Independent IELTS practice
Know your band before test day.
Bandwise gives you original practice tests for all four IELTS skills, a band estimate the moment you finish, and a study plan built from your own mistakes — so you walk into the exam room knowing where you stand and what to fix first.
All four skills in about 29 minutes — or just Listening and Reading, marked instantly, in 12.
- No account needed — your results stay in this browser
- Academic and General Training
- Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking
Academic mock test
All four skills · results
Overall estimate
Band 6.5
Competent user · CEFR B2Listening
30 of 40 correct
7.0
Reading
27 of 40 correct
6.5
Writing
AI examiner · likely 5.5–6.5
6.0
Speaking
AI examiner · likely 6.0–7.0
6.5
True / False / Not Given: your weakest reading question type
3/8 correct (38%) on True / False / Not Given against 68% across all reading questions.
Drill: For every FALSE you choose, underline the contradicting words. No underline, no FALSE.
An illustration of the results screen, not a real candidate’s score.
The four skills
One test, four papers — practise each the way it is examined
IELTS reports a band from 0 to 9 for each skill and averages them into your overall band. Every Bandwise test covers all four.
Listening
4 parts · 40 questions · 30 minutes
Four recordings, each heard once: an everyday conversation, a talk about a local service, a study discussion and an academic lecture. You answer while you listen, and spelling counts.
On Bandwise: Marked instantly out of 40 and converted to a band.
Listening guideReading
3 sections · 40 questions · 60 minutes
Three sections that get harder as you go. Academic uses long texts from books, journals and magazines; General Training uses notices, workplace documents and one longer article.
On Bandwise: Marked instantly out of 40 and converted to a band.
Reading guideWriting
2 tasks · 60 minutes
Task 1 asks for at least 150 words: a report on a chart, process or map in Academic, a letter in General Training. Task 2 is an essay of at least 250 words and counts twice as much.
On Bandwise: Assessed by an AI examiner on the four public criteria.
Writing guideSpeaking
3 parts · 11–14 minutes
A one-to-one interview in three parts: questions about familiar topics, a two-minute talk from a cue card, then a deeper discussion. It is identical for both modules.
On Bandwise: You answer aloud; your transcript and timing are assessed.
Speaking guide
How it works
From first test to a focused study plan in three steps
- Step 1
Sit a realistic, timed test
Distraction-free exam screens and a real countdown. Take a full mock, a single skill, or start with the 29-minute diagnostic.
- Step 2
Get instant band estimates
Listening and Reading are marked the moment you submit, with every answer explained. Writing and Speaking come back with a band for each criterion and a likely range.
- Step 3
Follow a plan built from your mistakes
Bandwise finds the question types and sub-skills that cost you marks, shows the numbers behind each recommendation, and gives you drills to fix them.
Why you can trust the scores
No black box. You can check every number.
A practice score is only useful if you know how it was reached. Bandwise shows its working at every step.
| Band | Listening | Reading (Academic) | Reading (General) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.0 | 16 | 15 | 23 |
| 6.0 | 23 | 23 | 30 |
| 7.0 | 30 | 30 | 34 |
| 8.0 | 35 | 35 | 37 |
Overall band: the average of your four skills, rounded to the nearest half band. 6.5, 6.5, 5.0, 7.0 averages 6.25 and is reported as 6.5.
A conversion table you can read
Your Listening and Reading marks out of 40 become a band through a table anchored on the raw-score points IELTS itself publishes. The whole table is on the scoring page; nothing is curved or hidden.
An AI examiner tied to the public rubric
Writing and Speaking are assessed criterion by criterion against the published band descriptors, with the reasons quoted from your own response. Every result shows a likely range rather than pretending to be exact.
Every answer explained with its evidence
Each Listening and Reading question comes with the sentence from the recording or passage that proves the answer, and an explanation of the trap that makes the wrong options tempting.
Estimates, always labelled as estimates
Real thresholds shift slightly from one test version to the next, and only a certified examiner can award a band. Bandwise scores are a well-founded guide to where you stand, never a promise.
Original tests
Practice books run out. A test factory doesn’t.
Bandwise writes new, original tests with a generation pipeline built so that a generated test earns the QA-validated badge only after it has passed every gate below. An ambiguous question wastes your time, and the gates are there to catch it first.
- Stage 01
Blueprint
Each test starts as a plan: module, difficulty, topics, and the mix of question types a real paper uses.
- Stage 02
Author
A language model writes the passages, scripts and questions to a detailed item-writing specification.
- Stage 03
Structural validation
Code checks the numbering and word limits, and that every answer and evidence quote really appears in the source.
- Stage 04
Blind solver
A second, blind pass: a solver that never sees the answer key sits the finished test (a different model when one is configured), and every disagreement is adjudicated.
- Stage 05
Adjudication
Wherever the solver and the key disagree, the question is reviewed, then repaired or thrown out.
- Stage 06
Audio
Listening scripts are turned into speech, with a separate synthetic voice for each speaker and a range of accents.
Academic or General Training?
Pick the module your application asks for
Listening and Speaking are identical in both. Reading and Writing differ, so practise the version you will actually sit.
Academic
- Choose it if
- You are applying to a university or college, or registering with a professional body such as a medical or nursing council.
- Reading
- Three long texts taken from books, journals and magazines, written for a general educated reader.
- Writing
- Task 1 is a report of at least 150 words describing a chart, table, process or map. Task 2 is an essay of at least 250 words in both modules.
Reading band 6.0: about 23 of 40 correct.
General Training
- Choose it if
- You are migrating to an English-speaking country, or applying for work experience, vocational training or secondary education.
- Reading
- Everyday notices and adverts, then workplace documents, then one longer general-interest text.
- Writing
- Task 1 is a letter of at least 150 words, formal or informal, responding to an everyday situation. Task 2 is an essay of at least 250 words in both modules.
Reading band 6.0: about 30 of 40 correct.
Check before you book
The organisation you are applying to decides which module it accepts and the band it needs, sometimes with a minimum for each skill. Confirm both with them first.Questions
Straight answers before you start
What Bandwise is, what it is not, and how far to trust it.
Is Bandwise official IELTS material?
No. Bandwise is an independent study tool. It is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the British Council, IDP or Cambridge, who jointly own IELTS.
Every test here is original material written to mirror the format, timing and difficulty of the real exam. Nothing is copied from real test papers.
How accurate are the band estimates?
For Listening and Reading the marking itself is exact. The conversion from marks to a band follows the raw-score points IELTS publishes, but IELTS produces a separate conversion table for every test version and our tests are not yet calibrated against real candidates, so your band on the day could differ by up to a band.
Writing and Speaking are judged by an AI examiner applying the public band descriptors. It is consistent and explains its reasons, but it is not a certified human examiner and its agreement with examiners has not yet been measured, which is why those results always show a likely range and should be read as roughly a band either side until that measurement exists.
It helps to know that no language test is perfectly precise: by IELTS’ own published reliability figures, two sittings of the real exam land on the same half band for a single skill only about a third of the time. Use your estimates to see the direction you are moving in and where you lose marks, not as a guarantee. How scoring works
Is it free?
Yes. Bandwise is a prototype: there is nothing to pay and no account to create. The other side of that bargain is that features may change without notice and nothing here comes with a guarantee.
Do you store my voice recordings?
No. Bandwise does not upload or keep your audio: recordings stay in your browser. Only the text transcript of what you said, along with timing information, is sent for scoring. When the AI examiner is switched on, that text is passed to the language-model provider that powers it, as are your Writing answers.
One caveat: where the transcript is made by your browser’s built-in speech recognition, some browsers process the audio through the browser maker’s own speech service.
Where are my results saved?
In this browser, on this device. That is why you do not need an account, and also why clearing your browsing data, or switching to another device, means your history will not be there. You can review past attempts any time under My progress.
Which test should I take first?
Start with the 29-minute diagnostic. It samples all four skills and gives you a rough starting point without asking for a free afternoon — and if you only have 12 minutes, Listening and Reading alone are marked instantly.
Then sit a full mock test in the module you need, Academic or General Training, under timed conditions. Between mocks, practise single skills where your plan shows you are losing the most marks.
About 29 minutes from now, you could know where you stand.
Take the diagnostic, see an estimated band for each skill, and get the first items of your study plan. No account, nothing to pay.