How the IELTS band score is calculated — and how to raise it
The 9-band scale, how each section is scored, how the overall band is rounded, and where the easiest half-bands hide.
IELTS reports scores on a 9-band scale, from Band 1 (non-user) to Band 9 (expert). You receive a band for each of the four skills — Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking — plus an overall band. Understanding exactly how those numbers are produced is the fastest way to stop losing marks you don't need to.
Listening and Reading: raw score → band
Both are marked out of 40. Your raw score (the number of correct answers) is converted to a band using a fixed conversion table. As a rough guide, around 30/40 maps to Band 7 and 35/40 to Band 8, though the exact table varies slightly by test. Every mark counts, and spelling and grammar must be correct.
Writing and Speaking: four criteria
These are marked by criteria, each weighted equally:
- Task Achievement / Task Response
- Coherence & Cohesion (Fluency & Coherence in Speaking)
- Lexical Resource
- Grammatical Range & Accuracy (plus Pronunciation in Speaking)
How the overall band is rounded
Your overall band is the average of the four skill bands, rounded to the nearest half-band. A .25 average rounds up to the next half-band, and .75 rounds up to the next whole band. So a 6.75 average becomes 7.0 — meaning a single half-band in your weakest skill can lift your overall score.
Within Writing, Task 2 counts twice as much as Task 1, so protect your Task 2 time.
Where the easiest half-bands hide
- Listening/Reading: fix careless spelling and word-limit errors — pure lost marks.
- Writing: add a clear overview (Task 1) and a consistent position (Task 2).
- Speaking: extend every answer with a reason and an example.
- Target your weakest skill — rounding rewards lifting the lowest number.