Raw score
0/40
Estimated band
–
By section
–
Estimated with the standard Listening conversion. Every question below now shows the correct answer and what confirmed it — and the full transcript is open at the bottom so you can trace anything you missed.
Try another test
Your browser has no English speech voices available, so the audio cannot play. Try Chrome or Edge on desktop, or check your system's text-to-speech settings.

IELTS Listening — Practice Test 24

0/40 answered
40:00
Section 1 A customer phones a mobile network to move his number to a new contract · Advisor, Customer
Questions 1-7

Complete the form below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

1Surname: ______
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
2Number to transfer: 0748 226 ______
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
3Data allowance chosen: ______ GB
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
4Monthly cost: £ ______
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
5Length of contract: ______ months
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
6Date of switch: ______ September
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
7Free extra included: European ______ pack
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
Questions 8-10

Answer the questions below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

8What word must the customer text to 65075 to get his switching code?
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
9How will the new SIM card be sent to the customer?
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
10Which optional extra does the customer decide not to take?
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
Section 2 A volunteer guide welcomes visitors to a heritage steam railway · Guide
Questions 11-13

Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

11What does the guide say about the railway's history?
12What does the guide say about the 3.30 train?
13What change has been made to the workshop tour?
Questions 14-17

Where are the following places? Choose the correct letter, A–F, from the plan description below.

Plan of Hartfield Valley Station — you enter through the main entrance on the south side; platform one lies straight ahead, and a footbridge crosses to platform two.

A = to the right of the main entrance, opposite the booking office   B = immediately left of the main entrance   C = at the far northern end of platform one   D = the long building on platform two   E = the shed behind the museum yard   F = beside the level crossing north of the station

  • A to the right of the main entrance, opposite the booking office
  • B immediately left of the main entrance
  • C at the far northern end of platform one
  • D the long building on platform two
  • E the shed behind the museum yard
  • F beside the level crossing north of the station
14Signal box
15Museum
16Engine shed
17Tea room
Questions 18-20

Complete the sentences below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

18The workshop tour is limited to ______ people.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
19Tickets are 10% cheaper when bought on the ______.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
20A footplate ride on the engine Dorothy costs £ ______.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
Section 3 Two students plan a usability test of a campus events app with their tutor · Dr Novak, Ines, Callum
Questions 21-24

Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

21What will the students' usability test concentrate on?
22Why did the students reject the retrospective think-aloud method?
23How many participants will take part in the study?
24Why do the students finally choose the usability lab?
Questions 25-27

Who makes each suggestion? Choose A, B or C. NB You may use any letter more than once.

  • A Ines
  • B Callum
  • C Dr Novak
25testing the app in a realistic setting
26acknowledging the setting as a weakness in the report
27recording screens but not participants' faces
Questions 28-30

Complete the sentences below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

28Including the consent form and questionnaire, each session will take about ______ minutes.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
29Because the lab is being rewired, the pilot session has been moved to ______.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
30Before the pilot, the students must send Dr Novak the ______.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
Section 4 A lecture on the psychology of queuing · Lecturer
Questions 31-40

Complete the notes below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

311950s New York: complaints about slow lifts ended after ______ were installed beside the doors.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
32The time a delay feels like is called the ______ wait.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
33Time that is occupied feels shorter than time that is ______.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
34Explaining a delay and giving an estimate reduces passengers' ______.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
35Queue rage is really triggered by ______, not by slowness.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
36A serpentine line guarantees that people are served in order of ______.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
37Supermarkets avoid single lines because a combined queue looks ______.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
38Theme parks deliberately ______ the waiting times posted at rides.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
39In emergency departments, the fairness rule bends to visible ______.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
40The lecturer concludes that the queue is really a ______ problem.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

Audio script / transcript

Trace every answer back to the exact words. Distractors — changes of mind, corrections, rejected options — are part of the recording, so read the whole exchange, not just one line.

Section 1 — A customer phones a mobile network to move his number to a new contract

Advisor:Good afternoon, Skyline Mobile, this is Nadia. What can I do for you today?
Customer:Hi. I'd like to move my number over to you — a friend's on one of your plans and the coverage sounds better.
Advisor:We can certainly arrange that. Let me set the account up first. Could I take your full name?
Customer:Robert Whitcombe.
Advisor:Whitcombe — is that W-H-I-T-C-O-M-B?
Customer:Nearly — there's an E on the end. W-H-I-T-C-O-M-B-E. Everyone leaves it off.
Advisor:W-H-I-T-C-O-M-B-E, got it. And the number you'd like to bring across?
Customer:It's oh-seven-four-eight, two-two-six, nine-three-one. Hang on — that's not right, I always muddle the last bit. It ends nine-two-one, not nine-three-one. So oh-seven-four-eight, double-two, six, nine-two-one.
Advisor:0748, 226, 921. Lovely. And an email address for the paperwork?
Customer:Rob dot Whitcombe at mailpost dot com.
Advisor:Thank you. Now, plans. Roughly how much data do you get through in a month?
Customer:Quite a lot, honestly — I stream music on the train every day. I was actually wondering about the unlimited plan.
Advisor:Unlimited is twenty-two pounds a month. But looking at typical use, most music streamers stay well under twenty gigabytes. Our thirty-gigabyte plan is eighteen pounds, and if you ever go over, we simply slow the connection down rather than charging you extra.
Customer:Hmm. In that case unlimited is overkill. I'll take the thirty gigabytes.
Advisor:Thirty gigabytes at eighteen pounds a month. Now, contract length — twelve months or twenty-four? On the twenty-four the price drops to sixteen.
Customer:Tempting, but there's a chance I'll be working abroad next year, so I'd better keep it to twelve months.
Advisor:Twelve months it is. And when would you like the switch to happen?
Customer:The first of September — that's the day my current contract finishes.
Advisor:Ah, slight problem there. The first is a Sunday, and number transfers only complete on working days. The earliest I can offer you is Tuesday the third of September.
Customer:The third is fine, as long as I don't lose the number in between.
Advisor:You won't — the old service runs until the moment the new one starts. Right, optional extras. We do device insurance at four pounds fifty a month: cracked screens, water damage, theft.
Customer:Mm... no, I'll pass on the insurance, thanks. The phone's two years old already — it's really not worth insuring.
Advisor:Fair enough. One thing I can add at no charge is our European roaming pack — that's free on all new contracts taken out this month, and it stays free for the life of the contract.
Customer:Oh, definitely — yes to that.
Advisor:Done. Now, to bring the number across you'll need a switching code — a PAC — from your current provider. Just text the word PAC to six-five-zero-seven-five from your old phone; the code comes back within the hour, and you read it to us or type it in online.
Customer:Text PAC to 65075. Easy enough.
Advisor:Your new SIM goes out today by first-class post, so expect it in a couple of days — but don't put it in the phone before the third, or you'll cut your old service off early.
Customer:Understood. And the contract itself?
Advisor:That arrives by email within the hour. Have a read through and reply to accept — nothing is final until you do. Anything else I can help with?
Customer:No, that's everything. Thanks very much, Nadia.
Advisor:Thank you, Robert. Enjoy the new plan.

Section 2 — A volunteer guide welcomes visitors to a heritage steam railway

Guide:Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Hartfield Valley Steam Railway. I'm Graham, one of the volunteer guides, and before the ten o'clock train leaves I'll tell you a little about the line and help you find your way around the station site.
Guide:First, some history. The line opened in 1887 to carry slate from the quarries in the hills down to the coast. British Railways closed it in 1962, and a lot of visitors assume the government must have rebuilt it later — but that's not what happened. The track sat derelict for over a decade, until a group of local enthusiasts bought the trackbed and reopened the first section themselves in 1974. Everything you see today — the engines, the signals, the buildings — is still run and maintained entirely by volunteers.
Guide:Now, today's timetable. Trains leave hourly from ten until three, all from platform one. I'm sorry to say the half-past-three service, normally the last of the day, has had to be cancelled — the locomotive that hauls it failed its boiler inspection yesterday and we have no spare engine. It hasn't been delayed, and there's no replacement bus or diesel; it simply won't run today, so do catch the three o'clock at the latest.
Guide:Right, a quick tour of the site — there's a plan printed on the back of your ticket. You've come in through the main entrance on the south side of the station, and the booking office is the little brick building immediately on your left as you enter.
Guide:Walk straight ahead from the entrance and you're on platform one. Right at the far, northern end of platform one stands the signal box, painted green and white. It's open to visitors between trains, and you can climb up and pull the levers under supervision — children love it.
Guide:Cross the iron footbridge to platform two, and the long stone building facing you on that platform is our museum. Photographs, old tickets, uniforms — and the original nameplates from the very first quarry engines, which we're rather proud of.
Guide:Behind the museum on the same side there's a gravelled yard, and the large shed at the back of that yard is the engine shed, where the locomotives sleep overnight.
Guide:If you need refreshments, the tea room is back on this side of the line — it's the wooden pavilion directly to the right of the main entrance, opposite the booking office. Hot food finishes at two, but cakes and drinks go on till four.
Guide:Two changes to mention today. The workshop tour, where you can watch an engine being taken apart for overhaul, used to begin at the museum. Because of the crane works this season it now starts from the engine shed itself — so meet outside the shed doors at half past eleven. Numbers are limited to twelve, so put your name down at the booking office as soon as you can.
Guide:And a money-saving tip: tickets bought on the website are ten per cent cheaper than at the office, and under-fives always go free.
Guide:Finally, if you're still here at one o'clock, our little tank engine Dorothy gives footplate rides up and down the yard — three pounds a ride, and every penny goes to the boiler fund. Enjoy your day, and mind the gap.

Section 3 — Two students plan a usability test of a campus events app with their tutor

Dr Novak:Right, Ines, Callum — your usability study of the campus events app. Where have you got to?
Ines:We've settled the focus, at least. The developers keep adding features, but the app-store reviews all complain about the same thing: people can't manage to finish booking a ticket. So we're testing the booking process with new users, start to finish.
Callum:Not the whole app — just that one journey. If users get stuck, we want to see exactly where.
Dr Novak:Good — a narrow question beats a broad one. And the method? You mentioned think-aloud protocols last week.
Callum:Yes, and we compared the two kinds. We'd originally planned the retrospective version — record the session silently, then have users talk us through the replay afterwards. But in the studies we read, people forget why they tapped things; they invent tidy explanations. So we've dropped that. We'll use concurrent think-aloud instead.
Dr Novak:Sensible. Just remember it slows people down slightly — don't present task times as natural speeds. Now, participants — how many are you planning for?
Ines:I'd put twenty in the draft plan, but I've been reading the usability literature since, and — well, twenty was naive of me, sorry. With five users you already uncover most of the serious problems. So we've settled on eight: five brand-new students, plus three who already use the app.
Dr Novak:Eight is realistic for the time you have. How will you recruit them?
Callum:Posters in the library café, and a call-out in the student union's weekly newsletter.
Dr Novak:Fine. And where will the sessions happen?
Ines:That's the one thing we still disagree about, actually. I want the usability lab — it's quiet, it's controlled, the screen-capture software is already installed.
Callum:And I've been arguing that's exactly the problem. Nobody books event tickets in a silent lab. They do it on the bus, in a queue for coffee. I wanted to run the sessions in the café itself.
Dr Novak:There is a middle way, if—
Callum:Actually — no, thinking about it properly, the café's too noisy to record anything usable. Ines is right: we can't transcribe what we can't hear. The lab it is. We could add background noise through speakers... no, simpler — we run it quiet and state the artificial setting as a limitation in the write-up.
Dr Novak:Agreed on both counts — take the lab, and be honest about the limitation. What about capturing the sessions?
Ines:My suggestion is screen recording plus audio only — we don't film faces at all. The ethics paperwork doubles in length the moment you point a camera at someone, and we don't need facial expressions to find a broken button.
Dr Novak:I agree. And how long is each session?
Callum:Thirty minutes for the tasks themselves — though once you add the consent form and the questionnaire at the end it's nearer forty-five, so we're booking the lab in one-hour slots to be safe.
Dr Novak:Book the hour, definitely. Now — you had a pilot session planned for this Friday, didn't you?
Ines:We did, but the lab's being rewired on Friday, so we've moved the pilot to Tuesday next week. Our flatmate's the guinea pig.
Dr Novak:Tuesday works. One condition: send me the task list before the pilot, not after — I want to check the wording isn't leading. Anything else?
Callum:No — this felt unmanageable a fortnight ago, so, thanks.
Dr Novak:That's what a narrow question does for you. Off you go.

Section 4 — A lecture on the psychology of queuing

Lecturer:This week we turn to something you have almost certainly done today: waiting in a queue. Queuing looks trivial, yet it is one of the busiest corners of applied psychology, for one reason — how long a wait feels has remarkably little to do with how long it actually is.
Lecturer:The field has a famous origin story. In the 1950s, the manager of a New York office tower was flooded with complaints about slow lifts. Engineers said nothing could be done without rebuilding the shafts. Instead, a consultant suggested installing mirrors beside the lift doors — and the complaints all but stopped. The lifts were as slow as ever, but now people straightened ties, checked their hair, and the wait simply stopped registering.
Lecturer:That story gave us the field's central distinction. The actual wait is what the clock measures. The perceived wait is how long the delay feels to the person enduring it — and it is the perceived wait, researchers argue, that determines satisfaction.
Lecturer:Several rules govern that perception. The first: occupied time feels shorter than unoccupied time. A mind with something to do stops counting minutes. This is why restaurants hand menus to people still in the queue, and supermarkets stack magazines beside the tills.
Lecturer:The second rule concerns uncertainty. An unexplained wait feels longer than an explained one. When an airline announces the reason for a delay and a realistic estimate, passengers' anxiety drops measurably — even though the delay itself has not shortened by a single minute.
Lecturer:The third rule is the one people get wrong. Ask why queues make us angry and we say wasted time. But observational studies show fury spikes not when a queue is slow, but when somebody pushes in. The real trigger is fairness. We will wait a long time quite calmly, provided nobody who arrived after us is served before us.
Lecturer:That finding explains the success of the single serpentine line — one snake-shaped queue feeding all the tills, familiar from airports and banks. Mathematically it barely changes the average wait. What it guarantees is that customers are served strictly in order of arrival: no till can turn out to be the wrong one. Supermarkets have been slow to adopt it for a simple reason — a single combined line looks enormous, and managers fear shoppers will walk away, even though it generally moves faster than the separate lanes it replaces.
Lecturer:Some organisations do this openly. Theme parks post a waiting time at every ride — and they deliberately overstate it. If the sign promises forty minutes and you board in thirty, you feel you have won. The park has manufactured a pleasant surprise from nothing.
Lecturer:A note of caution. These effects are robust, but not unlimited. In hospital emergency departments, patients usually accept that more serious cases are treated first — the fairness rule bends to visible urgency — yet beyond a certain point no explanation and no distraction rescues a very long wait. Perception management supplements good service; it never replaces it.
Lecturer:The lesson for any organisation: you often cannot shorten the wait, but you can nearly always improve the experience of it, usually far more cheaply. The queue, in other words, is not really an engineering problem. It is a psychological one. Next week: crowding — why the same density feels festive at a concert and unbearable on a train.