IELTS Listening map and plan labelling: how to follow the route

Map and plan questions are the one Listening task where the speaker is walking you somewhere. You cannot answer by catching a keyword. You have to keep track of where you are on the page while the voice moves on. Most lost marks come from losing your place once and never recovering it.

Checked 15 and 16 October 2026 against IELTS's Academic Listening format and General Training Listening format pages and IELTS's 10 tips for map and plan questions (published 1 February 2023), and its test delivery update of 5 March 2026. ScoreFluent is an independent practice platform and is not affiliated with IELTS, the British Council, IDP IELTS or Cambridge University Press & Assessment.

What are map, plan and diagram labelling questions?

IELTS describes the task as completing labels on a visual, which may be a diagram (for example a piece of equipment), a set of pictures, a plan (for example of a building) or a map (for example of part of a town). You select your answers from a list; IELTS's General Training page adds that you may instead have to write words from the recording within a word limit. It says the task tests whether you can understand a description of a place and relate it to the visual, and that it may test whether you can understand where things are and follow directions, such as "straight on" or "through the far door". The number of questions is variable. IELTS: Listening format

The practice items on this page are plans. Official tasks also use diagrams and pictures, and the same habits apply: find where you start, then follow the speaker. For the whole paper, see IELTS Listening: format, parts and practice.

Do the answers come in the order of the recording?

IELTS says the questions are in the same order as the information in the recording. For map and plan questions, its advice article adds a distinction that matters. There are two layouts. In one, the numbered questions are on the map and the possible answers (A, B, C and so on) are in a list. In the other, the possible answers are on the map and the numbered questions are listed below. IELTS: 10 tips

• Numbered questions on the map. Check the order they run in, for example bottom to top, then left to right. IELTS says this tells you how the recording is organised and may show where it starts.
• Possible answers on the map. These do not tell you the order. IELTS's example is that location C may or may not be mentioned before location D.

What should you do before the recording starts?

IELTS notes that you only have limited time to look at the questions before the recording starts. Spend it on the map, not on the list. These steps follow IELTS's advice, with ScoreFluent's own wording.

1. Read the instructions and the title. Check whether the numbered questions are on the map or below it.
2. Find the likely starting point. IELTS's examples are an arrow, or an entrance such as a main gate.
3. Underline the labels and look for a compass. The recording may use compass points as part of the directions.
4. Do not memorise the option list. IELTS says you can look at it while you listen, or after if you take notes.

What should you do while the recording plays?

• Put your pen where the speaker is. IELTS advises drawing your place on the map as you listen. When you are lost, listen for one of the labels so that you know where you are again. IELTS says you are allowed to draw on the Listening question paper in the paper-based test, but it announced on 5 March 2026 that it will stop offering paper-based IELTS from mid-2026, with timelines varying by market (IELTS: updates to test delivery). Ask your test centre what note-taking your booked mode allows.
• Listen for position words. IELTS's examples are "walk straight ahead", "opposite" and "on the left". In the practice items you also meet "in the bottom right corner", "anticlockwise", "beyond" and "directly across the tank from the entrance".
• Expect the names, not synonyms. IELTS says the recording will use the location names from the questions or options. Its example is "outdoor gym" rather than "exercise equipment".
• Expect distractors. IELTS says alternative but incorrect answers will be mentioned in the recording.
• Decide whose left and right it is. It is the speaker's route, not the page. Item 3 below says so: "the lane runs north from here, so please keep to the left or right as I describe things."
• Expect a correction. The same item has the speaker say "the building next to the Crush Pad is the Bottling Shed… no, sorry, I've mixed that up." Write nothing in ink until the speaker has settled.

If you miss one, IELTS's advice is to guess at the end, because you will not lose marks for wrong answers. Do not let a miss make you late for the next label.

Practice items from the ScoreFluent bank (not real exam questions)

These four items come from the ScoreFluent practice bank. In the app each one is a recording plus a plan with numbered points, and the plans are not reproduced here. For each item you get the transcript sentences that describe the route, the options, and the key by numbered point with the bank's one-line explanation. Try the item in the app first, then use the transcript to see how each direction maps to a label.

Item 1. A visit to an aquarium. Options: A Shark Tunnel · B Seal Show · C Coral Reef Zone · D Penguin Pool · E Jellyfish Gallery · F Touch Pool

Key: Point 1 = E (the first exhibit on the left side, dark walls and glowing lights). Point 2 = C (top left corner, colourful fish). Point 3 = A (middle at the top, across the tank from the entrance). Point 4 = D (top right corner, penguins fed at two o'clock). Point 5 = F (right side, a short walk from the café). B is not on the plan.

Most people start on the left and walk round the Main Tank, which is the big space in the centre. The first exhibit on the left side is the Jellyfish Gallery. It has dark walls and glowing lights. The next one, in the top left corner, is the Coral Reef Zone, which is full of colourful fish. And where are the sharks? The Shark Tunnel is in the middle at the top, directly across the tank from the entrance.

The seal show is the distractor: the speaker says it is "held at the harbour next door, not in the building".

Item 2. A tour of a fire station. Options: A Dormitory · B Laundry · C Kitchen · D Watch Room · E Gym · F Hose Store · G Appliance Bay

Key: Point 1 = C (bottom right corner, the first room on the route). Point 2 = A (right side of the yard). Point 3 = E (top right corner). Point 4 = G (top, middle, facing the entrance across the yard). Point 5 = F (top left corner). Point 6 = D (the last room on the left side of the yard). B is not on this floor.

I'm going to take you around the main floor, and we will go anticlockwise, starting on the right. You came in through the main entrance, at the bottom of the plan. … Turn right, and the first room, in the bottom right corner, is the Kitchen.

Item 3. A tour of a wine estate. Options: A Crush Pad · B Barrel Hall · C Restaurant · D Distillery · E Tasting Terrace · F Bottling Shed

Key: Point 1 = A (first building on the left of the lane). Point 2 = E (first building on the right, opposite the Crush Pad). Point 3 = B (second on the left). Point 4 = C (opposite the Barrel Hall, on the right). Point 5 = F (third on the left, before the vines). D is not on the map.

We start at the Cellar Door, at the bottom of the plan, and the lane runs north from here, so please keep to the left or right as I describe things. … Now, the building next to the Crush Pad is the Bottling Shed... no, sorry, I've mixed that up. The second building on the left is the Barrel Hall, where the wine matures in oak for up to eighteen months.

The correction means the Bottling Shed, which the speaker names first, is not the answer for point 3.

Item 4. A chocolate factory production line. Options: A Cracking · B Grinding · C Tempering · D Moulding · E Fermenting · F Conching · G Roasting

Key: Point 1 = G (next to the Delivery Bay, beans roasted first). Point 2 = A (follows roasting). Point 3 = B (the last room on the top row). Point 4 = F (directly below the grinding room). Point 5 = C (next, on the way back to the left). Point 6 = D (just before the Packing Hall). E is not a room: the beans are fermented on the farm.

The plan in your hand shows our production line. It starts at the top left, runs along the top row to the right, then turns down at the end and comes back along the bottom row, finishing at the bottom left.

This item follows a process as well as a route, so the order of the stages is itself a clue. The speaker also rules out a room: "They have already been fermented and dried on the farm."

What mistakes cost marks in map questions?

• Starting from the wrong place. Every direction is relative to a starting point. If you have not found it, "on the left" is meaningless.
• Using the page's left and right. Use the speaker's.
• Writing a label when it is first named. A label can be named in order to be rejected, as the seal show is in item 1.
• Ignoring the compass. If the map has one and the speaker says "south of", use it.
• Letting one miss drag the next. Find a label you recognise, as IELTS advises, and carry on from there.

How do you practise map and plan labelling?

Practise the skill in two halves. First, listen and trace the route with a finger or pen on the plan. Do not write answers until the speaker has finished a sentence. Second, read the transcript and, for each answer, underline the exact phrase that fixes its position. After a few items you will see which direction words you hear late. For official material, IELTS publishes a plan, map and diagram labelling sample task with an answer key and recording transcript.

For choosing between lettered options without a map, see IELTS Listening matching. For the Reading paper's diagram task, see IELTS Reading diagram label completion. For gap-filling, see form, note and table completion. The full list is at IELTS task types, and the overview is at IELTS.

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