The full-test protocol and error log

Everything in this module converges here: how to sit a complete 40-question listening test properly, transfer your answers without bleeding points, and run the error log that converts every mistake into a training decision. A full test done casually is entertainment; done under this protocol, it is the most information-dense hour in your preparation.

Sitting the test: exam conditions or nothing

A practice test only measures you if it simulates the exam. The non-negotiables:

• One play. No pausing, no rewinding. The whole module — dictation, previews, recovery rules — exists so you can survive single-play; practising with a rewind button untrains all of it.
• Continuous sitting. All four sections back to back, roughly 30 minutes of audio plus transfer time. Section 4 stamina (lesson 6) only develops if Sections 1–3 have already taxed you.
• Paper answers during audio, then a timed transfer. On the paper-based test you get 10 minutes to transfer to the answer sheet; computer-based gives a short check window. Simulate whichever you booked.
• Realistic environment. Speakers, not your best headphones, if you are taking the paper test in a hall. Phone in another room.

During the audio, you already know the job: the five-move preview ritual before each section (lesson 11), pen on the live question (lesson 4), eliminate rather than select (lesson 9), dash-and-jump when a question dies (one question costs one question — never two).

The transfer: where finished points go to die

Transfer errors are pure waste — points earned by your ear and lost by administration. The transfer routine:

1. Resolve every dash first. Blanks score zero; guesses score sometimes. Eliminated MCQ options make the guesses better than chance.
2. Copy against the word limit, question by question. The limit check happens now, deliberately, not from memory: an answer of three words under a TWO WORDS limit must be trimmed (drop the article — a parking permit → parking permit).
3. Spelling check on every transcribed word. This is the spelling bank's final checkpoint (lesson 7): singular/plural as heard, digits for numbers, no symbol doubled before a printed £ or %.
4. Check the numbering while copying. One answer written against the wrong number can cascade for a whole section. Match question number → sheet number out loud in your head, every line.
5. Legibility. On paper, an examiner who cannot read it cannot credit it. All-capitals writing is accepted and, for messy handwriting, safer.

Ten minutes is long. Done properly, the transfer uses six or seven and the rest is a final sweep for blanks. The rule: nothing on the answer sheet is blank, nothing exceeds the limit, nothing is illegible.

The error log: the whole module in one table

Marking the test gives you a number. The number is the least useful output. The log is the point — one row per miss, five columns:

The Fix column is what separates a training instrument from a guilt list. Every row must end in something doable:

2026-06-1 / S1 / Q4 | "the eleventh — not the fourth, sorry" | 4th | M — early commitment | hold ink until sentence closes; re-drill self-corrections on next 3 Section 1s 2026-06-1 / S4 / Q38 | "stored in the cellar" | seller | S — homophone | dictation loop on this sentence; add pair to spelling bank

The weekly review cycle

The log pays out when you read it back. Once a week:

1. Tally the miss-type column. Your biggest category picks next week's emphasis: S-heavy → more dictation sessions (lesson 2); M-heavy → paraphrase autopsies (lesson 8); P-heavy → spelling bank rotation (lesson 7); V-heavy → preview ritual and recovery drills (lessons 11, 4).
2. Re-listen to every logged sentence, cold. Play just the answer sentences from the week's rows, transcript closed. A row you now hear cleanly gets a strike-through — retired. A row that still fails stays live and gets a harder fix (full dictation loop + shadowing on that sentence).
3. Watch the ratio move. Over a month the profile visibly shifts — sound misses shrink first under dictation, then meaning misses under autopsy work. The shrinking table is the most honest progress bar in IELTS prep.

A full test plus its log takes about 90 minutes. One or two per week is the right dose — more tests than that steals time from the fixes the log demands, and the fixes are where the points come from.

Scheduling to exam day

How many full tests, how much dictation, and when to taper depends on your runway and target band — that mapping is what the study plans are for; pick the plan matching your weeks-remaining and slot this protocol into its test days. The library is deep enough that you will never re-sit a test you remember: every set is a complete four-section test rebuilt from real exam recalls, with recreated audio, word-matched transcripts, and keys — the three ingredients every step above depends on.

The final week: taper to one test every second day, previews and transfer at full ritual, and spend the saved time re-listening to your live log rows. Exam eve: no new test — one review of the log's Fix column, and sleep.

Your drill (90 minutes)

1. Draw the five-column log table on one sheet (or a spreadsheet — the columns are the contract, the medium is yours).
2. Sit Listening 2026-03 Test 5 under the full protocol: exam conditions, section-by-section preview ritual, timed 10-minute transfer with the five-step routine.
3. Mark it. Fill one log row per miss, transcript open, Fix column mandatory.
4. Book your next protocol test now — Listening 2025-09 Test 1 in three or four days — and spend the days between executing this week's Fix column.
5. Sunday: run the weekly review — tally, cold re-listen, strike-throughs. Then open the study plans and lock this cycle into a schedule that ends on your exam date. The protocol is now self-sustaining: every test feeds the log, every log row feeds a fix, and every fix shows up in the next test's number.