From 40 questions to a band

Listening and Reading are marked one point per question, out of 40. The raw score converts to a band from 1 to 9, in half-band steps. There is no band 6.3. The tables below are the published consensus conversion. One honest warning about them sits at the bottom. Read it, because it changes how you should read your own results.

The conversion tables

One table for Listening. It is identical for Academic and General Training. Reading has two: General Training Reading needs more correct answers for the same band, because its texts are easier. Check you are using yours. Practise with the wrong table and you will misread every result.

Listening — both training types
Raw /40	Band
39–40	9.0
37–38	8.5
35–36	8.0
33–34	7.5
30–32	7.0
27–29	6.5
23–26	6.0
18–22	5.5
16–17	5.0
13–15	4.5
10–12	4.0
8–9	3.5
6–7	3.0
4–5	2.5
3	2.0
2	1.5
1	1.0

Academic Reading
Raw /40	Band
39–40	9.0
37–38	8.5
35–36	8.0
33–34	7.5
30–32	7.0
27–29	6.5
23–26	6.0
19–22	5.5
15–18	5.0
13–14	4.5
10–12	4.0
8–9	3.5
6–7	3.0
4–5	2.5
3	2.0
2	1.5
1	1.0

General Training Reading
Raw /40	Band
40	9.0
39	8.5
37–38	8.0
36	7.5
34–35	7.0
32–33	6.5
30–31	6.0
27–29	5.5
23–26	5.0
19–22	4.5
15–18	4.0
12–14	3.5
9–11	3.0
6–8	2.5
4–5	2.0
2–3	1.5
1	1.0

Band 7.0 highlighted for comparison: 30 correct answers reaches it in Listening and Academic Reading. General Training Reading asks for 34.

The overall band, and the rounding rule people get wrong

Your overall band is the mean of your four section bands, rounded by one official rule. A remainder of .25 or more rounds up to the next half band. Anything less rounds down. So 6.25 becomes 6.5, but 6.125 becomes 6.0. Good news: the rule is friendlier than most candidates assume, and knowing it tells you which section is cheapest to improve.

Worked examples
Mean of sections	Overall band	Why
6.125	6.0	remainder .125 — rounds down
6.25	6.5	remainder .25 — rounds up
6.5	6.5	exact half band
6.75	7.0	remainder .25 above 6.5 — rounds up
7.1	7.0	remainder .1 — rounds down

Writing has its own arithmetic. Task 2 counts twice as much as Task 1 in the Writing band. Split the hour evenly and you are spending your time against the scoring. Give Task 2 the bigger share.

The honest warning

The IELTS partners do not publish one fixed conversion. Each version of the test is equated during production, so the raw score a band needs can shift a little depending on how hard that particular paper turned out to be. The tables above are the consensus points. A reliable guide, not a guarantee.

What to do with that: treat any practice band, ours included, as an estimate. Watch the trend across several mocks instead. One mock is noise. Three mocks pointing the same way is information. That is also why our results screen shows the raw score next to the band and how far the next half band was. The raw score is the number you can actually move this week.