Review of the top 14 best IELTS listening practice books

The IELTS Cambridge book series, published by the University of Cambridge, always updates the changes of the IELTS exam every year. Up to now, the series has just released the 17th book corresponding to the changing trends of this year.

The knowledge in the book is designed according to the IELTS exam standard, so it will help you grasp the structure of the exam and be more confident when entering the room and taking the real test. The book is suitable for those with an IELTS band of 4.0 or higher.

The Listening section in the book series has very clear content, accompanied by audio files for listening practice for candidates. Overall, the IELTS Cambridge series is a worthwhile choice that anyone who wants to conquer the IELTS exam should consider.

IELTS books published by Cambridge

>>>See more: IELTS IDP test schedule

The IELTS Testbuilder series published by MacMillan in 2008 is suitable for those with a band score of 4.0 - 5.0 IELTS and above for practice. IELTS Testbuilder has 2 volumes, each containing 4 major tests, allowing learners to practice all 4 skills, including Listening.

The IELTS Test Builder book includes detailed answers to the test questions at the end of the book. Speaking and writing questions will be guided with ideas to be included in the test to best suit each test. This will be a useful book for you during your practice and in achieving your dream of conquering IELTS.

The IELTS Testbuilder series will help you conquer the IELTS Listening test.

The Basic IELTS Listening book is compiled by the famous author with high-quality IELTS preparation books, Li Ya Bin.

• The content of this IELTS listening practice book includes extremely high-quality listening materials with units divided according to topics that frequently appear in the IELTS Listening test.

• Accompanied by practice exercises with scripts, detailed answers for each topic help you easily approach, familiarize, and self-study at home as well as study with teachers.

• The book consists of 5 parts with 5 topics that frequently appear in the IELTS Listening test.

• The book is a diverse compilation of everyday communication segments that help you more easily approach English.

The content of the book is written entirely in English and is suitable for those with an IELTS band of 3.5 and above who wish to achieve 5.5+ IELTS.

The Basic IELTS Listening book is for those with a band of 3.5+

The book How to prepare for IELTS Listening comes from the OXford publishing house - a “famous” name that anyone learning English knows. This IELTS listening practice book is quite simple, so even beginners can use it. The book is for those who aim to achieve a band score of 4.0 - 5.0+ IELTS.

• This book will give you small tips in test-taking strategies right from the start, so it will help you apply them immediately to the exercises.

• Along with that, it will provide a specific and detailed review material set for each Section, each Section has many Units, and at the end of each Unit, there are 3 tests, answers, and scripts so you can self-check and evaluate your abilities very effectively.

• Each Unit shares examples to help you understand the test, tips for taking the test, key points to pay attention to, practice exercises, and guides on how to solve each type of question encountered in the test.

How to prepare for IELTS Listening is an IELTS Listening study book published by the famous Oxford University.

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• Complete set of IELTS listening practice materials

Complete IELTS is also published by Cambridge IELTS, the actual IELTS test board, and written by authors Brook Hart and Vanessa Jakeman. The book covers all skills, topics, and is categorized from easy to difficult for those with a band score of 4.0 IELTS and above.

The IELTS Listening study book series includes 6 books with 3 levels, meeting most learners' needs:

• Complete IELTS bands 4.0 - 5.0: suitable for those with basic proficiency, providing foundational IELTS skills with 10 topics, arranged from easy to difficult. However, the book is entirely in English, so it is more suitable for those with a basic foundation.

• Complete IELTS bands 5.0 - 6.5: The book includes 8 topics for those with higher proficiency, along with reference materials and tests at the end of each lesson to help learners thoroughly systematize their knowledge, self-assess their abilities, and understand the common types of questions in the IELTS exam.

• Complete IELTS bands 6.5 - 7.5: This is the most advanced book in the series, including specialized vocabulary, in-depth grammar, and practice tests, suitable for those with an Advanced level.

This IELTS listening practice book series includes 3 books suitable for all proficiency levels of learners.

IELTS Recent Actual Listening Test is an excellent IELTS English listening practice book that provides good materials, the most realistic IELTS test sets suitable for those with a band of 4.5 IELTS or higher, who already have listening skills.

The book series includes 6 volumes corresponding to Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3, Vol 4, Vol 5, and Vol 6, with 36 Listening test sets for practice. The book series will help you get familiar with IELTS Listening test sets, understand the difficulty level of the test, and know your current ability and level.

IELTS Recent Actual Listening Test includes 6 volumes corresponding to 36 test sets.

IELTS Advantage - Listening and Speaking Skills is written by Jon Marks, a famous book dedicated to Speaking and Listening skills suitable for those with IELTS bands 5.0 and above, aiming for a target of 6.5 IELTS or higher.

This IELTS listening practice book is divided into 2 main parts: Speaking and Listening, accompanied by audio:

• In the Speaking section: From Unit 1 to 7, which also combines Listening skills

• In the Listening section: Units 8 and 9 will explain the test structure, provide advice, form strategies to develop listening skills and gather necessary information, and practice IELTS listening test formats

IELTS Advantage - Listening and Speaking Skills helps you practice both Listening and Speaking skills

The book Get ready for IELTS Listening written by author Jane Short is one of the books in the “Get ready for IELTS by Collins” series, which is familiar to IELTS “warriors”. This IELTS Listening study book serves learners from basic level to those who wish to achieve an IELTS band score of 4 or higher.

The book offers suitable strategies with 12 units, divided by familiar topics that will appear frequently in Listening.

The basic structure of a lesson in this IELTS listening practice book:

• Part 1: Language development - The necessary knowledge to prepare beforehand such as vocabulary and grammar to make listening easier.

• Part 2: Skills development - Provides lessons and examples for learners to practice, explore, and get acquainted with the steps of doing the test.

• Part 3: Exam Practice - Doing Listening exercises

After each lesson, there are always keys and audio scripts to check the answers. A very good advantage of the book is that there will be a summary of important vocabulary and phrases to help you remember more deeply, along with notes when doing the test to help readers avoid common mistakes.

Like many other IELTS books, the Get ready for IELTS listening book is entirely in English, which will be more challenging for beginners. And since it was produced in 2012, its update with current exam topics is low. However, overall, with the above advantages, this book is still very worth using in your study process.

The famous IELTS study book by Collins that everyone should read

Tactics for listening is a set of listening materials from basic to advanced, suitable for everyone, both beginners and advanced learners, written by author Jack C. Richards.

This IELTS listening skills practice book set includes 3 books with more than 400 listening files with common daily situations, divided by topic with a logical layout, making it easy for learners to access English and use it as IELTS test preparation materials at home.

• Tactics for listening Basic (for IELTS level 1.0 - 3.0): suitable for those who are just starting to learn Listening skills with the simplest listening exercises, topics close to life.

• Tactics for listening Developing (for IELTS level 3.0 - 4.0): for those who already have a basic foundation but need to use English in daily communication. You will hear longer, more complex sentences, more difficult grammar and more applicable in daily communication

• Expanding Tactics for Listening (for IELTS level 4.0 - 6.0): the most difficult of the 3 books, so the listening exercises are also designed to be more complex, with more information, with more "traps" that require learners to be careful and have a higher level. It will help you get closer and closer to your dream of conquering IELTS.

Tactics for listening is a set of books for listening practice from band score 1.0 to 6.0+.

>>> Xem thêm: Lộ trình học IELTS Listening phù hợp với mọi band điểm

Intensive IELTS Listening thuộc bộ sách Intensive IELTS được viết bởi tác giả New Oriental Education & Technology Group, sẽ giúp các bạn nâng cao khả năng nghe Tiếng Anh trong một thời gian ngắn. Cuốn sách luyện nghe IELTS này có thiết kế đa dạng, giúp người học hiểu và nắm vững được các dạng bài thi, chinh phục chúng một cách thuận lợi nhất. Sách dành cho những bạn có band từ 3.5-4.0 IELTS trở lên.

The book is divided into 4 parts:

• Part 1: These are exercises that include question types that often appear in the Listening section of the exam, with many types of questions arranged from easy to difficult. Each type has many different questions. Therefore, you will train your reflexes well when taking the exam.

• Part 2: Learn how to read and analyze questions, apply the knowledge and experience learned in part 1 to take tests according to the real exam structure in part 2.

• Part 3: These are the Audioscripts of the Units and tests.

• Part 4: Answers for the tests so that self-learners can check and correct mistakes and learn from experience.

One limitation of the book, as well as most other IELTS Listening practice books, is that it is written entirely in English, which will be difficult for beginners to use. And because the book is only suitable for urgent IELTS exam preparation in a short time, it only includes exercises, without introducing knowledge or instructions on how to do the exercises. However, in general, this is a “classic” book that can help you improve your English the fastest.

Intensive IELTS Listening is designed for those who only want to practice exercises

This Collins Listening For IELTS book is compiled by authors Fiona Aish & Jo Tomlinson and published by Collins English for Exam. This IELTS listening practice book is dubbed the “perfect handbook” for those who want to quickly improve their scores. The book is suitable for those with a band score of 5.0 IELTS or higher and want to conquer 6.0+ IELTS.

The book includes 12 units:

• In the first 11 units, there are common question types that often appear in the IELTS exam, helping you become more familiar with the structure and question types in the exam, while also finding “tips” in your test-taking strategy.

• Before each unit, there are exercises on how to use vocabulary in different contexts, to reinforce the vocabulary that will be used during review. This helps learners at any level to understand and complete the exercises in the later sections because they have been provided with foundational knowledge before applying it.

• In unit 12, there will be a complete test for learners to take as if they were taking the real exam, helping learners to check and evaluate their abilities most effectively.

The IELTS Listening book only includes 11 topics corresponding to 11 units, so just studying the book is not enough. Additionally, since it was published in 2011, the Collins Listening For IELTS book is not highly updated. However, in general, the book provides readers with useful knowledge and test-taking skills, making it worth referencing.

This Collins Listening For IELTS is also a quality IELTS book from Collins.

Unlike most other IELTS Listening practice books, Listening Strategies for IELTS is a listening practice book for beginners. The book includes listening exercises from short to long, from simple to complex, from basic to advanced. Therefore, gradually learners will improve their own Listening skills.

The book consists of 7 Units with different topics and types of exercises that often appear in exams, each Unit will have 20 different listening exercises. Learners will gradually become familiar with the real IELTS exam structure, practicing many useful skills when taking the test.

Content of each unit:

• Unit 1: Practice numbers from dialogues.

• Unit 2: Practice detailed listening skills in each passage, conversation, etc.

• Unit 3: Through chart descriptions, readers learn additional descriptive skills.

• Unit 4, 5: Answer multiple-choice questions or in written form

• Unit 6: Listen and fill in the summary – a very difficult type of question. Suitable for those who want to conquer 7.0+ IELTS.

• Unit 7: Take tests to help you self-assess and evaluate the knowledge learned in the above units, ready to prepare for the real IELTS exam.

This IELTS listening practice book is the top solution for beginners.

As the name suggests, this book helps you conquer IELTS Listening in just 15 days. This book is suitable for those who do not have much time to prepare for the exam (specifically about 2 weeks).

This is a good IELTS Listening practice book as it does not add a lot of new knowledge that can confuse you during the “crunch time”. On the contrary, the content focuses on summarizing the main points, important issues that you need to remember along with tips and strategies for taking the test, helping you consolidate key knowledge and build a study plan.

Content of the book:

• Day 1: Overview of the IELTS Listening test

• Day 2: Types of questions in the IELTS Listening test

• Day 3: Vocabulary section (1)

• Day 4: Vocabulary section (2)

• Day 5: Multiple choice questions

• Day 6: Fill in the blanks: Complete the Summary

• Day 7: Fill in the blanks: Form/ Note/ Table completion

• Day 8: Fill in the blanks: Complete the sentence

• Day 9: Match words/ phrases/ sentences

• Day 10: Match with Images

• Day 11: Short answers

• Day 12: True/ False questions

• Day 13: Review

• Day 14: Practice Test (1)

• Day 15: Practice Test (2)

The title of the book reflects the main content, which is a 15-day Listening study plan.

Improve your Listening and Speaking skills is the last IELTS listening practice book that I want to introduce to you in this article and is also a reference material for those who want to improve both Listening and Speaking skills. The book will be suitable for those with IELTS bands of 4.0 or higher, aiming for IELTS 6.5+.

The 2 Listening and Speaking skills in this book are combined into one, so there will not be too much knowledge, making learners feel more comfortable in learning English. Applying the principle that one must be able to listen in order to speak correctly, and one must be able to speak in order to listen accurately, the author has built a reasonable knowledge system of listening and reading intertwined to help readers "learn one and get two".

The book consists of 10 units with 10 different topics. Each unit will have 4 parts:

• Topic talk: short exercises by topic. Learners will be reinforced with vocabulary and knowledge to prepare for the application section below.

• Listening skills: exercises and activities to develop listening skills.

• Speaking skills: exercises and activities to develop speaking skills.

• Exam listening: a complete Listening test to practice the skills just learned.

This book is also written entirely in English, so it will be a bit difficult for beginners or those who are still weak in vocabulary.

This IELTS listening practice book focuses on improving test-taking skills and techniques.

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Hopefully, with the information provided by IDP, you will be able to choose a quality IELTS listening book that is suitable for your level. We wish you to improve your listening skills and prepare best for the upcoming IELTS exam.