Is hyphen important in ielts listening?

Yes indeed !!!

And not just in listening but in reading test as well !!

If you do miss a hyphen during your listening/ reading test while marking an answer it will definitely be counted as a wrong answer. To understand this you will first have to be familiar with the usage of hyphen in English language.

A hyphen is generally employed to link words or parts of words together to give a common meaning.

In case of COMPOUND WORDS they are a"must use", as they enable an examiner to know that the component words have a combined meaning or to are at times used to depict relationships between the words that form a compound.

For instance - if you have an answer that goes "mother-in-law" writing it down as "mother in law" without the use of hyphens will transform the meaning in a completely different fashion. Some other examples of wrong/ missing hyphen usage that can cost you band scales in IELTS examination are -

• Sugar-free - Sugar free
• Custom-built - Custom built
• Pick-me-up - Pick me up
• Rock-forming minerals - rock forming minerals

In each of the above cases observe how by simply neglecting the use of hyphens, the meaning of the word changes drastically as then each individual word holds an independent meaning [unlike with hyphen where they combine together to give a common meaning to the entity]. It thus effects a candidate's overall ability to understand or comprehend the spoken words / written text and hence is counted as a wrong interpretation/ answer.

NOTE - Hyphens can also be used to join prefix to a given word.

For instance - re-cover (= provide something with a new cover) from recover (= get well again).

CONCLUSION - The use of hyphens [as and when required] is mandatory in the IELTS examination. The examiner will/ should mark an answer as an incorrect answer if a candidate fails to write a hyphen in between COMPOUND WORDS which form a single entity to give a common meaning.

Not using a hyphen will thus split the COMPOUND WORD into INDEPENDENT ENTITIES each having their own set of meaning, which may be different in context from what is being asked in the question.

I hope my answer helped you solve your query. Do follow me back on Quora for more information on Education Abroad and IELTS in particular.

Also visit the compilation of all my study abroad answers on my Quora Blog - Online Education Abroad Guide - Vol.01.2017

Thank You

All parts are marked by a human.

The listening and reading papers are marked by administrators (there are answer key that they follow, but they need no specialist knowledge of English for this role)

The speaking and writing papers are marked by trained examiners. In fact, your writing paper will be marked by TWO examiners - one will mark Task 1, and another task 2 (they will not know the scores for the other part).

I would suggest you to follow my following tips to prepare yourself for the ielts listening.

1. Read before listening

While you are taking IELTS listening test, you will get a couple of moments before the audio playing. You might be instructed on different aspects regarding the test. Nevertheless, you are recommended to go through the questions and grasp it as quick as you can. While you are doing so underline the key words. Thats how you have to stay one step ahead of the audio.

2. Read while listening

It implies while you are listening, you have to go through the question again and try to match the answer based on the key words what already you have done. You have to be pretty aware about the audio and questions that are given for the test. Keep moving with the audio and question. Once you get lost you might be a victim. Its kind of race between you and the audio. If you miss any answer, dont worry and dont spend too much time to find it moreover, look forward to catching the next one.

3. Get used to with paraphrase

Paraphrase is the irony for the listening module too. The thing is, whatever you will be listening from the audio you wont find the same text in the question script. In fact, the question will be paraphrased from the audio and hence, you are requested to get used with the paraphrase.

4. Get used to with the synonyms

To be used to with the synonyms you need to know many words unless you wont be able to make a relation to the audios words and synonyms. I have said already, the audio will be paraphrased for the question at the same you will find synonyms in the question. It implies, you wont find the same words that are spoken in the audio and in the question. In the question, either you will find paraphrase or the synonyms. Thus, it is imperative to get used to with the synonyms too.

5. Find the anchor words

Whenever, you read the question you have to find the anchor words of a particular question. You need to underline it as to grasp the answer of that question. Anchor words or the key words will lead you to find the exact answer of that question. Therefore, you have to find the anchor words of a question.

6. Get used with the foreign accent

In the first and third part, you will be listening a conversation between couple of people. In the first part, most of the cases; two people will be talking on admission, bank account, finding location or ticket booking and so on. However, you may find those people have come from the different cultures and language thus, their pronunciation is also different. Therefore, you have to be used to with different foreign accents.

If its not too different from the one on your admit card, or even if you have signed your initials, or your entire name, itll be fine. In other words, you may rest assured that youre good to go.

I remember how scared I was when I had done the same thing on my paper, and everyone I had asked had scared me with their mixed responses, but ultimately nothing happened. You do not have to worry. They wont cancel your answer sheet based on just that. Do not go losing your sleep over it, and focus on the rest of the exams.

All the best :)

IELTS exam is organised by IDP and British Council.

You can raise your complaint against your listening test on their complaint board and you will surely get a revert on that. But you have to be patient for their response and take proper feedback for your query, as they generally take time to respond.

As a TA I actually do this a lot, usually because we grade on whether the student had the right idea, and dont want to take off points for minor algebra errors.

For example, most people in my algorithms class write their proofs backwards. That is, rather than proving an inequality, they start by assuming the inequality has already been proved, and simplify the inequality until they reach a statement that is obviously true. This is the wrong way to do a proof, but we marked all of them correct, because otherwise 90% of the students would have gotten it wrong, and this was stuff they were supposed to learn in previous classes (not in our class).