says "behind the visitor centre", it usually means the side away from the path or entrance you came from.

Practice: an original map

Here is a short task written by AIL for this guide. Read the map and the questions, then read the script as if you were hearing it once. Try to answer before you look at the answers.

Carrington Island Wharf area. North is at the top. Visitors arrive by ferry at the wharf, at the bottom of the map. A main path runs north from the wharf to the lookout. A second path runs east to west, crossing the main path at the fountain.

Questions 11–15. Label the map. Write the correct letter, A–H.

11 Bike hire 12 Café 13 First aid 14 Picnic area 15 Information board

Script

Welcome to Carrington Island. We're standing on the wharf where the ferry has just come in. Before you head off, let me show you where everything is.

On your left as you step off the wharf, you'll see the ticket office. That's where you buy your return ferry ticket. Now, on the other side, across from the ticket office, there's a small shed. That's where you can pick up a bike if you'd like to ride round the island. Helmets are included.

Walk straight up the main path and you'll come to the fountain in the middle. Before you get there, you'll pass the toilets on your right. The café is opposite the toilets, so on your left, just before you reach the fountain. It used to be up near the lookout, but it moved last year, so ignore any old signs you see.

At the fountain, the second path goes east and west. If anyone feels unwell, the first aid room is at the far eastern end of that path, on the corner. There's always a staff member there on weekends.

Keep going north from the fountain towards the lookout. On the east side of the main path, just before the lookout, there's a large grassy picnic area with tables. And finally, if you look to your left when you reach the lookout itself, there's an information board with a map of the walking tracks.

Answers and explanations

• 11 H. "Across from the ticket office" at the wharf level. The ticket office is on the west, so the bike shed is on the east side of the bottom row.
• 12 G. The toilets are on the right going north, so they are on the east. The café is "opposite the toilets", on the west side, between the wharf and the fountain. The old location near the lookout is a distractor.
• 13 F. "The far eastern end" of the east–west path.
• 14 D. East side of the main path, "just before the lookout".
• 15 A. Standing at the lookout, facing north, your left is west.

If you got 12 wrong, check whether you chose A or C. That's the trap: the speaker mentions "up near the lookout" for the café's old location. If you got 11 wrong, you may have stopped listening at "ticket office" and missed "across from".

Common mistakes

Reading the questions during the recording. If you are still reading question 14 when the speaker is describing question 11, you have already missed it. Use the preparation time fully.

Forgetting which way the speaker is facing. Draw a small arrow on the map in the direction the speaker is walking. On the computer test, use your scrap paper to sketch the direction.

Choosing a letter twice. Each letter is normally used once. If two answers point to the same letter, one is wrong. Go back to the one you are less sure of.

Missing the correction. Speakers in Part 2 often say where something used to be, or describe a plan that changed. Listen to the end of the sentence before you decide.

Losing two answers instead of one. When you miss a question, move straight on to the next. Waiting for the speaker to repeat the location costs you the following answer too.

How to practise

• Describe a real place. Take a map of a park or shopping centre near you and describe a route out loud: "From the entrance, go straight ahead and you'll see the pharmacy on your right." This makes the direction words automatic.
• Keep an error log. For each wrong answer, note whether you lost your place, mixed up left and right, or fell for a distractor. Most people find one cause is behind most of their mistakes. Our Listening tips explain the other question types and how distractors work.

If you're taking IELTS on computer, practise clicking letters on screen as well, since following a map on a monitor feels different from following one on paper. See IELTS on computer for what changes.

The free Listening practice on the AIL site is timed like the computer-delivered test and gives an estimated score at the end, which shows whether map questions are costing you more than one or two marks. To see how many correct answers you need for your target, check IELTS Listening band scores.

Checklist before the recording starts

• I've found the starting point and north.
• I know which places are already labelled (my landmarks).
• I've guessed which direction the tour will go.
• I'm ready to listen past the place name for its position.