Overall band from your four skills
Choose your band for each skill. The overall band is the mean of the four, rounded to the nearest half band, with means ending in .25 and .75 rounded up. This rule is published by IELTS.
Competent user · roughly CEFR B2
Mean of your four bands: (6.5 + 6.5 + 5.0 + 7.0) ÷ 4 = 6.25
A mean ending in .25 is rounded up to the next half band, 6.5. This is the published IELTS rule.
4 more half-band steps across your skills, in any combination, would lift the overall band to 7.0.
Marks to band for Listening and Reading
Enter the number of correct answers out of 40 to see the band, and choose a target band to see how many marks it needs. Academic and General Training Reading use different conversions.
Good user · roughly CEFR C1
30 of 40 correct is about band 7.0 in Listening.
2 more correct answers would reach band 7.5 (from 32 of 40).
Band 7.0 needs about 30 of 40, which leaves room for 10 wrong answers. Your score already reaches it.
These conversions are approximate
IELTS publishes only a few average figures and says the exact marks vary slightly between test versions. The full table, and which of its rows are officially published, is in How scoring works.
Writing band from criterion scores
Enter a whole band for each of the four criteria in each task, for example from the feedback on a practice test. Each task is the average of its criteria, and Task 2 counts twice as much as Task 1.
Competent user · roughly CEFR B2
- Task 1: criteria average 6, rounded down to 6.0
- Task 2: criteria average 6.5, rounded down to 6.5
- Weighted: (6.0 + 2 × 6.5) ÷ 3 = 6.33, rounded down to 6.0
If IELTS rounds to the nearest half band rather than down, these scores would give 6.5. Treat your band as somewhere between 6.0 and 6.5.
IELTS does not publish this rounding rule
IELTS confirms the equal weighting of the criteria and the double weight of Task 2, but not how the averages are rounded. This tool rounds down to the nearest half band at each step, which is the convention reported by former examiners and the more cautious choice. When rounding to the nearest half band would give a different answer, the tool shows both.
How to read these numbers
- Every figure here is an estimate for planning your study. Only an official Test Report Form is a result.
- Many organisations set a minimum for each skill as well as an overall band. Check both against your target.
- A single practice test can easily be half a band above or below your real level. Why that is normal.