Level C1 (approx. band 7-8) · Academic and General Training At band 6 or 6.5, most learners can follow the story of a recording. The marks they still drop come from the hard end of the test: speakers who agree, disagree and change their minds in Part 3, and dense lectures in Part 4. Getting to band 8 means approximately 35 correct answers out of 40, so you can afford only a handful of slips. In this episode: • What makes parts 3 and 4 harder • Tracking opinions in part 3 • What band 8 listeners do differently • A lecture note-taking routine • Listening lab • Language bridge • Practice • Self-check questions with answers Key points: • Part 3 tests attitude and agreement; Part 4 tests density and paraphrase. • Don't stop at the first opinion. Mark whose view it is and whether it survives. • Band 8 is not about hearing more; it is about predicting, paraphrasing and holding answers until the idea is complete. • Headings are your anchors. Rejoin at the next one rather than chasing a lost gap. IELTS Complete Course: a self-study podcast from A1 to C2 for Academic and General Training. Listen, pause and answer, then take the 52-question quiz. Audio voiced with AI from an original script by Dr. Rashmi R Nair. Independent course, not affiliated with the IELTS test owners.