IELTS Band Score Calculator
Work out your IELTS overall band from your four section scores, rounded the way IELTS rounds it, and turn practice-test marks into an approximate band.
Enter your four section band scores to get your overall IELTS band, worked out the way IELTS does it. If you have taken a practice test, the marks section turns your Listening and Reading marks out of 40 into an approximate band. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
How the overall band is worked out#
The overall band is the average of the four section bands, rounded to the nearest half band. Two cases round up:
- an average ending in .25 goes up to the next half band: 6.25 becomes 6.5;
- an average ending in .75 goes up to the next whole band: 6.75 becomes 7.0.
An average of 6.125, by contrast, becomes 6.0. So half a band more in a single section can lift the overall score: 6.5, 6.5, 5.5 and 6.0 average 6.125 and give 6.0, but 6.5, 6.5, 6.0 and 6.0 average 6.25 and give 6.5.
From marks to bands#
Listening and Reading each have 40 questions. IELTS publishes roughly how many correct answers each band takes:
| Band | Listening | Academic Reading | General Training Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 35 | 35 | - |
| 7 | 30 | 30 | 35 |
| 6 | 23 | 23 | 30 |
| 5 | 16 | 15 | 23 |
| 4 | - | - | 15 |
The exact number varies slightly from one version of the test to the next, so between these points the calculator gives a range rather than a single band. Writing and Speaking are marked by examiners against the band descriptors, so there are no marks to convert.
IELTS and the CEFR#
IELTS puts 8.5 and above at C2, 7 to 8 at C1, and 5.5 to 6.5 at B2. It notes that the line for C1 falls between 6.5 and 7: many 6.5 candidates are at C1, but a university that needs C1 for certain will usually ask for 7.
Where the numbers come from#
The rounding rule and marks are from IELTS's scoring in detail page, and the CEFR levels from IELTS and the CEFR. Universities and visa rules often set a minimum for each section as well as the overall band, so check both.