IELTS Band Score Calculator: FAQs on Academic and General IELTS Score Chart

Did you just decide that you are going to take IELTS? Then let us tell you one thing; you will come across the word “Band” in the next few days, more than anything else.

So what is this Band Score? How is it calculated? How does it decide your future? Let us find out.

What is IELTS Band Scores?

IELTS Band is a scale on which you are marked for your performance in the test. You will be given a mark from 1 to 9 for each part of the test like IELTS listening band score, academic reading test, writing and speaking. The average produces your overall band mark. You can get whole bands (e.g., 5.0, 6.0, 7.0) or half bands (e.g., 5.5., 6.5, 7.5) in each part of the IELTS academic test.

How is the IELTS Listening Band Score or Other Scores Calculated?

You will get a band mark for your performance in each of the components (reading test, IELTS listening band score, speaking and writing) and an overall band, which is nothing but an average of all your individual marks taken together.

Example of a Score List:

Reading

Listening

Speaking

Writing

Overall

7.5

The marking of the speaking and listening is fairly straightforward because they are based on objective questions. Out of 40 questions you are marked for your correct answers.

How Speaking and Writing is Marked

Now let us see how speaking and writing is marked.

Both Speaking and Writing have detailed rubrics for marking. This is because an essay or a speech doesn’t have a right or wrong answer.

IELTS Speaking Score Chart

This section is marked in four categories:

Fluency
Lexical resource
Grammar range and accuracy
Pronunciation

IELTS Writing Score Chart

The Writing component has two tasks. Task 1 is about writing a response to a passage in 150 words and Task 2 is similar but you have to write the whole essay in 250 words. This truly examines the aspirant’s command of the language.

The criteria for the entire writing section are as follows:

Task achievement (Task1)
Task response (Task2)
Coherence and cohesion
Lexical resource
Grammar range and accuracy.

Both task 1 and task 2 have detailed rubrics.

The Detailed Band Descriptors of Task 1

Task Achievement

To get a good mark in this category, students must correctly follow the instructions in the prompt, answering the question or performing the task fully and clearly. All other categories tie into task achievement.

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