IELTS Listening form, note and sentence completion: how to fill every gap

What each completion format looks like

The layout changes, the job doesn't. ielts.org describes a form as "often used for facts, such as names" and a table as information in "clear categories, e.g. place/time/price".

Read the word limit before anything else

Every set of gaps starts with an instruction line, and it tells you how much you may write. The exact words from ielts.org:

A word limit is given, for example, 'NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER'. You will lose the mark for writing more than the word limit.

The same page adds that the limit "can change" between question sets, so read it every time. Here is what the example instruction allows:

Predict the answer before the audio starts

Before the recording for a set of gaps starts, decide what kind of answer each gap needs. IDP puts this first in its advice: "Is this a name, date, number, place, noun, adjective or something else?" The page gives two kinds of clues.

Meaning clues come from the label: Surname means a name, probably spelled out; Price per night means a number.

Grammar clues come from the words on both sides of the gap. Because you write the speaker's exact words, the right answer has to fit the sentence as printed.

The distractors: when the first answer you hear is wrong

A distractor is information that sounds like the answer but isn't. In completion questions it usually comes in one of four shapes:

1. The speaker corrects themselves. "The class is on Tuesday. Oh, sorry, this term it's Thursday." Words like sorry, actually, no, wait or make that often introduce the new value, so keep listening after them.
2. An old value and a new one. "It used to be £18, but it's gone up to £20." Used to, last year and originally flag the old value.
3. Options that get rejected. "We could meet at the station, but the library is easier." The first place is only an idea; the second is the plan.
4. A number said twice. One speaker reads a phone number, the other repeats it back with a mistake, and the first speaker corrects one digit. Write the version they agree on.

The habit behind all four: keep the gap open until the speaker moves on to the next point.

Numbers, dates, phone numbers and postcodes

In GoPrep mocks, 7 in 10 form, note, table and sentence answers containing a figure were in Part 1, and there they were wrong more often than word answers: 40% against 31% (15,692 and 50,476 Part 1 answers in the same finished mocks, 28 August to 26 September 2026). In Parts 2 to 4 it was the other way round, so give numbers the most attention in Part 1 forms: phone numbers, prices, dates, house numbers.

What helps:

• Write figures, not words. 27 can't be misspelled; twenty-seven can.
• Know how people say digits. In phone numbers, oh usually means 0, and double six means 66.
• Hear the stress in -teen and -ty. Thirteen is stressed on -teen, thirty on thir-. Numbers are often repeated or confirmed a moment later, so listen for that rather than guessing what sounds likely.
• Write dates without extra words. 8 May is one number and one word. The 8th of May has three words, which breaks a two-word limit.
• Copy postcodes and reference codes letter by letter. Letters that sound alike (B/P/V, M/N, G/J, A/E/I) are where marks go.

Where gap-fill marks go in GoPrep mocks

To see where completion questions cost the most, we split the same 284,440 answers by part and by the test's score. A finished mock is a full 40-question test with a score above 0 and at least one non-empty answer in each of the 4 parts: tests with an entirely unanswered part were excluded. "Gap-fills" are the questions where you write words or numbers: form, note, table, sentence and flow-chart completion and short answers. "Choice questions" are multiple choice, matching and map labelling, where you choose a letter.

Practice: predict first, then fill the form

A Part 1 style form we wrote for this guide. There's no audio here, so work in two steps.

Step 1. Predict (1 minute). Before you read the recording script, write next to each gap what kind of answer it needs: a name, a number, a date, a noun.

Step 2. Fill the form. Ask someone to read the script aloud once at normal speed, or read it once yourself, and fill every gap. Then check the key.

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

Riverside Sports Centre: membership form

Name: Anna (1) ______

Postcode: (2) ______

Mobile: (3) ______

Membership type: (4) ______

Start date: (5) ______

Monthly fee: £ (6) ______

Must bring to first visit: a (7) ______

What to do after your next mock

On test day, on every completion set:

1. Read the word limit in the instruction before the audio starts.
2. Decide the answer type for each gap: a name, a number, a date, a noun, a verb.
3. Type or write the answer and keep listening for a correction before you move on. On computer, you get 2 minutes at the end to check your answers; where paper-based IELTS is still offered, you can also mark the question paper as you go.

After a practice test, sort every lost gap-fill mark into one of five boxes: blank, over the limit, misspelled, took the distractor (an old value, a correction you missed, the wrong option) or wrong word. The biggest box is your next drill: empty boxes mean fill-and-guess practice, over the limit means reading instructions, misspelled means the spelling guide, distractors mean listening past your first answer.

If a part asks you to label a map or plan, see IELTS Listening map labelling. For choosing between options, see IELTS Listening multiple choice, and for the whole test, our IELTS Listening tips.

For a plan for the rest of your preparation, take the short quiz: your target score, exam date and hardest part of IELTS give you a personal study plan.