Listening maps and plans: track the speaker · Cartes et plans d'écoute : suivez l'orateur
The visitor turns while the library stays still
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Entering from the south fixes one starting direction. Each later turn changes the visitor’s left and right, while the map’s compass directions stay fixed.
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In IELTS Listening plan, map and diagram labelling, you match the spoken description to a visual and select labels from a list. Read the options and locate the starting point before the recording begins.
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On a building plan, mark the entrance and the north arrow. If the speaker says turn left, ask which way they are facing at that moment. The left side of the page is not always the speaker's left. Known labels are anchors. If the workshop and reading room are already printed, you can use them to locate a junction without solving a blank.
The map stays still. The speaker keeps turning. Only one of them is trying to confuse your pencil.
Before a map-labelling recording, which two things should you fix first? · Avant un enregistrement d'étiquetage de carte, quelles deux choses devriez-vous fixer d'abord ?
The entrance anchors the route; the north arrow lets you interpret left and right as the speaker moves. · L'entrée ancre le parcours ; la flèche nord vous permet d'interpréter gauche et droite à mesure que l'orateur se déplace.
Practice plan and answer list
Choose from the list: gallery · lockers · membership desk · staff kitchen. Write the correct place for A, B and · et C. One option is unused.
- The entrance is at the bottom. The workshop and · et reading room are named, so do not assign either to A, B or C.
- Before reading the worked script, trace a route from the entrance through the junction to C. This makes before · avant, after · après and · et at the end easier to place.
Which two rooms are already named on the plan and can act as anchors? · Quelles deux pièces sont déjà nommées sur le plan et peuvent servir d'ancres ?
Workshop and Reading room are printed near the junction. Gallery is still an option for a blank. · L'atelier et la salle de lecture sont imprimés près de la jonction. La galerie reste encore une option pour une case vide.
Worked example from an original script
This is a written strategy example. An actual IELTS Listening question plays a recording once; you would not see this script during the test.
“Come in through the south entrance and face the main corridor. The lockers are immediately on your left. Opposite them, on your right, is the membership desk. Walk straight on to the junction. The workshop is in the west wing, and the reading room is across from it in the east wing. Keep going north, past both of those rooms, to reach the gallery at the end of the corridor. The staff kitchen is upstairs, so it is not on this plan.”
- A = lockers. Immediately on your left is the lower left room when you enter facing north. B = membership desk. Opposite them, on your right points across the corridor from A.
- C = gallery. The route continues north beyond the two printed rooms and ends at C. Staff kitchen is the unused option. The script mentions it deliberately, but says it is upstairs and outside this plan.
Match the three blank rooms to the original script. · Faites correspondre les trois pièces vides au script original.
Facing north from the entrance, lockers are left, the desk is opposite on the right, and the gallery is beyond the junction at the north end. · En faisant face au nord depuis l'entrée, les casiers sont à gauche, le comptoir est en face à droite, et la galerie est au-delà de la jonction à l'extrémité nord.
Why is 'staff kitchen' the unused option? · Pourquoi 'cuisine du personnel' est-il l'option non utilisée ?
The speaker mentions the kitchen but explicitly places it upstairs. A mentioned word is not automatically a correct label. · L'orateur mentionne la cuisine mais la place explicitement à l'étage supérieur. Un mot mentionné n'est pas automatiquement une étiquette correcte.
Recover when the route bends
- Put your finger at the last confirmed place. Follow each movement in order; never jump straight to a familiar word on the map.
- Treat opposite, past · passé, at the end and · et upstairs as relationships. They are often more useful than a room name heard in isolation.
- If the speaker corrects a direction, use the corrected route. Do not force an earlier guess to fit it.
- Once the recording moves on, move your eyes too. Return to a missed label only when there is time to check; a later landmark may make it clear.
- Source checked on 24 September 2026: official IELTS Listening plan/map/diagram labelling format. The library, plan, script and answer list are original teaching material, not an official or voiced test set.
You enter from the south, face north and turn right. Which compass direction are you now facing? · Vous entrez par le sud, faites face au nord et tournez à droite. Quelle direction des points cardinaux êtes-vous maintenant en train de regarder ?
Right from north is east. Track the speaker's current facing, not an unchanging side of the page. · À droite du nord est l'est. Suivez la direction actuelle de l'orateur, pas un côté immuable de la page.
Turn with the speaker rather than with the page
- On the Riverside Library plan, a visitor enters from the south and faces north: their left points west. If they later face south, their left points east.
- Use a finger or a drawn facing arrow at each turn. The map’s west wing stays west, while the visitor’s left changes with their direction.
- A compass direction and a relative direction are different. Do not rename a west room when the speaker turns.
- Keep the last confirmed place, update facing direction and test each relationship.
- Apply the distinction to the transfer check below. These are original teaching cases, not official items or band predictions.
Match the distinctions in this worked case.
Use a finger or a drawn facing arrow at each turn. The map’s west wing stays west, while the visitor’s left changes with their direction.
A visitor faces south. Which compass direction is on their left?
On the Riverside Library plan, a visitor enters from the south and faces north: their left points west. If they later face south, their left points east. Use a finger or a drawn facing arrow at each turn. The map’s west wing stays west, while the visitor’s left changes with their direction.