Academic listening practices in English language are challenging for international students in Malaysia. This is because English is not their first and second language. The influx of international students, especially at graduate level in Malaysian tertiary institutions, has encouraged researchers to look for ways to ensure a smooth academic journey for them. Therefore, this research focuses on the difficulties faced by international graduate students in their academic listening practices and the measures utilised to overcome their difficulties. The qualitative findings are based on focus group interviews among 70 international graduate students in taught Master’s programmes in a public university. The findings revealed that the difficulties faced are mainly attributed to the fact that English is not their native language and also that English is not the lecturers’ socio-linguistic background. These findings would be an academic platform to ensure that the difficulties faced by the students can be gradually reduced by the students themselves, academicians and the university’s administrators through the application of stringent measures.