Blog · 12 October 2026 · 3 min read

How IELTS band scores are calculated

From raw marks to section bands to your overall score - with worked examples of the rounding rule that trips people up.

Every IELTS result is a band from 0 to 9, in half bands. You get one for each of the four sections and one overall. How each band is reached depends on the section.

Listening and Reading: marks out of 40

Listening and Reading each have 40 questions worth one mark each. Your raw score is then converted to a band using a table. The tables aren’t published as fixed rules - the cut-offs can move slightly between versions of the test - but they’re close to this:

Band	Listening	Academic Reading	General Training Reading
6	about 23/40	about 23/40	about 30/40
7	about 30/40	about 30/40	about 34/40
8	about 35/40	about 35/40	about 37/40

Notice the last column. General Training Reading uses everyday texts, so it needs more correct answers for the same band. It isn’t an easier route to a 7.

There’s no penalty for a wrong answer, so never leave a question blank.

Writing: four criteria, two tasks

Each Writing task is marked on four criteria, each from 0 to 9:

Task Achievement (Task 1) or Task Response (Task 2) - did you do what the task asked?
Coherence and Cohesion - is it organised, with clear paragraphs and linking?
Lexical Resource - how wide and accurate is your vocabulary?
Grammatical Range and Accuracy - how varied and correct are your sentences?

Task 2 counts for twice as much as Task 1. That’s why a strong essay can lift a weak report, but rarely the other way round. If time is tight, protect Task 2.

Speaking: four criteria, one conversation

Speaking is marked across the whole test on Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, and Pronunciation. Each counts equally.

The overall band: average, then round

Your overall band is the average of the four section bands, rounded to the nearest half band. The part that surprises people is what happens at the quarter marks:

An average ending in .25 rounds up to the next half band.
An average ending in .75 rounds up to the next whole band.

Some examples:

Listening	Reading	Writing	Speaking	Average	Overall
6.5	6.5	6	6	6.25	6.5
7	7	6.5	6.5	6.75	7
6.5	6	6	6	6.125	6

The third row shows why one extra half band in a single section doesn’t always move your overall score. In the first row, it does.

What this means for your preparation

Know your weakest section. Many universities and visa routes set a minimum for each section as well as an overall band. A 7 overall with a 5.5 in Writing can still fall short.
Bank marks in Listening and Reading. They’re the most predictable sections to improve with timed practice, because every mark is objective.
For Writing and Speaking, target criteria, not “being better at English”. Feedback per criterion tells you whether your next half band is in organisation, vocabulary or grammar.