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IELTS Band Score Calculator
Four calculators on one page: raw score to band for Reading and Listening, the overall band from your four skill scores, and the one most people actually want — what you still need in the skill you have left. The conversion tables underneath are the ones the calculators use.
Overall Band Score Calculator
Overall band score calculator
Enter your four skill bands. The overall band is their average, rounded to the nearest half band.
—Fill in all four skills.
The overall band is the average of the four skill bands, rounded to the nearest half band. The rounding favours you more often than people expect: an average ending in .25 rounds up to the next half band, and one ending in .75 rounds up to the next whole band. An average of 6.25 is reported as 6.5, and 6.75 as 7.0.
| Listening | Reading | Writing | Speaking | Average | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.5 | 6.5 | 5.0 | 7.0 | 6.25 | 6.5 |
| 7.0 | 6.5 | 6.0 | 7.0 | 6.625 | 6.5 |
| 7.0 | 7.0 | 6.5 | 7.0 | 6.875 | 7.0 |
| 4.0 | 3.5 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.875 | 4.0 |
What You Still Need
What do I need in the fourth skill?
Enter the bands you already have and the overall band you are aiming for.
—Fill in the three bands you have.
Most universities ask for an overall band and a minimum in each skill — "6.5 overall with no band below 6.0" is the common form. This calculator answers the overall part; check the per-skill minimum separately, because a 5.5 in one skill can fail an offer that your overall band meets.
Reading Raw Score to Band
Reading band score calculator
Enter the number of correct answers out of 40.
—Your band score will appear here.
Academic and General Training use different tables. General Training asks for more correct answers at every band because its texts are easier: 30 out of 40 is a band 6 on General Training and a band 7 on Academic.
| Raw score out of 40 | Academic band |
|---|---|
| 39–40 | 9.0 |
| 37–38 | 8.5 |
| 35–36 | 8.0 |
| 33–34 | 7.5 |
| 30–32 | 7.0 |
| 27–29 | 6.5 |
| 23–26 | 6.0 |
| 19–22 | 5.5 |
| 15–18 | 5.0 |
| 13–14 | 4.5 |
| 10–12 | 4.0 |
| Raw score out of 40 | General Training band |
|---|---|
| 40 | 9.0 |
| 39 | 8.5 |
| 37–38 | 8.0 |
| 36 | 7.5 |
| 34–35 | 7.0 |
| 32–33 | 6.5 |
| 30–31 | 6.0 |
| 27–29 | 5.5 |
| 23–26 | 5.0 |
| 19–22 | 4.5 |
| 15–18 | 4.0 |
Listening Raw Score to Band
Listening band score calculator
Enter the number of correct answers out of 40.
—Your band score will appear here.
One table for everyone: Academic and General Training sit the same Listening paper.
| Raw score out of 40 | Band score |
|---|---|
| 39–40 | 9.0 |
| 37–38 | 8.5 |
| 35–36 | 8.0 |
| 32–34 | 7.5 |
| 30–31 | 7.0 |
| 26–29 | 6.5 |
| 23–25 | 6.0 |
| 18–22 | 5.5 |
| 16–17 | 5.0 |
| 13–15 | 4.5 |
| 10–12 | 4.0 |
Every version of the test is individually equated for difficulty, so the exact raw score needed for a band can shift by about a mark from one test date to another. Treat the table as a reliable guide, not a guarantee.
Why There Is No Writing or Speaking Calculator
Writing and Speaking have no raw score to convert. An examiner marks you from 0 to 9 on four criteria and the band is the average of those four, so the only way to estimate yours is to mark an answer against the descriptors.
- Writing: Task Achievement or Task Response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy — and Task 2 counts twice as heavily as Task 1. Full descriptors on the Writing scoring page.
- Speaking: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, Pronunciation, each worth a quarter. Full descriptors on the Speaking scoring page.
The practical substitute is to write an answer, mark it against the descriptors twice a week apart, and compare. Prompts with band 6, 7 and 8 model answers to the same question are on the Writing samples page.
How Accurate Is This?
Every version of the test is individually equated for difficulty, so the exact raw score needed for a band can shift by about a mark from one test date to another. Treat the table as a reliable guide, not a guarantee.
Treat a result within a mark of a boundary as uncertain. The tables are the standard published conversion and are right for practice tests; on test day the exact raw score for a band moves slightly with the difficulty of that version.
Practise Against the Clock
A band estimate is only as good as the test it came from. Full practice sets with answer keys are on the Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking samples pages.
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