IELTS Band Scores Explained: Conversion Tables and Rounding

IELTS reports a band from 0 to 9 for each of the four skills, and an overall band. Bands go up in halves, so 6.5 is a real score. There is no pass or fail; each organisation sets its own requirement.

Listening and Reading: raw score to band

Each correct answer is worth one mark, out of 40. Your raw mark is then converted to a band. The table below shows typical cut-offs. They are averages: each test version is calibrated, so the exact boundaries can move by a mark or so.

Band	Listening	Academic Reading	General Training Reading
9	39–40	39–40	40
8.5	37–38	37–38	39
8	35–36	35–36	37–38
7.5	32–34	33–34	36
7	30–31	30–32	34–35
6.5	26–29	27–29	32–33
6	23–25	23–26	30–31
5.5	18–22	19–22	27–29
5	16–17	15–18	23–26
4.5	13–15	13–14	19–22
4	11–12	10–12	15–18
3.5	–	8–9	12–14
3	–	6–7	9–11
2.5	–	4–5	–

There is no penalty for wrong answers, so never leave a question blank.

Writing: four criteria, Task 2 counts double

Examiners mark each Writing task against four criteria of equal weight:

• Task Achievement (Task 1) or Task Response (Task 2)
• Coherence and Cohesion
• Lexical Resource
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy

The four criterion scores give a band for each task. Task 2 carries twice the weight of Task 1 in your Writing band, so a weak essay costs more than a weak Task 1.

Speaking: four criteria

Your Speaking band is the average of four criteria, judged across all three parts of the interview:

• Fluency and Coherence
• Lexical Resource
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy
• Pronunciation

The overall band

Add the four skill bands and divide by four, then round to the nearest half band:

• An average ending in .25 rounds up to the next half band.
• An average ending in .75 rounds up to the next whole band.
• Anything below those points rounds down.

Listening	Reading	Writing	Speaking	Average	Overall
6.5	6.5	5.5	6.5	6.25	6.5
6.5	6.0	5.5	6.5	6.125	6.0
4.0	4.5	3.5	3.5	3.875	4.0
7.5	7.5	6.5	7.5	7.25	7.5

What the bands mean

Band	In short
9	Full, flexible and accurate command of English
8	Very good command with only occasional slips
7	Good command; some inaccuracies, but handles complex language well
6	Competent; effective overall despite some errors and misunderstandings
5	Modest; gets the overall meaning in most situations, with many mistakes
4	Limited; basic competence in familiar situations only
3	Extremely limited; general meaning in very familiar situations
2	Great difficulty using English
1	No ability beyond a few isolated words
0	Did not attempt the test

These one-line summaries are our paraphrase of the official band scale.

Related guides

• What is IELTS?
• Answer rules: word limits, spelling and numbers
• One Skill Retake

Sources

• IELTS, IELTS scoring in detail
• IELTS, Writing band descriptors (PDF)
• IELTS, Speaking band descriptors (PDF)