Understanding Band Scores

The Basics

Understanding the IELTS band scores and how they work might take a hot minute, but it's worth knowing to make sure you know what you're aiming for. Some universities might only require a Band 6 for your course, but some companies could require a higher overall score, so check what band you need to achieve, and plan accordingly.

Once you have a basic understanding of how the exams are graded:

- check what level you are now

- and figure out what areas you need to work on.

Each section (Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking) is marked against different criteria, and tests different skills, so you will receive a band score for each. These four scores are then averaged out.

There is more information on calculating this below. To begin with, check out the table describing the language ability related to each band score:

Calculating Your Score

Your overall IELTS score is calculated by adding up the band scores you receive for each individual section and dividing them by 4. Each section is weighted equally, so if you are weaker in one part (e.g. reading) and stronger in another (e.g. writing), the scores will offset each other. See below for the step-by-step calculation guide and an example calculation of an IELTS score.

Step-by-step calculation of an IELTS band:

1. Get your individual section scores.

2. Add all four scores together.

3. Divide the total by 4

4. Round to the nearest half or whole band

If the average ends in .25, round up to the next half band (e.g., 6.25 → 6.5).
If the average ends in .75, round up to the next whole band (e.g., 6.75 → 7.0).
Otherwise, round down (e.g., 6.125 → 6.0).

For example: 8 + 6.5 + 7 + 7.5 = 29. Then divide 29 by 4 = 7.25. Then round up to 7.5.

So the overall score in this example is 7.5

Writing Test Scores

The writing section is marked according to four different criteria. This is the same for both General Training and Academic, but Task 1 and Task 2 are marked according to either Task Achievement (Task 1) or Task Response (Task 2). The other three criteria are the same: Coherence & Cohesion, Lexical Resource, Grammar Range & Accuracy. The criteria are all weighted at 25%, as shown below:

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Listening Test Scores

The table below has the band scores for the IELTS Listening test and how they relate to individual test scores. You gain points for correct answers, but you won't lose any points for incorrect answers.

As you can see, you need an almost perfect score to achieve a Band 9.0 score, but there is only a 10 mark difference between 7.0 and 9.0. As the Listening test for Academic and General Training is the same, the band scoring criteria are also the same.

Reading Test Scores

The tables below have the band scores for the IELTS Reading test and how they relate to actual test scores. As with the other tests, you gain points for correct answers, but you won't lose any points for incorrect answers. Because the Academic and General Training tests are different, they are also scored in relation to their difficulty. The Academic version uses more specific vocabulary, is designed to be more difficult and therefore the test score:band score ratio is slightly more lenient (only slightly!).

Speaking Test Scores

Similar to the writing tasks, during the speaking test, everybody's answers will be different, so the marking criteria are guidelines that the examiner will use to establish your band score.

The four areas that the examiner will score you on are: Fluency & Coherence, Grammatical Range & Accuracy, Pronunciation, and Lexical Resource.

Each of these areas is weighted at 25%, and all four scores are added together, then averaged to give you an overall Speaking score. When you practise for the speaking section, ask yourself the following questions to get an idea of how the examiner will score you: