IELTS Listening Map, Plan and Diagram Labelling: Strategy and Practice

In this question type you see a picture: a map of a town or site, a floor plan of a building, or a diagram of a machine or process. You listen and label parts of it. Usually you choose a letter from the picture for each item; sometimes you write a word or two. It appears most often in Part 2.

What it tests

• Following spoken directions and descriptions of position.
• Relating language to a visual layout in real time.
• For diagrams, understanding how the parts of something connect or work.

Step-by-step strategy

1. Find the starting point. Look for You are here, an entrance, or a compass arrow. Speakers almost always start there.
2. Orient yourself. Note what is at the top, bottom, left and right, and any labelled landmarks.
3. Read the items to be labelled. Predict roughly where each could be: a café near the entrance, a car park at the edge.
4. Follow the speaker with your finger or cursor. Move through the picture as they describe the route.
5. Listen for the reference point. Opposite the library only helps if you know where the library is.
6. Answer in order. The items follow the order of the talk, which is usually a route through the picture.

Common traps

• Self-correction. It's on the left, sorry, on your right as you come in. The correction is the answer.
• A changed plan. The shop used to be here, but it's moved to the old ticket office. Label the new place.
• Point of view. On your left as you enter differs from on the left of the map. Check which way the speaker is facing.
• Two similar places. Two rooms next to each other, both near the landmark. The detail that separates them (the smaller one, the one with windows) decides the answer.
• Indirect position. The room after the one next to the stairs. Count carefully.

Try it: mini-example

This transcript is original practice material written for Bee English.

Imagine a simple plan of a community centre. The main entrance is at the bottom. Inside, a corridor runs straight up the middle. On the left of the corridor are rooms A (nearest the entrance) and B. On the right are rooms C (nearest the entrance) and D. At the far end, across the top, is room E.

MANAGER: Right, as you come in through the main entrance, the first room on your left is the reception office. The room after that, still on the left, was the art room, but we've moved art into the big space at the far end, where the corridor stops. So that room on the left is now the computer room. Opposite reception, on your right, you'll find the toilets, and the room beyond the toilets is the children's play area.

Label the plan. Choose the correct letter, A–E.

1. reception
2. computer room
3. art room
4. children's play area

Answers and explanations

1. A. The first room on the left as you come in.
2. B. The second room on the left. It was the art room; this is the changed plan trap.
3. E. Art has moved to the far end, where the corridor stops.
4. D. Beyond the toilets (C), on the right. C is a distractor because it is described first.

Related guides

• IELTS Listening: complete guide
• Reading: diagram labelling
• Answer rules: word limits, spelling and numbers
• The computer-delivered test screen

Sources

• IELTS, Academic Listening format and question types
• IDP, How computer-delivered IELTS works